October 3, 2008
Dear Students With Unprofessional E-Mail Handles: Your Professors Notice
The Chronicle‘s online forums have made it apparent: Many students fire off e-mail messages to their professors without giving much thought to what they’re writing. Professors posting to a popular thread have shared e-mail messages riddled with grammatical errors, unreasonable demands, and silly or unbelievable excuses.
But buried within the forum are examples of another breed of students — ones whose e-mail messages are ordinary and downright polite, but are sent from an unprofessional or obscene e-mail handle.
In one case, a professor received a frantic e-mail from a student who failed to offer any identification besides the pseudonym Shortysexy. The professor mentioned the e-mail in each of his classes, hoping someone would come forward and lay claim to the questionable handle. Needless to say, no one came forward, and soon the professor received another e-mail message that made Shortysexy’s name seem quaint: This one came from a handle that began with “Blowitoutyour” and ended predictably enough. —David DeBolt
Posted on Friday October 3, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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One of my students “sally” say, said “Can you use my this email instead of my school one, and I said sure, so she gives me the email:
“liberalsally@——mail.com
Guess she doesn’t know my alterego as rightwingprofessor.
http://rightwingprofessor.blogspot.com/
— rightwingprofessor Oct 3, 04:26 PM #
Are you saying you’d hold her political views against her as a student in your class?
What other personal factors would you hold against her?
— Fair-minded Professor Oct 3, 05:03 PM #
I think rightwingprofessor was just being funny. Come on. Don’t be so serious. Loosen your girdle. Snicker if you feel inclined. I did…and I’m liberal.
— Yourekidding Professor Oct 3, 05:29 PM #
Answering machines can be problematic, too. I remember calling a student about an assignment once and her message was something like, “Hi, this is Mary and I’m not here right now, and if you’re looking for Lisa she’s probably passed out drunk at a frat house somewhere. So leave a message.”
— sometime professor Oct 3, 05:42 PM #
Could have been worse — eg.“libertine_sally”
— conservative handle Oct 3, 07:56 PM #
I teach these concepts in a management communication course when I talk about professionalism in the workplace and when job seeking. I’ve had students with some real doozies for personal email addresses, almost embarrassing to address an email to. I caution the students; some listen and take heed; some don’t care. It’s the same with social media profiles; they don’t realize how many people, including universities and employers, search those sites and mentally stuff in their minds what they see when making final decisions about placements. Being a professor with 35 years of experience, I keep my eyes wide open and yet today nothing is too shocking!
— BusProf Oct 3, 08:42 PM #
Should we mention thkis problem generally, to a class? Perhaps we could remind students that if prospective (or current) employers see these handles, it could be a real obstacle to getting a job. What do others think about this?
— Garyz Oct 4, 10:25 AM #
Of course I won’t hold it against my student, lighten up fairminded! I try to caution my students that their actions now can affect their entire careers.
Of course it’s hard for them to believe me since they see a man who plagiarized 5 pages from someone else’s law review article and still graduated law school, then he literally stole someone else’s speeches and took on their entire persona, and yet is still 4 weeks away from being elected vice president of the United States.
http://rightwingprofessor.blogspot.com/
— rightwingprofessor Oct 4, 12:03 PM #
What’s so wrong about holding her address against “liberalsally”? Liberal professors (who are in the majority) do it frequently. “Turn-about is fair play”; “what goes around, comes around,” so they say.
— cynic Oct 4, 02:05 PM #
Yeah, that almost beats a confused, factually challenged hockey mom who believes that the world was created 6,000 years ago and who doesn’t understand climate change — and could be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency.
— eg Oct 4, 04:36 PM #
uh eg, you don’t know if the world was created 6000 years ago either.
And as for not ‘understanding” climate change, what is that supposed to me? Hundred of very brilliant scientists have huge disagreements on the extent of and causes of climate change, not to mention the disagreements about what postive and negative effects it will have and what should be done about it. It’s arrogant people like you who turn your nose down on successful, intelligent hard working women like Sarah Palin. Why do I suspect you’re a geekly, single graduate student somewhere desperate for a girlfriend and a temporary asst. professor position.
— rightwingprofessor Oct 4, 06:42 PM #
Rightwingprofessor apparently does not know the difference between an ad hominem and a real argument.
Does FOX rule?
— jon Oct 4, 07:26 PM #
Boy oh boy rightwingprofessor, you sound so mean!
— Whybeasmartaleck? Oct 4, 09:33 PM #
This is pretty pathetic, when a perfectly legitimate blog post on the appropriateness of email handles devolves into a ridiculous series of political attacks and insults. What credibility do we as educators have if this is how we behave in a public forum?
Hap Aziz
— Hap Aziz Oct 5, 10:04 AM #
I could care less what their email handle is. I’m just tired of receiving emails that are unprofessional and fail to reflect the implied relationship between student and professor.
As for answering machines, I find it easier to simply refuse to return student phone calls. As I tell them, my expectation is they are either in class, studying, or sleeping and I don’t want to interfere with any of those functions of school.
— DrMink Oct 5, 11:57 AM #
Dear Rightwingprofessor, YES, we do know that the world wasn’t created 6,000 years ago. Get your head examined. For one thing, the agricultural revolution took place 10,000 years ago. We have mounds of evidence for it, just check the facts. Or, you could continue thinking that the world was created 4,000 years after we learned about the domestication of plants. Or about 940,000 years after the hand axe got to be a pretty good tool. Please keep your brutal inanity for your private life and the voting booth. Here, you just sound plain silly.
— Darren Aversa Oct 5, 12:33 PM #
We do know that the world is round, correct? So, if you tippy-toe enough to the right (wing) while others tippy-toe to the left (wing), you just might bump into each other.
— Splendid One Oct 5, 02:46 PM #
Back (nearly) on topic…
Has anyone noticed a definite decline in students’ telephone manners? My students seem to think I know who is calling so they don’t tell me their name or they answer the phone “Yah?”
Has technology ruined politeness?
— Not old enough to feel Fuddy all of a sudden Oct 5, 03:03 PM #
as someone who used to work in university IT, i should point out that i couldn’t even begin to list the ridiculous content i saw on faculty machines. everything ranging from hardcore pornography to offensive personal e-mail addresses. give it a rest.
— rusty Oct 5, 06:42 PM #
True, students sometimes use unprofessional email handles when they correspond which is viewed as a sign of disrespect, and could possibly lower the prof’s opinion of the student.
The question is: do they care? They’re already submitting (in some instances) poor work (if at all), showing up tardy for class (if at all) and acting with little (if any) etiquette. Do we honestly think they’re worried about their email handles in light of this other, more overt, behavior?
— T Oct 5, 08:02 PM #
It’s fantastic how quickly comments about students’ poor phone and internet manners sunk to the lowest common denominator. Sweet, sweet irony…
— I love the smell of irony in the morning Oct 6, 05:57 AM #
I suggest that my students use grammatically correct English when corresponding with me. Some have actually given it a try.
— Georgia teacher Oct 6, 06:54 AM #
I’ve had two remarkable student email addresses: “boner@” and “Iamaho@”. I haven’t had any like these since I started telling students to watch their email names in contacting professors and other professionals.
— MEM Oct 6, 07:25 AM #
Regarding grammar and syntax, No. 15; it’s I could NOT care less, unless of course you do actually care a lot about their e-mail handle.
— RKO Oct 6, 07:29 AM #
Did anyone consider that liberalsally might be from Liberal, Kansas?
— ER Oct 6, 08:01 AM #
Do IT people really spend their days peering at what is on faculty “machines”? Is that why we can never get them to replace Smart Cart wiring when it frays?
— Johnson Oct 6, 08:06 AM #
Sorry #24, #15 had it right: “I could care less” is correct since you are conveying indifference. When you put “not” in there, you are saying that you could care more, but not less.
— Old Dawg, New Tricks Oct 6, 08:24 AM #
well, I looked it up. #24 is correct, but common usage allows #15’s use too, even the two are antonyms. Sorry for my confusion!
— Old Dawg, New Tricks Oct 6, 08:41 AM #
I appreciated the response from Georgia Teacher who encourages students to use proper grammar n their emails. Profs should expect professionalism from students. Set high expectations and you will see better results from many, not all, students. This whole discussion is about the expectations students face.
— Steven Oct 6, 08:42 AM #
Sorry #27. #15 was right. If you “could care less,” this means you do care some. If you “could NOT are less” it means you do not care at ALL. Keep the double negative in mind: “not—less.”
— Ronald Oct 6, 08:48 AM #
The admissions folks at my public university report that they regularly see prospective student email addresses like beerbashbabe@___ . And the parents know — in some cases it’s Mom or Dad who writes the email address on the form at the open house.
Of course, schools look at a lot of things in evaluating prospective applicants. But since the public would like to see colleges do more to curtail irresponsible behavior, perhaps they will understand when we decline to admit some students who have already given greater indication of their interest in partying than in studying.
— drj50 Oct 6, 09:03 AM #
Whether or not the people responding to this blog care, it is probably fair to say that there are a great many people who do, whether they should or not.
So one question, among others, is this: how mindful should anyone be about audience response to their chosen email “handles”? What should they consider when they make or modify them? Are email addresses business addesses or personal expression? I think that people have the right to make these decisions themselves, but I also think that some don’t realize don’t know that they ARE making a decision.
— Angela Oct 6, 09:14 AM #
Many colleges are requiring students to use official college email accounts…it’s a FERPA thing. How do we know a private email account is actually held by that student?
And so, as a policy, we require all communication between instructor, staff, and student go through the college email accounts.
— AMartin Oct 6, 09:14 AM #
AMartin mentions that the college “requires” students use their campus email and our school says that too. But I can’t count the number of times my students have told me they just don’t use that email account. So if I want them to get a message, or if they write to me, it’s often with an off campus account.
It’s so easy for them to get a “professional” email address for correspondance in business type situations that it really shows a lack to not do so. A lack of—Intelligence? Caring? Savvy? All of those things would/should make people nervous about hiring them.
— Kim Wells Oct 6, 09:40 AM #
Kids are flaky and smart kids like to show off just HOW smart they are. One means is by their “creative” selection of handles. Not necessarily a problem in their private lives, but if the college will give them some strict guidelines on expected conduct and individual professors provide the occasional reminder—or their own personal expectations— it should demonstrate exactly who is smart enough to understand and adapt to those rules. Those who don’t? Well, if they didn’t or can’t learn anything, why should we worry about their graduation or future?
— Ginger Oct 6, 09:54 AM #
I teach the introductory course in our program. We have decided as a faculty to hold students accountable for professional writing as required in the state’s standards for teacher education. Therefore, we give instruction in writing as a professional in all instances, including email messages. Students are required to use the campus email and faculty refuse to respond to email messages from ‘sweetbubbles’ or ‘I’mahappygirl” or any other strange name. It is amazing how quickly students start sounding like a professional. All you have to do is make your legitimate expectation known and back it up with instruction. It works. One thing that we teach is to avoid attacking anyone when writing.
— ann Oct 6, 09:57 AM #
As someone who used to work in Career Services, I believe you should care when student have ridiculous e-mail addresses or answering machine manners. Besides being the right thing to do for an educator, I would also add that employers find these things just as ridiculous as we do. That means poor job prospects, which ultimately reflects negatively upon our institutions in this era of accountability.
— SM Oct 6, 10:17 AM #
I’ve encountered this kind of thing while teaching. Crude or silly e-mail names don’t generally offend me; most people get over this part of themselves with age, and my students were no cruder at age 18 than I was.
The biggest problem is that very often these messages came with no other signature, and I’d have not the slightest idea of the sender’s identity. (Note to student: If you really, really need to contact an instructor for help, let the instructor know who you are!)
— Starbug Oct 6, 10:50 AM #
It’s easy -I just tell my students on the first day of class that I won’t consider opening an email from “sexylady69” (a true email that I have received), and that I will be communicating only via their campus email. If they don’t use that account, it doesn’t matter to me, but they won’t be getting important announcements. It seems to work well.
— Jay Oct 6, 10:52 AM #
If a student really used libertine_sally for an email handle, I would be pleasantly surprised. It would mean she knew that slightly archaic and kind of wonderful word. No small feat.
— Justine Oct 6, 11:18 AM #
#26, IT people generally don’t have the time to go “peering about” on faculty machines to see what’s there, but we have been asked to back up gigabytes of questionable material before upgrading a machine, and some folks’ desktop wallpaper is certainly “interesting.”
— Cal Oct 6, 11:21 AM #
I once phoned a student and was greeted by his answering machine message: the Monty Python “Penis” song. For those of you who have never heard it, is a charming tune, with lyrics inquiring, “Wouldn’t you like to have a penis?” and following with every nickname for penis ever conceived of in the English language. Perhaps I should have been offended, but I just enjoyed the song, laughed, left him a message, and spoke to the student later.
— a lesbian Oct 6, 11:31 AM #
As an instructor of ESL students, we’ve given some advice over the years to innocent students about avoiding using their real names when they have other meanings in English (pornusa@)
— CLD Oct 6, 12:02 PM #
Ah, dear rightwingprofessor! If he had spent his three years at law school “graduating” it – i.e., making evenly spaced marks along its perimeter – instead of working to graduate from it – I doubt if he would be where he is today. I don’t know how similar conduct affects the career of rightwingprofessors.
— Lawrence S. Lerner Oct 6, 02:38 PM #
garbage in, garbage out … email etiquette morphs into Biden/Palin and back again. I just remind students that anything committed to email may show up in embarrassing places when least expected (remember that forwarded email messages show the original email sender’s handle).
— CW Oct 6, 03:11 PM #
Dear Students,
If you have read all of the above blog entries from your professors, you now know the truth: they are neither better nor more mature than you. They want you to think that they are, but they are not. Okay, some are, but you have to look really hard to find them among the majority.
Good luck in your search!
— Oliver Oct 6, 04:41 PM #
#26, IT people don’t go “peering” about your content when we do our job. it is usually right there, staring us in the face. it is difficult to close our eyes when we restore your old browser favorites to your brand new laptop.
— rusty Oct 6, 08:43 PM #
Why are students allowed to use anything other than their University account anyway? I very much enjoy keeping the two separated.
— Sean Oct 7, 12:47 PM #
A few years back, I put out a pad and pen on the “recovery” table at the quarterly blood drive, inviting people to leave us their address and we’d let them know when the next drive was scheduled. There, amidst the “pinkfuzzyslippers@yahoo” and the rest, was one left by a faculty member who apparently doesn’t care who knows his interest: “spankmepink@url.com” I guess it’s not only students, eh?
— David Oct 7, 01:47 PM #
A student came up to me wondering why I had not replied to her emails. I checked my spam folder to notice it came from “sexydragon”. I then emailed “sexydragon” and told her to change email addresses, or she will never hear from me due to the spam issue.
I also had a “stinkybottom” one semester.
— James Oct 7, 02:20 PM #
I’m always amazed at the email addresses that adults establish for themselves. Imagine your face on a billboard next to your email address…
— Bill Sodeman Oct 8, 05:05 PM #
In defense of the students, some may simply not realize the potential ramifications of having a “unique” email address. This might be the first time in their lives where they’ve had to stop and think about whether a seemingly fun/harmless act might be professionally inappropriate. I cringe when I think of some of the mistakes I made – through ignorance – when I was young. I am grateful to the people who took the time to explain why certain actions/behaviors were not appropriate, and why. I agree with those who’ve suggested that a quick, 5-minute explanation at the beginning of the term would be useful. I have no excuse for the faculty, however.
Also, regarding use of institutional email versus private email, it is my understanding that content of the institutional email remains the institution’s property, whereas content of “personal” (for lack of a better term) email remains the property of the user. That may explain some of the unwillingness to use university-provided accounts. I’m certainly careful about what I discuss, and how I discuss it, when using my institutional account.
— LR Oct 10, 11:36 AM #
I’m not sure if this outdoes Blowitoutyour___, but I was surprised to have to reply to a student e-mail that started out ballsychick0832@xx.com. Maybe what shocked me more was that the first 831 ballsychick e-mail addresses were already taken. I’d laugh, but I feel too sad.
— SD Oct 13, 10:19 PM #
I believe that some students really do care as to the impressions they make in the workplace. I’m a college junior and my email address since high school has been: (my)firstname.lastname@xxx.com. My voicemail on my personal cell phone (which I do use for school and business calls) simply says “Hi, you’ve reached (firstname lastname). I can’t come to the phone right now, but please leave a message and I will get back to you as soon as I can.”
I realize that many students do choose unprofessional handles and mailbox messages, but don’t forget that some of us are concerned with how we present ourselves.
— student Oct 29, 03:48 PM #
OUr students (UK University) have been asked to use their University email addresses for all Uni related matters; though a lot don’t. (It only started in real earnest this semester). So, my approach is to reply to whichever one they used; to remind them that they should be using the Uni one & also to explain the reason that my reply has been 48 hours was because the anti spam thingy spammed it.
And, yes, weird names / lack of subject lines also means that as well as the auto spammer, my mental “probably spam” filter kicks in, so they get left even longer!
As to names on the phone. That’s quite an interesting one. I’ve read in several places that from a security point of view (I’m a single female), it’s more secure not to say your name. Callers know who they’re intending to call. If they then ask for you – you & they know they’ve got the right person. If they ask for someone random, you know that either they’ve got the wrong number, or that they’re messing about. Either way, they don’t need to know who I am, merely that I’m not Joe Bloggs.
— -WebCT user Oct 30, 11:25 AM #
As long is we are on the general topic of declining skills for students I want to raise the clear decline in handwriting skills (cursive) amongst students. I recognize is is a reflection of a growing reliance on keyboards, but I am I the only one to see a correlation between declining cursive writing skills and the ability to take extensive notes and and out of class? If what one does is block print that would certainly lower the speed of what one can write during a lecture. Maybe I should have students do all their note taking on the cell phones since they certainly are fast in texting messages.
— Geoffrey Frasz Nov 12, 03:08 PM #
Here’s my personal favorite:
CripChick from the 805@…
And this student was enrolled in a criminal justice class. BTW, she didn’t get past week 5. Probably picked up a skid bid in the county. (read: short jail sentence). You should have seen the tatts!
Another student (lovely young mother) was bikini bottom@…One day I commented on her address during an office visit, and she asked me if I watched Sponge Bob. Not having kids or liking cartoons much, I answered in the negative. She explained the cartoon character, and added rather shyly, “I hope you didn’t think I was a perv, professor!” I didn’t.
— BC PROF Nov 12, 11:41 PM #