Now that it has been appearing in every student inbox across campus for more than a term, the student body has developed a variety of opinions on BoarCast. Kicked off last spring, BoarCast is the brainchild of the Communications Office and Student Activities and is an effort to ameliorate students’ inbox traffic and more efficiently organize school-wide communication. Instead of countless school-wide email announcements from Mr. James Yanelli, Director of Student Activities, students now receive streamlined updates in the form of a single email each Monday and Thursday afternoon.
The efficiency of BoarCast is one advantage that many students have stressed. “I do like BoarCast for the fact that BoarCast has all the information and reminders that a student would need,” said Wesley Fang ’19.
Ms. Alex Long, Assistant Director of Student Activities, commented on the convenience of collecting announcements in one place, saying, “It’s just a place where everything is. Now you can find Downtime there, you can find WKND, any important forms for club leaders – it’s all there.” Before this consolidation, the amount of emails Mr. Yanelli sent out the School became overwhelming at times. Samantha Brown ’20 affirmed this former problem, stating, “Almost any time that I used to see ‘Yanelli, James,’ in my inbox, I wouldn’t open it, because I would never relate to it.” Ms. Long explained how BoarCast combats this: “I think [BoarCast] relieves a little bit of the pressure on Mr. Yanelli to send all-school emails. And you’re not being bombarded with all-school emails. The idea is that you only get something twice a week and can organize it how you choose.”
One major student concern about the transition from one-off emails to BoarCast is that the consolidation of a large amount of notifications reduces how much each one stands out. Ms. Long agreed with this potential problem: “There’s definitely a risk of that. I’ve heard that sometimes there’s a lot of information, so it’s hard to filter what you want to look at. But that’s also a positive. Maybe you don’t want to get an email from Mr. Yanelli about every single club’s posters.” Some, however, argue that the decrease in quantity of emails is not a significant factor. “We still get a ton of emails, so that isn’t really valid,” Laila Hawkins ’19 said.
In addition to alleviating inbox crowding, BoarCast intends to serve as a way to bring more student awareness to information that although they already have access to, is often found in a less convenient format. All information from Boarcast comes from and is available on the Student Portal on the School’s website. For example, event announcements and important forms on BoarCast also appear on the portal under the “Announcements” and “Information and Forms” sections. As Ms. Long put it, “We know that students don’t always look at the portal. That’s why BoarCast is there.”
Hawkins, however, maintained that these potential advantages of BoarCast do not sufficiently compensate for the lack of clarity. “The disadvantage is that it’s hard to maneuver, people don’t read it, and it’s just a hassle to go through all of that trouble to see the one thing people actually want to see, which is the WKND,” she stated. WKND is a schedule of student activities and events which take place each Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Though a fan of BoarCast, Fang agreed on WKND, stating, “I do miss getting that ‘WKND’ email from [Mr. Yanelli]. It gets me through the week.”
Brown, on the other hand, felt that individual announcements were no clearer than BoarCast. “Why would you read every individual email anyway? I feel like I would be a lot more inclined to read one big email where I can just scan the list, than have to individually read each email,” she said.
In an attempt to improve potential BoarCast setbacks such as missed announcements and lack of clarity, Ms. Long, who is primarily responsible for the organization of BoarCast each week, has systems in place to aid students in the filtering of BoarCast information. “Every Monday and Thursday, I look through the list to see which announcements and posters are more important, and I put those at the top,” she explained. Along with paying attention to sequence, Ms. Long also clarifies which information is new by putting a “NEW” emoji beside each new announcement. She hopes to expand on this tool in the future: “I’m thinking of adding new emojis to add more interest.”
Some students feel that BoarCast needs improvement, while others have expressed their preference for it. Ms. Long is open to constructive criticism. Said Ms. Long, “I really like BoarCast, and I hope that the students do, too. If they don’t and have suggestions and would like to talk about it, I’m more than willing to listen.”
Photo by Pinn Chirathivat/The Choate
