Dear Editor,
One of my favorite stories when I was a kid was “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” It comes to mind because every time I receive an e-mail from ETSU with AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT in the subject line, I open the e-mail only to find that the announcement is a faculty recital or an author is coming to campus.
Since returning to ETSU as a grad student this semester, I have gotten almost 160 e-mail messages from ETSU. Nearly all of these e-mails have “IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT” in the subject line. If ETSU considers a bluegrass band playing at the Reece Museum an important announcement, then that’s fine, but what will be in the subject line when they need to announce something a little more important? Not to be an alarmist, but if something like what happened at Virginia Tech happens at ETSU, the mail system will probably be the first way students find out that something is going on. If students get yet another “important announcement” from ETSU – it’s going to be pretty easy to ignore. By labeling the spam mail this way, ETSU has inoculated me from even reading anything they send. I’m sure I’m not alone. Someone should send someone an e-mail about this.
– Jason Horne

Author