Welcome back everyone! How was your summer? Wait, don’t tell me- write a two page paper explaining it, and submit it to my drop box via WebCT.

Alright, shall we get started?

Great.

Somewhere between the long weekends at the Swedish spa, and the week-long bender in southern France, I called my personal assistant back in sunny Pennsylvania to check on the valuation of my estate. Humphrey told me I had a large envelope waiting back at home from the UD. Hearing this sent chills up my spine. Receiving such a large envelope in the mail from the University immediately hearkens back to those anxious days spent waiting with baited breath for acceptance letters. I immediately raced home to investigate. Emblazoned across the front was the following:

IMPORTANT

Information for Students Living On Campus.

Please respond within 15 days.

I then noted the envelope’s heft, and the fact it was addressed to my parents. Thinking it was perhaps a list of conduct violations, and not wishing them to know the extent to which my Cousteausean fountain expeditions had expanded, I tore into it.

By now, some of you have gotten ahead of me, and know what was inside. Ads for bedsheets, care packages, and a computer backup solution.

Now, I’m no stranger to spam- UD’s group email mailing lists have made certain of that. But to have corporate shills arriving under the guise of official university correspondence is borderline outrageous. With the recent expose on college loan kickbacks, I would hope Delaware would be trying to keep its image
spotless. Using your students (who are, may I add, paying customers) as a targeted advertising demographic is both kinda slimy and possibly illegal. Most organizations must explicitly express intent to share member information with third parties, or provide targeted advertising. I’d be curious to hear what a University official has to say regarding student consent and contractual agreement to such a “service”. As far as any assurance that this is an isolated incident? We’ll wait and see. Until then, I’m not buying it.