Emails from the edge
Welcome! Welcome to a new sporadic segment on my blog where I feature the ridiculous and sometimes offensive emails I receive through the web site I manage. Like most sites, ours has a general "contact us"-type account. This means my inbox is the final destination for all sorts of dispatches from the confused, disturbed, angry or downright arrogant.
My identity as "contact us" goes way back. Some of the most interesting messages reached me when I managed city sites from 1999 to 2001. (I remember the day in 2000 I knew my job was in trouble, when I read that city sites were "so 1997.") People never really understood if we were a government site (we weren't), a chamber of commerce site (sort of), or just a commercial site (bingo), so we'd get all sorts of letters like "you are a blight on our city's educational system" or "there's a typo on the sign at the local cemetery." Poor, lowly "contact us" was the target of so much vitriol.
And so I present to you, my faithful readers, a note I received yesterday. A faculty member from another school wrote, distressed that he couldn't find a professor's email on our site (he didn't look hard enough. It was in the same place most schools post faculty emails--on the departmental page).
"A few minutes ago I heard your Professor XX on [the radio]. I went to your website to find his e-mail so that I could send him a comment. To my surprise, unless I have overlooked it, you do not list the e-mail addresses of your faculty. If so, yours must be one of the few American colleges and universities that does not. I would think that any school that wanted to encourage scholarship (and be recognized for that as your site suggests you do) would list that information. Of course, I would be grateful if you would forward XX's address to me."
What a little nugget of emotion. The initial interest, followed by surprise, and then a quick souring disgust at our clearly lesser institution, all ending with gratitude in advance for a favor. Of course, I thanked him for his comment and sent a link for the page that does, in fact, list Prof. XX's email. All in a day's work.
posted by shorttina @ 7:34 AM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
Academic Assholes. Keeping America Strong.
Ha ha ha!! You know what I'm talking about, b/c you've been there...I finally understand some of the Reserve Material battles you fought at the library.
Yep, and I also get to deal with it in my current job, publishing academic research. I think we should put out a magazine just for them called High and Mighty.
Or maybe just Irrelevant. My high school friend's dad has been in a grad program at the big University here, and he's already either adjunct or part-time faculty. Basically, the dept. thinks he's a god because, since he worked in business (real estate and insurance) for most of his adult life, he has practical skills and they depend on him to run the everyday workings of the department.
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