The way information is dispersed throughout campus is about to change. Modifications are being proposed to the All-BC [fyi] emails that student employees, staff and faculty receive. “Currently, all employees have access and can send an email at any hour. On any given day, employees may receive several of these emails, sometimes into the double digits, thus diluting their effectiveness. Bellevue College needs to find a solution for All-BC [fyi] emails that allows for a continued free-flow of information across the institution that cuts down on email clutter,” said Evan Epstein, public relations manager.
Russ Beard, vice president of information resources, acknowledges that “this is not something that is going to be fixed day one.” Epstein conintued, “Our proposal is to create an easy, online submission process by which BC employees may upload information for an all-campus email.” A BC facilitator would then take all of the submissions and put them into a single email. Employees promoting events will be able to link the event to the events calendar. Epstein hopes this will increase the overall usage of the calendar.
Beard and Epstein have been soliciting feedback from various parties such as administration, faculty and staff. One employee raised concern over the absence of an opt-out option for those who like the system the way it is. If the proposal is adopted, the changes will go into effect for all employees receiving FYI emails. While there was brief discussion regarding implementing similar methods on other types of emails sent out, such as BC Official, there are currently no plans to do so.
“The next step will be to work with Institutional Resources as well as Publications to create a branded, easy online submission tool,” said Epstein. “[BC] employees, by and large, are very supportive of this change. As with any change, there may be a few initial bumps as we put the change into place, but we don’t anticipate a negative reaction.”