I hope that you at AIT are finding yourselves as plagued by this new spam filter as the rest of the students and ISU population are.

I’ve talked to dozens of students and peers, and all of them view the filter as either an annoyance or a joke. We know what spam is, and we know how to delete it.

Labeling it as such doesn’t change the fact that it ends up in our mailboxes, or that we still have to read the subject lines. But e-mails from faculty, the daily New York Times headlines, academic and educational mailing lists to which we’ve specifically subscribed … these are not spam. Yet every morning these types of e-mails are marred by the insertion of that silly [SPAM?] header.

If you are truly concerned about helping students manage their mail, I implore you to ASK THE STUDENT BODY whether they feel this to be a truly useful tool. Poll the students. I’m sure the Daily would love to host an online discussion or an informal vote.

I know plenty of students and faculty who would take turns manning a booth in front of the library to collect signatures for and against the filter if a negative response might put an end to the system.

Perhaps there are other solutions – allowing students to subscribe to the filtering option if they are specifically interested, for example.

As for me, I’d prefer that you leave my mailbox and my so-called “spam” alone.

Melinda Cerney

Graduate Student

Mechanical Engineering