If the University thinks its students have time to read the numerous broadcast e-mails they send out for announcements and events, they should think again. The meager 20 megabyte inboxes UIS provides can’t handle much more.
On any given day, students can receive up to eight similar e-mails that announce the myriad lectures, events, and speakers that Georgetown hosts every week. Since most students delete or ignore the majority of University emails that clog our inboxes at least three nights a week, most students never realize how many great events they’re missing. The solution is obvious: the University needs a functioning events calendar.
Neither searchable nor easily accessible from many parts of the University website, the current calendar combines a smattering of student-oriented events with administrative events—resulting in one useless, underutilized schedule. It rarely displays all of the events taking place on campus.
Luckily, Georgetown anticipates a technology upgrade—with the coming switch to student Gmail accounts—that will present an opportunity to serve Georgetown’s calendar needs: Google Apps for Education. The University should use Google Calendar, which easily integrates with e-mail alerts, and which would showcase University events in an unimposing way. Students could browse the Calendar at their leisure and then incorporate University events that interest them into their personal Google Calendars.
The University should also actively encourage faculty to use Google’s other features. Professors could use Google Docs, for example, to share class syllabi and required readings, eliminating paper waste and simplifying the search for class readings (which often takes students down a roundabout path from Blackboard to JSTOR to Electronic Reserves, only to find broken links).
Even if the University switches to a better calendar system, it will still need to break its e-mail addiction and condense upcoming events into one daily e-mail.
However the University chooses to organize its announcements, the utmost concern should be better communicating its events in a coherent way. Google Calendar is a good place to start.
