Rant College Staff Abusing Email Lists

Okay, before everyone goes nuts; I don't think it's morally correct to have the internet spam them when all they're trying to do is help the students.

Given their position in the college and the nature of the emails, a better way would be to book an appointment with this person re: setting up an opt-in list for general college notifications.

 

No email clients here, it's browser-based.

This is perhaps the most patronising thing I have ever seen:

I feel compelled to remind her that we're not twelve-year-olds, but I don't think it would do any good.

 

Download Elephant's Dream a few times at the highest resolution.

 

I would get a dirt cheap webcam and take a snapshot of your room(very cluttered or otherwise dirty) with you smiling largely (or an internet meme) and tell everyone that you are acquainted with to email her the same picture with some serious subject line. Nothing says 'stop that' like a mass mailing of crap you have to sift through.

 

Wat?

 

Yeap - some cracking grammar in that one!

I'm fully with you OP - that woman sounds like an utter douche.

I'd respond back to the webcam one with something along the lines of "what facet of this universe do you think you live on, that gives you the right to TELL me to tidy my room? I do not tell you to tidy anything, such as my email inbox, even though I should, as everything I delete is from YOU!"

 

Seriously?

Torrent activity has been flagged by either the firewall software, ISP or IT staff. That information would have been picked up by one of the college managers, who, with their worldly knowledge gleaned from their Times Online subscription, will know that "OMG! Downloading is bad. Derpy, derp derp!"

This would have come out in one of the weekly staff meetings where another manager will want something 'actioning,' (and all other manner of managerial bullshittery.) The college secretary draws the short straw, and has to email everyone based on her limited understanding of the situation.

Again, either book a meeting with the IT team and either have your name removed from the student distribution list, or ask her to set up an opt-out policy.

 

www.4chan.org/b/

1) give email
2) e-mail spammed to hell
3) she kills her self
4) ????
5) Inbox space profit!

 

Download every linux distro you can imagine via torrent. Get called up for 'illegal activity'. Hit them with reality.

 

YES. DO IT.

 

Here's a download page for Sintel, an open source movie project. Get the biggest version and it's 800MB, and it's even well worth the watch.

http://www.sintel.org/wp-content/content/download.html

If you manage to interest your fellow students, they will even be compelled to start downloading it for themselves, confusing the situation even further

Another angle is to go and take this warning of hers completely out of proportion, and demand to know who is watching over your digital shoulder, reading your emails, monitoring everything you do. Involve parents, get them to inquire with the board of directors about the privacy of their children. Then, when you get ignored, ask The Sun to do an article about it.

All piss-taking aside, this stuff can seriously impact you as a student. In your place, i would take it up straight with her manager, with the above patronising downloading warning as an example. Demand that these messages only be sent by competent staff and in such a manner that it matches a university where people are expected to become professionals, as opposed to be treated like 12-year olds.

 

Lodge a formal complaint with her official higher-up.

Explain the situation, and how it's causing issues with communicating with lecturers - The people that matter.

Chances are slim that you'll get removed from her mailing list. As irritating and pointless as most of the crap she emails is, she has probably been assigned as the official channel of communication for students and, despite her clear failure, is trying to endear herself to you with a "friendly" tone in her emails.

I suspect you're either going to have to set up a junkmail filter in OWA, or if possible have it forwarded to your gmail account (I assume you have one) and filter it there - It's what I did.

Unfortunately, the civil disobedience being suggested - As entertaining as it might be for a short while - Is likely to backfire on you faster than you can say "I've been kicked out of university"

Got to remember - The universities policies may be archaic, and in some cases stupid, but they are the policies. Given sufficient reason, they will boot you out, and they're under no obligation not to.

 

This... with your comment to tell her to politely go get molested preferable... thats just genius and has me truly in giggles.

 

There are some measures that it is simply not decent to ever resort to. Like murder. Or /b/.

I shall pursue this through more diplomatic means when I have time/courage/fewer more important and stressful things to sort out. As knuck said a while back, I think she's "just discovered internet and is still amazed at the fact that thousands of people can (but don't) read all she writes. She's actually very friendly (while very, er, 'down to earth*') in person. Though like most people trapped in cubicle/filing jobs, she turns nasty very fast if you criticize or confront her, about pretty much anything.

*Polite euphemism for people with narrow/small minds.

 

For what it's worth, I've never in my 26 years of life felt more patronised than I have in my first five weeks of university.

Honestly, sometimes I wonder if they're paying me to come here or I'm paying them.

 

I don't even go to this school, but I saw a friend's Central Washington University freshman orientation handout.

I can't contain my annoyance in a coherent paragraph, so I'll just use a list:

-He's a sophomore, yet they sent him a freshman handout anyway. Hence why it was freely given to me.
-Students are told to drink responsibly. The average freshman at a University like this is 18-19 years old. The legal drinking age in the US is 21. There is no section saying "if you're 21 or older" to clarify, it simply assumes that all freshmen will be drinking, legally or not. Him and I don't drink, so we were both hugely insulted. There was also no mention about not giving alchohol to minors.
-The magic of being able to *gasp* purchase food items from the food court! "Down the stairs is the food court, where food may be purchased".
-A warning about making sure you leave early enough to compensate for the time crossing campus. This one isn't so bad, but it has two problems: It was worded such that it seemed to assume that students thought they magically teleported places, if it simply reminded students that the campus is larger and may take longer than they thought it might not be so bad. And second, I must sadly admit that some people might actually need to be reminded that you can't leave at 8:59 for a 9:00 class.
-A reminder to dress warm in the winter. Again, if it was worded to explain how the location is colder than most others it would be okay. But it wasn't. It told students to simply dress warm for the cold winters, as if they didn't already know the purpose of coats.

And that's just what I remember off the top of my head. I feel sorry for him being in the thick of it every day.

 

Worst case, max out your dorm connection with (legal) torrents.

 

I just had to have her Googl'd, and just as I expected, got a bit of a laugh:
"My job is to implement College Management decisions, that's the paper shuffling bit. I also spend a lot of time talking with students. I am not an academic and I don't know anything"
...you don't say?

I'd just ignore/redirect to another folder, but if that isn't possible, contact someone who can do something about it. No need to get all nasty on her, she just doesn't know anything.

 

You were actually insulted ? isn't that being a bit sensitive.

When most freshmen drink why shouldn't they write "drink responsibly" or would you have them write the following.

"Under such circumstances that you may be consuming alcoholic beverages while enrolled at this University and above the age of 21, we would like to remind you of drinking responsibly. Please do not distribute alcoholic beverages to people under the age of 21."

To be insulted by "drink responsibly" is like being insulted by speed signs when you are walking because they assume you are driving.

I know it is a bit off topic and I may have misunderstood your post and if that is the case I apologise.

 

I'm insulted because it assumes that I will be partaking in an illegal activity. To the point of making no mention of any possible scenario where I don't. The fact that it's about drinking is largely irrelevant, it could just as easily be about torrenting like with b_e's quoted email, or about "don't rob the 7/11 across the street".

A phrase like you made up would work quite well. It's polite and assume's nothing of the reader. I would personally modify it slightly to include something along the lines of "we would also like to remind you that the legal drinking age is 21 and underage drinking is a violation of University policy and state law". But that's just because these places get so anal about other illegal activities that I think it's only fair they paid the same attention to the fun illegal practices as well.