Students receiving unsolicited newsletter
Utah State University students now receive an electronic version of Utah State Today, the administration’s newsletter, automatically through Webmail accounts.
Utah State Today is an official online newsletter from the university for faculty, staff and students, John DeVilbiss, executive director of public relations and marketing, said.
The newsletter has been in print form for decades, DeVilbiss said, but with the cost of production, could only be distributed to facutly and staff. This is the first year the newsletter has been sent to students, he said.
“We consider our students as stake holders in this institution,” DeVilbiss said. “They have a right to know what is happening and this is a good way to do so.”
With advances in technology, Charles Thompson, university web master, said, this is the first time the university has the capability to include everyone in the university with the circulation of information.
“For the first time USU has the capability to communicate with a very large audience,” Thompson said. “Never before did we have the capabilities to mass communicate to this many people.”
USU President Kermit L. Hall said he supports the newletter being sent via e-mail to students, faculty and staff.
“We are trying, through Utah State Today, to build a strong base of understanding about the university and at the least a sense of
electronic cimmunity,” Hall said.
Students receive Utah State Today without registering for a subscription, DeVilbiss said. There is an option to unsubscribe from the newsletter online if students wish to do so, he said.
“We include them in the electronic in-house newsletter because we respect their right to be informed,” DeVilbiss said.
DeVilbiss said he assumes students would find the newsletter useful and said this is not a form of spamming by the administration. The newsletter is put out by the USU Public Relations office, he said, and has been sent to about 20,000 students. DeVilbiss said he encourages students not to delete or unsubscribe from the newletter.
Thompson said he has had fewer than 50 students request to be unsubscribed to Utah State Today.
“It gives them an inside view of the institution,” DeVilbiss said, “it connects them to the nerve center of the university. They don’t have to read every issue – the delete button works very well.”
Jenni Rigby, a sophomore majoring in psychology, said she thinks the newsletter is a an invasion of her privacy.
“I don’t really like how it is randomly e-mailed to me,” Rigby said.
Rigby said she does not agree how the administration and public relations deparment assumes this is a valuable resource or information students want. This form of automatic subscriptions is basically spamming, she said.
DeVilbiss said Thompson and the public relations department are working on new ways of designing the subject line to be more helpful and informative.
The newletter will not compete with the Utah Statesman, DeVilbiss said. He said the purpose of the newletter is to disseminate factual and true information – without looking for objectivity.
“Ultimately, it is always our role in public relations and marketing to get information out about the university,” he said. “For us,this is another way to tell the Utah State story.”
The newletter is sent to alumni as well, DeVilbiss said, with the intent of keeping the alumni aware about USU’s achievements and the latest decisions made by the unversity.
One benefit to the newletter is the immediacy it can be sent out to students, Thompson said. Usually the newletter will be sent out once a week, he said, unless there are important messages that students, faculty and staff need to be aware of – then it is sent out based on urgency, he said.
-kcashton@cc.usu.edu
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