Since the Communication Center was established at Ball State University this semester, most students have not been too happy with the idea.
The concept of the center is to allow students to manage what university e-mails they receive by customizing their settings on the Communication Center Web site.
However, when the program started, students were automatically signed up to receive all categories of e-mails, and they have to log on and unsubscribe. This means students started getting significantly more e-mails than they had before.
Since March 16, when the center began, only about one-third of students have customized their Communication Center accounts, and many say that they simply delete all the e-mails they get from the site.
While this system has the potential to be effective, it is not working as is because students say they aren't reading the e-mails.
Students need to customize their settings, which would cut down the sheer volume of messages. Then, the ones they do receive might actually be about topics that interest them.
Also, people who send messages via the Communications Center could do more to make their e-mails a bit more engaging.
Students say that boring subject lines like "Speaker to come to Emens" don't do much to attract their attention.
A subject line is to an e-mail what a headline is to an article in the newspaper - it's a few words that should both impart the most important information and attract the reader.
If students are skimming their dozens of e-mails and see boring subject lines that don't tell them much, they are just going to hit delete.
This system still has the potential to work for Ball State, but it needs a few improvements on everyone's part.
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