The Impossible Task

Campus Wide Announcements and the Disintegration of Dialogue

Prior to January 27, 2017 the campus announcements that I was asked to draft or contribute to were limited to three thematic blocks: temperature, tradition or tragedy.

• Temperature, or weather emergency, communication to the campus were crafted for specificity and typically had a call to action. I had an odd fascination with watching students mobilize across campus to move their vehicles shortly after such an email was sent requiring them to move to specific parking lots in order to facilitate snow removal. The timing of class cancellation announcements was a precarious one - sending it too late would mean complaints from commuters (students, faculty and staff included), sending it too early would surely result in a run on the local liquor store as students would join in a bit of a dormitory version of an Apres-Ski.