House Life Survey, Take Two (and Q!)

This time it's for real, in all kinds of ways.

After a preemptive round of No Subject emails landed in students' inboxes yesterday from the suspiciuos sender "registration@worldapp.com," The Office of Student Life has done its best to put this botched attempt at undergraduate opinion gathering behind it and move on to bigger and/or less sketchy things.

Today the OSL is back and better than ever, and they want you to know that the survey will not eat your computer alive. The most recent, far more official-looking email, which came from osl-adm@fas.harvard.edu and had a subject line reading "House Life Survey 2012-13" (see what they did there?!) is signed by Kim Pacelli, Associate Dean of Student Life and Karen Pearce, Director of Harvard College Institutional Research. Pacelli and Pearce write: "In an effort to clarify and address concerns about the validity of the survey and the safety of the link, we now invite you to participate in the survey by visiting the Office of Student Life's webpage." Legit, right?

Almost. It's still the OSL, so of course they have to get something wrong. This now "valid" survey asks students if they belong to "Finals" Clubs—yes, finals plural—reminding us once and for all just how in touch they are with the lives of Harvard students (answer: not much).

Speaking of finals: In other, perhaps even more frightening news, the Q evaluation is now officially open, a sure sign that the semester itself is officially (almost) over and that final papers and exams (and maybe even the apocalypse) are upon us. It's okay, though. According to their email, the Course Evaluation Staff are "wishing [us] all the best." It may be insincere, but at least we know it's not spam!