2008 Woodie Awards
SGA considers e-mail control bill
Liz Campbell
Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: News
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The Student Government Association (SGA) convened Sunday in the Robert A. Jones '59 Conference Room to resolve current proposals that have not yet been finalized and to set forth final goals for the remainder of the spring semester. At the top of the list was the E-mail List Control Bill, sponsored by Senator Andrew Carnabuci '06, that seeks to establish individual "do not e-mail" lists, through which students can specify that they would not like to receive any e-mails from organizations on campus.
The bill was created in order to address recurrent student complaints about the chronic congestion of students' inboxes. Carnabuci pointed out that it is "ridiculous to keep getting intramural sports e-mails every week when I have no interest whatsoever in playing IM sports." To combat this problem, Carnabuci called for several organizations, most notably Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB), Career Services Office (CSO) and the Intramural Sports Program, to provide students with a system by which they could remove themselves from the all-student e-mail list.
After discussion of the bill, many members of the Senate voiced concern that students might impulsively decide to unsubscribe from the e-mail list of an organization and then unintentially forgo an opportunity. Carnabuci responded, "I understand the value of keeping the Middlebury community informed, but I value students' rights to not get a million e-mails they don't want even more."
Although the Senate voted against the bill by a vote of 15-2, members agreed that e-mail regulation is an issue worth addressing in other ways. Carnabuci said, "I expect we can still do something to help keep unwanted e-mails out of peoples' inboxes. Most likely, however, this will not take the form of a bill but rather some private conversations."
While the issue of how best to resolve the e-mail overflow dominated discussion, the Senate also addressed the recurrent problem of missing cups and plates from the dining halls in response to complaints from Dining Services that an estimated $40,000 will be spent on replacing dishware this year. A possible solution that was discussed included requiring students who take dishes with them to temporarily hand over their college ID cards to a dining hall staff member upon leaving the dining halls in order to increase accountability among students.
The bill was created in order to address recurrent student complaints about the chronic congestion of students' inboxes. Carnabuci pointed out that it is "ridiculous to keep getting intramural sports e-mails every week when I have no interest whatsoever in playing IM sports." To combat this problem, Carnabuci called for several organizations, most notably Middlebury College Activities Board (MCAB), Career Services Office (CSO) and the Intramural Sports Program, to provide students with a system by which they could remove themselves from the all-student e-mail list.
After discussion of the bill, many members of the Senate voiced concern that students might impulsively decide to unsubscribe from the e-mail list of an organization and then unintentially forgo an opportunity. Carnabuci responded, "I understand the value of keeping the Middlebury community informed, but I value students' rights to not get a million e-mails they don't want even more."
Although the Senate voted against the bill by a vote of 15-2, members agreed that e-mail regulation is an issue worth addressing in other ways. Carnabuci said, "I expect we can still do something to help keep unwanted e-mails out of peoples' inboxes. Most likely, however, this will not take the form of a bill but rather some private conversations."
While the issue of how best to resolve the e-mail overflow dominated discussion, the Senate also addressed the recurrent problem of missing cups and plates from the dining halls in response to complaints from Dining Services that an estimated $40,000 will be spent on replacing dishware this year. A possible solution that was discussed included requiring students who take dishes with them to temporarily hand over their college ID cards to a dining hall staff member upon leaving the dining halls in order to increase accountability among students.