The students at Campus Helsingborg are well informed and updated through their student e-mail accounts, about what the Helsingborg student organizations are up to. A little too well informed. Now students are targeting the organizations, criticizing the organizations’ constant bulk messaging.
The Campus Helsingborg student life is minute in comparison to the Lund counterpart, but the commitment is strong. Unions and student associations are constantly making efforts to attract students. To raise the level of interest the student organizations have applied direct marketing for quite some time. Every week on their student e-mail accounts, the students receive information on the organizations and their events, despite the fact the a lot of students do not have any ties with the organizations.
Important information is drowning
However, instead of increasing interest, the e-mails the students get increasingly irritated. According to students who have been in contact with Lundagård, exam scores and important course information may get lost in the preponderance of newsletters. In Lund, the student organizations and the University are considerably more restrictive in their bulk e-mail messaging.
However, Campus Helsingborg Director, Jesper Falkheimer, takes a more positive stance towards the e-mail correspondence.
“I believe that we, in the capacity of Campus Helsingborg, should support student organizations and help the students communicate such information that may benefit them,” he says and continues:
“It is a good thing that the student organizations are active and are trying to communicate with the students.
Impossible in Lund
Campus Helsingborg student organizations have access to certain sender lists targeting the students at the University. Lists that are only accessible by recognized University organizations. Exploiting the students’ student e-mail accounts in such fashion, would not have been possible among the Lund-based faculties.
“It wouldn’t be possible here in Lund. You need to be authorized in order to be able to send bulk messages,” explains Per Hallgren, Lund University system admin.
How can it be possible in Helsingborg?
“They have built their own system. Campus Helsingborg is quite independent,” says Per Hallgren.
Unclear policy
An independence not to be taken for granted. The Campus Helsingborg policy on who can access the sender lists is not crystal-clear.
Could these lists be exploited by political student organizations?
“That’s a good question. We’ll have to look into that,” says Director Jesper Falkheimer.
However, the messaging can be avoided. In a well-concealed place on the “My campus” page, there is a checkbox for the students to use in order to unregister from the newsletters. A checkbox that has been challenging for the students to find.
“We’ll have to inform the students who don’t wish to receive these e-mails that they can opt out of the e-mails,” says Jesper Falkheimer.
The difficulty of getting rid of the messages sent has not only affected the students, it has also put pressure on Per Hallgren and his staff, who have had to respond to a multitude of phone calls and referrals to other sections of the University.
“I would be delighted if they manage to establish a little bit of order up there on the countryside,” says Per Hallgren.
Survey: What is your take on the newsletters sent to the student e-mail accounts?
Linn Wihlborg, Service Management Program, Tourism profile:
“The e-mail operates quite nicely. Since I don’t use it for non-educational matters, it doesn’t get messy or crowded. But there’s a risk that I occasionally may have missed an e-mail or two, there are so many of them.
Mikael Szalay, Railroad Technology Engineering Bachelor’s Program.
“It works fine for me. I log on to check whether there is, or will be, anything important, so that I don’t miss out. You get quite a lot of e-mails.
Fredrik Johansson (on the left) and Daniel Håkansson, History teacher students.
Both: “The e-mail sucks.”
Daniel: “I’ve never logged on, not even once. Since you have to activate it yourself and since you simply don’t get any credentials, I have never logged on. I’m sure I’ve missed a few e-mails, and I usually get my information through the grapevine instead.”
Fredrik: I’m almost never logged on, it’s really poor. The only time I checked it was the time when we were about to receive exam scores and grades.
Anna Dahlman (on the left) Ida Johansson, Equality and Diversity Management.
Anna: “The e-mail is complicated and intricate, so I almost never log on. It made me miss the application period for the next course, and I had to call Campus to sort it out.
Ida: “I have synchronized the student e-mail to my phone, so I log on occasionally. But I don’t read much of it, it depends what the subject line says. The Stampus mail I immediately delete. Maybe instructions on how to synchronize the student e-mail to the phone would be useful. Maybe then more people would read it?
Survey text: Linnea Berglund
Photo: Saga Sandin
Article: Casper Danielsson
Translation: Maximilian Aleman-Tennell
