Students weigh in on low use of PSU e-mail

Ify Ossai | Collegio Reporter

John Edmond says one of the reasons he doesn’t use the school e-mail account is that most of the things that come from the university into his account are not of vital importance to him.
“I feel like e-mail is a waste,” said Edmond, undeclared freshman. “The free .edu account to communicate with the school is a thing of the past. With the social networking sites in full bloom, why would a college student need an e-mail address when friends, classmates and professors are online?”

Edmond says if the school really wants to get the attention of students and make sure important updates reach students, they should make social sites their primary mode of communication, and rely less on mass e-mails.
“Because, let’s be honest, how many of us college kids check their e-mail every day,” Edmond said. “But all of us go to Facebook almost every hour. We even have it hooked up to our phones.”
Debbie Greve, PSU registrar, says she would like students to use their Gus mail more often than they do now.
“The Gus e-mail is our primary mode of getting out the information we have to students,” Greve said. “The least they could do is check it.”
Greve says that any and all important school messages are relayed to students via Gus mail. Students who do not check their e-mail frequently miss out on a lot of opportunities that the university has to offer.
“We feel we’ve made a good-faith effort to get the info out there,” Greve said. “Students should therefore try as much as they can to check out the info.”
Kate Jonathan says she uses her Gus e-mail, but not as much as she should. She says she has quite a few e-mail accounts and frequently receives a new one when she starts working at a new job.
“So the need to have extra e-mail account piled on top of an already crowded market seems inefficient,” said Jonathan, sophomore in art.
She says students are also able to communicate through numerous networks and thus the need for students to communicate through e-mail becomes less and less essential.

Greve says students who check their school e-mail regularly are less likely to miss important school updates or deadlines regarding tuition information. They also receive messages from career services and other important school departments.
Greve says that the university has put signs all over the school reminding students to check their e-mail, but students still miss important updates because they don’t pay attention to these messages.
“I mean, I can’t send students an e-mail to check their e-mail,” Greve said.
Jessica Carter says the reason she doesn’t use the Gus e-mail system is she already has several other e-mail accounts and finds it difficult to keep track of all that information.
“It will be better if the school can figure out another way of getting out information to students other than e-mail,” said Carter, sophomore in math. “Facebook, for example, will work perfectly.”
Carter says she thinks more students will pay attention to messages from the school if they are delivered from a social website.
Greve says that they are taking steps to post notices to students outside of e-mailing them. She says one of the things they’ve done is to post important updates on the PSU Facebook wall.
“One of the best parts of using the Gus e-mail system is that students get to keep it when they graduate and that’s a big investment for the school,” Greve said. “So I personally don’t understand why students don’t use their Gus mail.”
Greve says that with the efforts the university has taken to provide students with the information they need to succeed in college, the least students can do is meet the university halfway and check their e-mail.
But Adam Jacob says he doesn’t use the Gus mail because he was not used to checking e-mails when he was growing up.
“ It seems like an extra skill to learn,” said Jacob, undeclared freshman. “And to be frank, that will take major readjustments that many students aren’t ready for.”