Activism comes in many forms, but email activism? That has to be limited to small liberal arts colleges.
After a quick search, no seems to have even coined the term yet, so I am defining email activism as: “Clubs or organizations copying and pasting the same email over and over again, promoting the same thing, in order to raise awareness for an issue on campus and give everyone a headache.”
In all seriousness, email activism is especially important at Hamilton because it often feels as if students’ voices go ignored. When an instance of sexual assault happens on campus, we get one email from the school and that’s it unless the case is ongoing. If your favorite professor is fired, you may not hear about it until they’re already gone. If you actually need help, it may feel like you can never find it.
This is why we need email activism. Last spring, when we had multiple instances of date rape drugs being used against students, it was email activism that sparked a school-wide protest outside of Buttrick. The chain of emails sent by student-led organizations reminded students to attend the protest and wear black in solidarity and likely invigorated some students to speak out at the protest in front of school officials.
This past Friday, a large crowd of supporters joined the Hamilton Climate Strike Committee’s strike outside of Commons in order to show solidarity with other schools and cities around the globe in an attempt to bring awareness to climate change issues. Their message — although well broadcast — likely would not have reached such a broad audience without email activism. They had posters and professors on their side, but I am still quite positive that most students only remembered to wear blue and to attend the strike because of the twenty-plus emails they received in a two-day span. It worked, and it really was a beautiful thing walking into class on Friday and seeing a sea of blue.
Despite email activism’s significant role as a means to raise awareness about current issues, however, it is important to acknowledge how annoying it is. I mean, I counted 26 emails about the climate strike in about a 26-hour span (granted, it did grab my attention).
Don’t get me wrong; I know these emails are important. Both the date rape drugs last spring and the climate strike last week are huge issues that deserve campus’ full attention, and I am glad students had a way to ensure their voices were heard. All I am saying is to be judicious when using email activism. It has proven to be powerful and is, perhaps, the students’ best tool in a time of crisis, but don’t let that knowledge lead to its overuse.
As the great Immanuel Kant once said: “I seriously can’t afford to spend time deleting thirty emails from Student Transportation.”
