Junk mail and spam are no longer an unknown concept to the human population. High Point University students are all too familiar with the repetitive emails they receive in their school inboxes. HPU students receive the same emails every day, one of those being daily motivation emails.
It's a nice thought; provide a daily quote to keep students encouraged to push through the work and events that may be bombarding their schedules.
The email is very short, sending a graphic with a picture of a statue or maybe a sunset along with a quote from an inspirational figure such as William Shakespeare or Olivia Newton-John.
There is nothing wrong with trying to provide a little positivity to students with something as harmless as an email.
“I think the intention behind them is good,” said Alexa Beck, a junior at HPU, “but I usually don't open them and they just clutter my inbox.”
Under each daily motivation quote, there is an ad that is permanently etched to the end of the emails. An advertisement for Dr. Nido Qubein’s book shines at the bottom of the page with two links to buy it. There seems to never be a daily motivation email that doesn’t include this ad.
“I do not like the motivation emails at all,” said Charley Dunkle, a junior at HPU. “It becomes very annoying and I end up deleting them without looking.”
How about when the motivational emails turn into something a little more selective?
Along with daily motivation emails, mid-week blessings also find their way into every student’s inbox. The inspirational quote is not from an actor or author, but instead from the most famous piece of literature: The Bible. It doesn’t matter what religion a student practices, or if they practice a religion at all. Every student will receive a mid-week blessing with a passage from the Bible and a schedule of chapel events for the week.
A quote from the school website states the following, “The university was founded by the United Methodist Church in 1924 and honors its Methodist heritage. It also welcomes every student regardless of faith or viewpoint. Civility, personal responsibility, and individual expression are respected and celebrated.”
The school makes it a point to say they honor all religions, so why are they solely using the Bible for daily motivation? And why is it that every student, regardless of religious beliefs, receives one?
“I get emails from them but nothing from Hillel,” said Grace Haines, a jewish student at HPU. “It makes no sense.”
There is no harm in sending blessings to students in another attempt to get through the long days of work, but not every student is going to smile when they receive an email from a religion they are not a part of.
“It shows that they care but I’m just not interested,” said Haines.
A good idea that might take the anger away is making the emails become a subscription based feature the school can offer. Free of charge, but make it so that only the students that like the emails and want to read them, are the ones receiving them.
This eliminates the unwanted clutter and annoyance a lot of students feel when the daily motivation takes its place in their inboxes.
It is a very nice idea to keep the students going through the college workload, but it seems these emails are adding to the stress. HPU should focus on those students who turn to the emails for inspiration, and give students who don’t want them an option to opt out.
It might make them more motivated.