Email Roundup

Author: Tess Russell

Living in the Information Age certainly has its benefits (see handheld GPS), but one of the major drawbacks is the deluge of unnecessary information with which we are constantly inundated. The Middlebury community is no exception - seemingly every College office and student organization can get its hands on the "All Students" tag, the result being that the rest of us have neither the time nor the patience to sort through everything in our inboxes. Unfortunately, we often miss out on important emails buried under the minutiae of virtually undetectable administrative changes and thrilling up-to-the-minute updates on campus paving. In The Campus' new Email Roundup feature, we hope to provide the busy Midd-kid with a brief overview of the week's communications, be they relevant, tedious or - in some cases - slightly absurd.

Subject: Fall Dining Lineup

The bulk of this summer's mailings involved the upcoming construction projects for the 2008-2009 academic year. The main reshuffling centers on the close of Proctor Dining Hall, which will be offset by an extension of the FIC from the host of Language Tables to a full-service dining facility. Which will in turn push the Theatre Department into Lower Forest and … honestly, who cares about the rest? The biggest inconvenience will be spending the first three weeks determining the second-choice dining halls of all our Proctor crushes.

Subjects: FYI about junk mail and Mail Center move

Mail Center Supervisor David LaRose advised us to "stay vigilant" against junk mail with a handy five-pronged plan. Basically, we can opt out of most spam at the following URLS - www.dmachoice.org, www.optoutprescreen.com and www.catalogchoice.org. Now, if only there were a registry designed to remove us from the Mail Center's list. (We kid, we kid.) Given the severely limited package space in the College's classy new doublewide "mailer" (that's "mail trailer" in layman's terms), we'll be wanting to stay on Mr. LaRose's good side.

Subject: Live Bookstore Line Wait Cam

The Bookstore recently unveiled a new live streaming Line Wait camera, available on both the store's website and on its Facebook "Fan" page, that is intended to make the hectic process of buying school supplies a little bit smoother for all of us. While the new measure of convenience is much appreciated, those hoping for a thrilling feed will be disappointed - the lens seems to stay focused at all times on a typed sign indicating the length of the line. Guess our campus' aspiring reality stars will have to wait a little longer for their big breaks.