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Now that you’ve graduated high school, its time to check your email.
Hopefully this post will not come of as brash or insensitive to college students. I love all of my students, but I wish some of them would make better decisions. Hopefully this post will share some insight into my frustration, and cause some college students to make a change.
Here we go.…
Why is it so difficult for college students to check their email? Many times, emails are left unanswered, and important items are not taken care of. What is so difficult about checking/responding to an email? The administrative offices are not trying to annoy you with spam email, chances are what they have something important share.
Below are some offices that will try to connect with college students via email.
Have you ever been offered free money? If you were offered free money, would you accept? I don’t think any of us would pass up the opportunity to get free money. A few years ago, I had a student that missed out on a grant opportunity because they missed the deadline. The financial-aid department had sent email after email trying to get this student to sign a piece of paper. That is all it took, one signature, and the student would have had received a nice little sum of money.
Fin Aid/Bursar will also try to communicate via email if a student has an issue with their bill. If a student is carrying a balance, they may be limited from doing a lot of things like requesting a transcript or registering for classes. If there are issues with the student loans or payment methods, it is safe to say that the student will probably be contacted via email first. Ignoring the problem will not make it go away, it will only get worse.
Advisors -
It is important for students to respond to advisors if they email them. The advisor may be trying to communicate an issue with a class schedule, or to inform the student that the class they wanted to take has an open seat.
Student Government -
The student government will advertise a lot of their events through email blasts. It is important for students to take some time and skim through each email. We don’t want to hear students complaining that there is nothing to do on campus (if there are events planned).
Student Development Office (SDO) -
The SDO will also try to communicate important messages via email. If a student wants to know when the room draw will take place, they can find the info in an email from the SDO. The SDO will usually send out a plethora of emails containing helpful information.
There are other reasons why it is important for students to check their email, and I would ask that you leave your thoughts in the comment area below. I intentionally left out several important areas, with the hope that it would generate a discussion. Please remember, that i am not asking college students to take 3 hours out of every day to check their email. Just take a few minutes to skim the content to make sure that you are not missing any important info.
On a second note, maybe administrators should meet the students half way. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to integrate Social Media into the communication mix. What do you think?
As always, share with you friends, and find us on Facebook and Twitter.
Wow, as a prof, I loved this piece and think every syllabus should include a link to it! I will add to the discussion:
–Regardless of the type of class you are in i.e., face-to-face, online, or hybrid, profs will often e-mail you with reminders, comments that weren’t discussed in class, or tips on upcoming assignments or exams. Of course, profs may also e-mail you regarding your grade, questions on an assignment you submitted, or feedback on work that you asked the prof to review. I have a policy in my syllabus that during a grading period, students must check their e-mail daily. Likewise, I e-mail my students when I am finished grading so they can see grades/feedback immediately on the course management system. Too many students miss these important updates!
–Check on which e-mail the college will use to send your official correspondence, both from its offices (as the author notes) or from your prof (including through the course management system). IMPORTANT: The e-mail that the college uses may NOT be your personal e-mail, but may be a college-assigned e-mail. I have had students go an entire term and not realize that they had a college e-mail that they should have been checking all along. Don’t want to check your college e-mail? Then ask your prof or your college’s IT help desk how to forward to an account that you do regularly check. Then, like the author notes, check it… all the time!
Thank you, thank you for this important advice! Ellen Bremen, M.A. @chattyprof http://chattyprof.blogspot.com
PS: Ironically, I just blogged today about students and profs doing “school business” on FB. My .02: Social media is just that “social”. Colleges can start doing more “business” on FB, but what about when students go to work? E-mail is still the norm–for now. College is great practice for using it.
Thank you for posting a comment. It is always nice to hear someone with the same perspective. I wonder what some of our students would say. Thank you for sharing your URL as well, I will be sure to read your posts. Have great day.
EC
In real life, there is the 5 min. rule. If you don’t reply to an email in 5 min., then you may as well not reply. This isn’t true for prospective college students, but I think a 48 hr rule is appropriate. Also, deadlines are hard deadlines, there is absolutely no flexability. Overall, I support everything said by Eric. This is good advice that should be taken.
Thanks Jeremy!
Terrific post, Eric. Around this time last year I had just finished my college orientation. What I had learned about the school’s website was very limited. I basically only knew how to drop/add classes. Luckily enough, I played around on the site and figured out how to set up my email. As soon as I was granted access to my email account there was an email from the Business Office. They were going to drop all of my classes due to a $36 discrepancy. No one ever told me to set up my email. Anyways, I’ve decided to turn this into a positive situation. As a student ambassador on campus, now I make sure to let students know that they need to set up their email account. As you mentioned, it is good practice to check your school email account on a daily basis. Also, as Ellen pointed out, students also should be checking their email on course management systems, such as Blackboard. Thank you for helping spread awareness to this issue.
Matthew Forrest
@MatthewTForrest
Well said Matthew, I love how you are willing to go out and help your fellow students. You have a bright future in store for you! Thank you again.
Great post. I totally agree. Not only is it important for college kids to start checking email now, it is absolutely essential for them to learn proper internet etiquette. I don’t know about answering emails within 5 minutes, but if you don’t answer within 12 hours (more lax on the weekends) then I find that practically rude.
I have to interview intern candidates at schools from time to time and it always amazes me that they don’t read or respond to follow up emails sometimes for days at a time. You know it’s not because they don’t get on the computer. It’s laziness, plain and simple.
It’s fine if you want to live an “unplugged” life — just know that it disqualifies you for a LOT of jobs.
John -
Could you elaborate more on response time to emails? I’ve never heard of a time period in which not responding may be considered rude. I’m interested in hearing your point of view on the topic.
Matthew Forrest
@MatthewTForrest
John thank you for taking the time to respond, I really look forward to writing another post for TestSoup!
Eric:
Nice post.
“Email management” is an undervalued skill for students as well as college administrators, and professionals in most walks of life. College is certainly a perfect time to develop that skill. And — as you point out — it can save you money and keep you in the loop re: important information at your College. I would add Faculty as a group that will use email to reach students, and I like your mention of social media — which opens up a whole new set of issues and questions in student/college communication.
Thank you Michael! Have a great day.
Hi Eric,
Hi Eric,
Thanks for this post. As I’d mentioned on Twitter, I felt overwhelmed with my Wheelock inbox, as a graduate student.….and I was 30! Colleges are constantly producing mass e-mails all day. In between those could be 1 really important one that’ll be naturally overlooked, not ignored. An 18–22 yr. old, may defend themselves by saying they didn’t know they had to check their e-mail, when they probably didn’t realize the significance of 1 or 2, out of 50 that are sent on a daily basis. If content in an e-mail the college sends is truly valuable, then the college should seek alternate ways of communication, along with e-mail. Remember those days when we didn’t use mass e-mails in college settings? Sometimes it’s nice to receive important info through college mailboxes and/or via a telephone call.
Kiana,
I really value your input. Thank you for taking the other site of the issue and providing some great input.
Have a great day,
EC
Based on my experience at a UK school I would say:
Prefer texting
Likely to send messages via Facebook
Only use emails where specifically contacted for important work
Vince
I like the text angle, there is a new company that is offering a platform that will mass message entire classes. Visit http://www.etextprep.com for more info.
Students often don’t check their school email accounts, because they don’t see it as important. They check their personal emails because that’s what is important to them. Setting up email forwarding, so that their school email automatically forwards everything to their personal email account, would solve the problem, assuming that 1.) the school email account is capable of this, 2.) the student takes the time to do this, and 3.) the student doesn’t automatically junk or ignore all the forwarded emails. (As noted by Robin, above.)
Send your students a message via Facebook, and they’ll get it, but this opens up a whole new can of worms, and by worms I mean problems. For one thing, it breaks down the personal/professional barrier: checking one’s email is more or less a professional, working activity, even if there is an occasional personal email in there.
Facebook is indeed an important tool for doing business. I’m an artist, art writer, critic, and curator in addition to an art educator, and many galleries (especially young, emerging, alternative spaces and “apartment galleries”) send out their announcements by Facebook message only. I’ve been invited to exhibit my work in a gallery via a Facebook message, and regularly dialog with other artists via Facebook.
However, this type of interaction is essentially peer-to-peer. The relationships between artist and critic, artist and gallerist, and artist and fellow artist, are basically between peers, the asymmetrical power balance of some of them notwithstanding. I have no problem calling many artists, critics, curators, and gallerists my friends, hanging out with them socially, and “Liking” their new haircut on Facebook. It’s part of socializing today, and it’s good business/networking.
The student-educator relationship is of a different order. Graduate students at an art school may have a fairly egalitarian, friendly relationship with their instructors, but at a community college or university, generally a greater distance is appropriate. Students at this level are often fresh out of high school and need to respect their instructor as an authority figure. Clearly some students are more mature than others and certainly could have a friendly relationship with the instructor, but this can lead to awkward situations, a perception of “playing favorites,” etc.
For this reason, and based on feedback from some of my fellow instructors, I have a strict rule that I will Friend a former student on Facebook, if requested, but not a current student. I therefore tell all of my students on the first day of class, that they are not to send me a Friend Request until the semester is over and they have received their final grade. This has avoided problems like students posting grade disputes or other private professional matters on my Facebook wall, students knowing too much about my personal life, and my knowing too much about theirs. I therefore do NOT advocate communicating with current students via Facebook, Myspace, Livejournal, Foursquare, Twitter, or whatever newfangled tomfoolery they come up with next.
The solution, as I see it, is either to 1.) pretend it’s the 1980s and don’t use email for student communication (this works for instructors but isn’t viable for administrative departments), 2.) repeatedly emphasize the importance of students checking and using their school email on a daily basis, or 3.) making sure your students set up email forwarding to their personal accounts and check these messages daily.
Thank you for such a lengthy response! Would you ever want to write a guest blog on the educational topic of your choice?
EC
Eric!
I should print this out and post it in every hallway, dorm, bulletin board, and chalkboard.
Liz
Liz,
That would be awesome! I think Prof’s should put the link in their syllabus!
EC
I am running a contest with all of our tutors and the blog post with the most comments gets a prize. Please help this post be the winning post by sharing with your friends!
I loved your article. It is so appropriate, I often think schools and colleges need to develop a social media literacy class to help students (and teachers / professors) navigate this ever changing world.
Social media is great but can be overwhelming for a person regardless of age. People who understand and use social media (an emails) correctly will have a distinct advantage in the education and business world!
Great post!
Thank you Mark! Your kind words and insightful response are much appreciated. Have a great weekend!
EC