U.C. Seeking Approval For Mass E-Mail Letter

The Undergraduate Council is seeking administrative approval to send a mass e-mail to all undergraduates, an action generally considered a violation of e-mail etiquette.

The message would inform the campus of various issues and encourage students to subscribe to a council mailing list. In the past, all such mass e-mails have been prohibited.

In a recent meeting with Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68, council President Robert M. Hyman '98-'97 and Vice President Lamelle D. Rawlins '99 discussed the council's desire to do a mass e-mailing.

"The mailing would be a solicitation of student interest in joining the U.C. announcement list to ask them if they are interested receiving future U.C. messages detailing events and issues," said Robert B. Wolinsky '97, vice chair of the Student Affairs Committee.

"We are the student government of the entire university. We are the only organization that has constituents in every house," he said. "While other groups send e-mails for their own benefit, we are doing it for the benefit of the entire community."

Nevertheless, Lewis said he has reservations concerning any widespread electronic communication and has not yet approved such a project.

"I am sensitive to the load imposed on the mail system by large e-mailings, and the need to insulate students from 'junk mailing,'" he wrote in an e-mail yesterday. "Any mass e-mailing, whether by an administrative office or a student group, would have to be approved before it could be sent."

And Director of FAS Computer Services Franklin M. Steen agreed that mass e-mails impose strains on Harvard's mail server.

"Sending 6,000 students the same message is not the function of e-mail. This is a broadcast," he said. "While an occasional short message sent at low use times may not harm the system, increased broadcasts of longer messages will bring it down so that no one can use it."

Administrators are also concerned that "spam," junk or advertising mail sent out to a wide audience, would become a nuisance to students.

"People don't want to get a lot of junk mail. It's too easy to send them and it's too hard to receive them," said Paul C. Martin, chair of the FAS Committee on Information Technology.

Last spring, mass e-mailings became an issue when a member of the Opportunes sent a message advertising an a capella concert. Administrators said the mass e-mail was a violation of University policy.