Presently, the transition to the use of the portal for homework assignments is responsible for the significant drop in usage of Google Classroom. Due to the abundance of student-run clubs without Google Classroom groups, there is an influx of unsolicited email announcements every week. Not only is this an inconvenience to students, but it dilutes and confuses the meaning of what a club announcement is.

Club announcements are supposed to be concise reminders of a meeting or other event. These announcements are aimed toward the entire student body. When announcements become longer and more specific, only to communicate with a fraction of the people who receive it, then I think that a remedy is in order to preserve the neatness and efficiency of the email announcement system. The solution we have developed on the Cabinet is to work with Dean of Student Life Joe Bruno to forge a meaningful relationship between club life and Student Government. 

Our constitution states that “a club is defined as a group headed by elected or non-elected student(s) or faculty member(s) that provides the assembly with a forum for addressing a specific interest.” I think it goes without saying that it can get exhausting to receive so many club emails, most of which aren’t relevant to your interests. So much mail is a steep price to pay for occasional emails that do happen to pique interest. Thus, I hope that in the coming weeks, we will be able to deliver on the campaign promise of a newsletter proposal. The solution will state that the Secretary (Tess Wayland this year) will be responsible for the weekly club newsletter email account, [email protected], and will include announcements upon request of club leaders. The person who is responsible for the weekly newsletter is subject to change, along with any element of the proposal, and amendments are gladly received. As for the details of how that newsletter will look, I am not sure. However, if anyone has suggestions for how the email could be formatted, the Cabinet would appreciate it.

Clubs serve great importance to our institution, acting as a foundation for education that is based on creativity and student interest. Past Club Fair records indicate that there are more than 40 different clubs, all of which this proposal would affect. Theoretically, limiting the amount of school-wide emails will avoid saturation from so many clubs, as well as foster more productive, insightful, passionate, and efficient clubs. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please email me at [email protected] or find me in the hallway. In order to keep clubs running efficiently, your help in the optimization of our modes of communication is imperative.

One could argue that evidently the modes of communication have little or no impact on the club’s ability to gain traction. Moreover, this proposal currently does not hold any clause to oblige clubs to follow the rules. Although many inboxes can quickly become forsaken places where we stack up the detritus of personal, work, and school life, services like Gmail offer sundry options to filter and organize emails. Thus, the problem may or may not be as large as it seems. If the proposal is passed but there is not a high demand to utilize the newsletter, I could see it falling through for sure. However, I see the newsletter proposal more as an experiment. I would like to see it pass so that we can see if it works or if it does not, because that is the only way to truly know.