On Wednesday, December 4th at 5:30 PM, the Diplomatic Congress released an email with the following information regarding future student email guidelines and limitations:
“We are in the process of implementing new campus-wide guidelines for all-student emails, aimed at improving communication across our community. These guidelines are designed to reduce email overload, streamline information-sharing, and ensure that the messages you receive are relevant and timely.
We want to share with you the specific changes that will affect students:
- No All-Student Emails from Students: Going forward, students will be able to email their respective organizations only through Ampersand. Students will no longer be able to send all-student emails.
We believe these guidelines will enhance the student experience by reducing unnecessary email clutter, while ensuring that important and relevant communications still reach you in a timely manner.
These guidelines will go into effect next semester, but before we finalize them, we’d love to hear your feedback. “
To address student concerns over these sudden implementations, the Diplomatic Congress dedicated specific time at their Thursday meeting. Along with the congress themselves, several student leaders from across campus attended. Numerous questions were raised during the meeting.
Why were student emails suddenly being cut off?
To encourage clubs to utilize Ampersand, an app designed to promote student clubs that Franklin and Marshall College purchased and continue to subscribe to after three years of mediocre usage.
What if students had to send an email to the entire school, and not just students who had signed up for their Ampersand club account, as students will only get emails from clubs if they have manually signed up for that club?
If necessary, students would be allowed to access their club advisor to send an all-school email. This then raises the question of what qualifies for an all-school email, and if clubs would not just stipulate that all emails should then be all-school emails.
Is this switch definite?
No. This decision is currently under consideration by the Office of Student Engagement, and more targeted student feedback forms will soon be available.
As a concept, Ampersand is an excellent app. It allows clubs to showcase themselves with clear leadership positions and a dedicated club memo and message.
However, in actuality, Ampersand has had a less-than-stellar reception at Franklin and Marshall College. It was introduced three years ago and has not been extensively utilized. Although one could attribute this lack of engagement to confusing training for freshmen, club leaders, and the general student body on how to use Ampersand, if, as claimed by some, Ampersand was truly better at engaging students than all-school emails, the student body would have already gravitated towards the app. However, if Ampersand is further implemented, it would send out a weekly email round-up of club activities, and students would then have to scroll through a crowded email to find specific club events. Also, to learn about club events on a day-to-day basis, students would then have to open an app and specifically search for certain events. If students haven’t adopted this practice after three years, it’s peculiar to assume that they would immediately gravitate towards Ampersand. Furthermore, abruptly cutting student emails would also cut off any meaningful communication between clubs and the student body.
However, if Ampersand must be implemented, a potential solution exists; one that would not obliterate student engagement and club communications.
First, don’t strongly push Ampersand until the Fall of 2025. Wait until an entire new group of students has arrived.
Second, during the Spring of 2025 club elections, create a new position of Ampersand Ambassador. Or, if you’re a smaller club, combine Communications with Ampersand Ambassador. This Ampersand Ambassador would be responsible for attending club training for Ampersand – training that the college would need to make broadly available for student leaders, freshmen, and everyone else who would ever need to access Ampersand – and this person would also be the Ampersand point-person for club advertisement and emails.
Third, do not get rid of all school emails! Encourage some friendly competition between all school emails and Ampersand. Observe and survey if, with Ampersand at its full potential, students still gravitate towards the app, or still rely on all-school emails. If Ampersand does work and best serves the community, this will be evident in student surveys and feedback from club leaders.
Teagan Durkin is a junior, and the Opinions Editor. She can be reached at tdurkin@fandm.edu.