Every day, the email inboxes of Hillsdale students are buried in a mountain of emails announcing campus events and volunteering opportunities. But this year, the Student Activities Board and Career Services are working on cutting the pile of emails down to size.
To condense the information, SAB is emailing a newsletter with a list of campus events every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Career Services is sending a similar email geared for their initiatives every Monday.
“When you’re getting 30 emails every day, it’s not likely that you are going to open each one and read them,” SAB member senior Rachael Hille said. “The newsletter makes it so that students are more likely to read about the different events and attend the ones they’re interested in.”
The newsletter results from a survey SAB and the marketing department did last semester, asking students about their preference of communication.
“The least preferred form of communication was email, and the most preferred form of communication was email,” Director of Student Activities Anthony Manno said. “So, then the question was, how do we meet both of these requests?”
The team eventually settled on a newsletter after ruling out a mobile app. They designed the newsletter after Instagram’s mobile social media feed.
“It satisfies the preferred form of communication, which was emails, while also cutting down on the number of emails students receive,” Manno said.
The change is already a success, according to Manno, as the newsletter has an average open rate of about 33 percent.
“Even in the first couple of weeks, I’ve had multiple students and faculty members who have requested to be included in the newsletter,” Manno said. “We’ve received a very positive response.”
Junior Hannah Fleming praised the new structure.
“The newsletter is much better than several emails every day,” Fleming said. “It’s so much more helpful to have everything that is going on in one space. It’s nice to be able to scroll through all the activities going on in the week and choose the ones I’m interested in.”
Career Services decided to publish an email newsletter as well. The Career Services newsletter will consolidate messages and notify students of events, Assistant Director of Career Services John Quint said.
The newsletter will provide all sorts of information and emphasize Career Service’s branding that it’s never too early to start planning ahead.
“We want our newsletter to be an informational source that students can browse through,” Associate Director of Career Services Courtney Noonan said. “We spotlight different career fields, and have helpful articles, and we even put up a video just because.”
Noonan also hopes to include “employer spotlights” to highlight jobs and opportunities in which students might have interest.
It “has something for everyone,” Quint said.
The eventual goal is to condense all emails sent about events, activities, speeches, exhibits, and performances into the newsletters.
“We want the newsletter to be the main source of information for everyone on campus, and we want every activity and department to be included,” Manno said.
This alteration is the result of students taking the time to share their thoughts.
“We want students to know that this is for them,” Hille said, “and that their feedback is valuable to us.”