October 16, 2004
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Masters of their domain
My wife, an adjunct faculty member at NYU, receives the following communication:
The purpose of this memo is to let you know that, going forward, the preferred method of communication from SCPS to the adjunct fcaulty communisty [oops - I'll leave that as is since it has been raised in the comments-Ed.] will be via your NYU email account. This account can be accessed through the NYU home Web site (http://home.nyu.edu). This will allow us to be much more efficient in providing you with information quickly...we request that you activate your NYU home email account as soon as possible.
So they can only send email within the NYU domain?
P.S., if you were wondering, I have been suffering a pinched nerve in my back, which has obviously interfered with all computer use and made me especially cranky.
Posted by Mindles H. Dreck at October 16, 2004 7:04 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound linksIt may be easier for them to send emails to the email address they have on record, which is the NYU email address. If professors want to receive their email elsewhere, I'm sure they can forward it. This isn't uncommon and it seems pretty reasonable to me.
It may be some sort of university thing. I've been both a grad student and an adjunct instructor at Oklahoma State. I found several instances where people who had my e-mail address on file would say they'd e-mailed me something. Come to find out they'd sent stuff to my OSU account, which I never used.
fcaulty communisty
Someone also needs to activate their spell check.
I hope you get some relief for your back - that is a terribly painful condition.
Mindles, good to see your posts again. I hope that you get better quickly.
If your back is hurt, rest, relax and recuperate. Screw the posting.
But, I do wonder, is "communisty" your error or was it in the original? If it is in the original, is a Freudian slip?
Get well soon.
Universities do this for two big reasons.
1. Avoiding bounced e-mails. People have a nasty habit of spelling their own e-mail address wrong, or never bothering to notify anyone when it changes. Limiting official communication to internal e-mail addresses ensures that everyone actually has an account, though it can't ensure they read it.
2. Integrated mailing-list management software. Since e-mail addresses usually match up with entries in a more generic user database, using only internal addresses allows easy building of convenient lists such as all faculty, all students, per department, etc.
Having been on all sides of this thing, let me say it is MUCH MUCH easier to use an email address where you have set up the addresses. Hotmail, yahoo and company addresses are ephemerial things with, as has been noted, weird spelling. People change email addresses like fashions. What worked last month is dead and gone this.
As a policy, this makes sense.
In the corporate world, this is standard. Most large corporations provide you with an email address and then expect you to use it for work-related email. Company messages go to your company email address.
If you have an unusual situation, you can usually use another email address (depending on corporate policy and the friendliness/competence of the IT department).
I find it more amazing that this wasn't the standard policy...
Bolie IV
The thing about adjunct professors is that they have other jobs with permanent email addresses. This is just an unnecessary inconvenience. My firm doesn't require our consultants to get an internal email address.
Our company does give contractors and customers who office with us an internal email address. They do not typically receive internal corporate email. Project email can go to whoever, but official company communications goes to the company email.
However, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. It's especially simple of all of the email addresses us POP, as most mail programs can get mail from multiple sources.
Bolie IV
Mara wrote,
Someone also needs to activate their [sic] spell check.
Someone needs to activate grammar check!
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