It’s pretty typical of me to check my e-mail at least five times a day. It takes me about two seconds, and with the amount of e-mails I get per day, it needs to be done. Perhaps I have a project, and the group is bouncing around ideas, or I get a dozen e-mails from ITS explaining the latest mishap, what with the volatile networks on campus. It’s become important for me as a Linfield student to check my e-mail repeatedly to absorb the wealth of information being thrown at me. So why are people not checking their e-mails regularly?

I used to be an RA (don’t judge me), and it was always fun advertising for hall events and hall meetings every month. I usually sent out several sarcastic e-mails, all of which would clearly state their purpose in the subject line to get the attention of those skimming (because who reads stuff from their RA?). I’d still get residents who would miss an event because they “didn’t know about it.” Seriously? This campus runs on e-mail. All the recent campus current events, such as the new school logo and the interviewing process for the new dean of students. Students would have known about them if they had checked their e-mail. If only the student government sent out a big list of all the current events on campus every week, maybe like after Senate … Oh … this is awkward.

Nobody should making excuses anymore. If students want to be informed, they can be informed. Those e-mails, Facebook events, and fliers around campus have been there since all of us arrived as freshman. I’m assuming people don’t see them because they’re too busy playing Farmville and awkwardly starring at the ground as they walk everywhere. Wake up people.

I recently attended, along with 10 other people, one of Robert Cepeda’s discussions on residence hall access and parking issues. He mentioned that the other two discussions had one person attend for both days combined. And how much advertising did he do? He sent out an e-mail to the campus, created a Facebook discussion group and made separate events for each day he was giving a presentation. And he had less than 20 people show up. We have a computer lab open 24/7 for students and wireless access in every residence hall and suburb on campus. People either knew about Cepeda’s discussions or purposely chose not to know about it. A third option could be that students are completely unaware of the Internet’s existence, which is depressing and slightly amusing. Disregarding that group, I refuse to admit that 1,700 people knew about Cepeda’s presentation and less than 15 cared enough to show up.

I’m starting to think that most Linfield students are ignoring their inbox every day. Some are truly apathetic, but the remainder of students can’t keep pretending they are uninformed when they are choosing to be ignorant. You hate the new Linfield logo? Perhaps you should ask yourself where you were when they asked for student input. Stop blocking your most direct line to Linfield, people. Check your e-mail and read those Senate reports. Let yourself be a member of the Linfield community. Try to comprehend why ITS would e-mail you to tell you the Internet is down. Be aware of your surroundings. I’m tired of feeling more informed than everyone else because I took two minutes to check my e-mail.

Matt Olson
Columnist Matt Olson can be reached at [email protected]