Multiple TelegRAMs affect student employees, some staff

Shannon Wood
Contributing Writer

On any given night, VCU students up at 2 a.m. can halt their studying to read the most up-to-date news of campus happenings, courtesy of the VCU TelegRAM.

Recently though, the electronic newsletter has been filling some student inboxes twice as quickly.

According to Marie Scott, director of email services for VCU Technology Services, students who receive the faculty/staff version of the TelegRAM as well as the student version do so because they are employed by the university. Students in this category would be graduate assistants, teaching staff or hourly workers.

Full-time employees who are also part-time students receive both the faculty/staff and student TelegRAMs, Scott said.

The daily message, published by the Office of Communications and Public Relations, contains information about events happening in the VCU community, including seminars, scholarship and research opportunities, as well as athletic, extracurricular and academic events.

All events, groups and organizations posted in the TelegRAM are required to be university-affiliated.

Despite its practicality, many students report they didn’t read the single TelegRAM they used to receive, and have no intention of reading both versions.

“I rarely read TelegRAMS,” said sophomore Justin Garrett. “If I do open them, I feel the information isn’t important.”

Garrett isn’t the only student around campus who feels this way. Many students compare the daily email to spam.

“I don’t read TelegRAMS,” said sophomore Christina Diep. “I just delete them.”

Others believe it is a good source of information on proceedings around campus.

Students who have wrongly received both TelegRAMs should send an email to dnotes@vcu.edu.