In previous years, it was not uncommon to hear students complain about the large number of emails received from Mr. Jim Yanelli, Director of Student Activities. Before this year, students who wanted to announce anything, ranging from club meetings to special events, emailed Mr. Yanelli, who would then send the announcement to the entire student body. However, Mr. Yanelli has recently attempted to shift to using the announcement feature on the online portal instead.
According to Mr. Yanelli, “Emails diffuse information, then kids get announcements from multiple sources. Suddenly, what would be a clean and definite pathway to information gets a little more confusing. The announcement portal provides a definitive location for receiving consistent information.”
The announcement section can be found on the top left of the Choate website once students or faculty have logged in. Although the announcement portal existed last year, it was largely used for announcements outside the community, informing parents and alumni about upcoming events. Mr. Yanelli said, “The portal has changed significantly since last year. The more that the portal is used, the better it becomes and the more vibrant and vital it can be”
While the Student Activities Center relied almost entirely on the announcements portal to communicate events at the beginning of the year, Mr. Yanelli noticed a significant decrease in the number of students signing up for events and heard a few direct requests from students to send out all-school emails, which promoted him to reintroduce announcements via emails. Mr. Yanelli said, “Recently, I have been sending almost all of the information that comes my way to the whole community via email, in addition to updating the portal.”
Some students believe signing into the Choate portal can be troublesome. Kendall Redlitz ’17 said, “I don’t check the announcement section. I’m just too lazy to log on every time.” Kristen Andonie ’17 said, “I’ve never paid much attention to the portal and the lack of student announcements isn’t really enough to make me start.”
Other students appreciate fewer emails. “When you’re getting a lot of spam from colleges, it’s nice not getting as many emails on daily basis,” said Redlitz. Nicole Yao ’18 said, “I really like the announcement section. It puts everything in one place, rather than making me to sift through all the emails sent throughout the week.” Other students recognized both the pros and cons of the emails. Andonie said, “The number of emails was slightly cumbersome, but at least I knew what was going on in the community.”
Some students have not noticed a difference in the frequency of emails or the recent additions to the announcement portal. Kay Ingulli ’18 said, “I didn’t realize that I was receiving fewer emails from Yanelli, or that the announcement section of the Choate webpage was regularly updated.” Mr. Yanelli recalled that in the beginning of the year, “we advertised access to the portal all the time, but my sense is that students were uncertain about how to get to the information.”
Sam Markowitz ’17 said, “Everyone is different, some people don’t really check their email, so keeping both the portal and emails updated will probably satisfy everyone.”
Suggestions for future management of announcements vary. Andonie said, “Someone could create an email group, like the type many clubs use, so that if you wanted to look at the announcements it would be more convenient than having to go to the portal, but it wouldn’t be difficult to find or clutter inboxes as much as regular emails did in the past.”
Mr. Yanelli concluded, “From my perspective students tend to use social media more for news. I think the communications office is well aware of that and trying to make social media options for kids. That sounds healthy and robust and where kids are in terms of where they transmit information.”
