Cancelled e-mail autoforwarding leads to chaos

By Fabian Mayer, February 23 2016 —

Only a handful of days have passed since the university eliminated e-mail autoforwarding and students across campus are already feeling the impact.

Fourth-year international relations student John Barnes didn’t see an e-mail saying his class was cancelled and showed up to find a note on the door of an empty classroom.

“It’s chaos,” Barnes said. “Sheer chaos!”

Barnes lives on campus, but said showing up to the cancelled class completely ruined his day.

“I don’t even know how to check my ucalgary e-mail,” Barnes said. “Whenever I go to class it could be cancelled and I would have no clue and miss out on watching another episode of Scrotal Recall on Netflix. Do you know how stressful that is? I might as well not go to class at all.”

Third-year art student Jane Stevens sent a mass e-mail to her 400-person Anthropology 201 course after missing classes due to a death in the family.

“I had to go back home to be with my family,” Stevens said. “Not one person responded to my e-mail asking for notes. Can you imagine that?”

Stevens worries about getting notes for classes she will miss while attending the funeral next week.

“My great aunt twice removed’s exotic short-haired cat was so dear to us. With all that we’re going through, not a single person has the decency to send me the entire semester’s worth of notes,” Stevens said.

One group of students started a club to lobby administration to re-instate auto-forwarding. The club, called Let All Students E-mail Everyone, boasts around 150 students on its e-mail list and seven paid members.

President Francis Davies said the timing of the change was disastrous for the student body.

“We started the club when five of our computers stopped working for no reason three days before the midterm,” Davies said. “How are we supposed to ask our fellow classmates for assistance when they don’t see our desperate messages?”

According to Davies, university administration has been unreceptive to the club’s demands.

“The vice-president electronic communications and social media strategies told me that ‘perhaps I could ask the student sitting next to me for notes,’” Davies said. “How ridiculous is that? I’m not actually talking to people.”

The vice-president electronic communications and social media strategies was not available for comment, but provided the following e-mail statement.

“The University of Calgary has engaged and consulted with a multitude of stakeholders on this issue and will do our utmost to ensure students continue to experience the student experience.”

This article is part of our humour section.