BBSA: Students Rage against IT

For years, Exeter students have been blessed to experience the technologically advanced webmail service that is Microsoft Exchange 2003. “When I first got my assigned Exeter email address, I felt a surge of excitement as I logged into Exchange,” gushed a Class of 2017-er. “Finally I understood what it meant to be an Exonian.” One popular element of Exchange lies along the top of the inbox; a carefully laid set of labelless icons. It leaves students to hours of solitary and communal existential wonderings about the meaning of, for example, “That upwards pointing 90 degree arrow carefully pasted upon a two-toned manila folder.” Exonians represent what must be the last lucky group to be using this nine year-old service, and as IT plans to introduce a new webmail client, our beloved Exchange will close its doors forever, leaving behind a legacy rivaling that of the recently extinct dodo bird. The service provided not only just email but a form of initiation into the Exeter community. If one could navigate the over complicated process to compose and send an email by themselves, then surely their 333 would be a breeze. “I think that every student experienced some sort of self-imposed investigation the summer before coming to school here. It took me a good month to figure out how to send a message to my advisor,” said one already nostalgic lower. One other rarely-seen web feature that will soon be lost is the limited inbox size. Keeping Exonians on top of their email-efficiency game, this facet of the Exeter webmail will be sorely missed. “It’s always nice to have the reminder that nothing’s permanent and you have to stay organized to receive that email from your teacher than you have a test tomorrow and will forget to study for and then fail the class all thanks to webmail!” One anonymous recent alum said with no hint of sarcasm or passive aggression. Students have rallied outside IT services, protesting the forecasted change. One rattled employee lifted the curtain to see the hordes of students yelling outside. IT, while respectful of student protests, have wondered “Why they’re going to miss such an outdated system. It’s pretty terrible, actually,” one said, walking into the office covered in bruises. Another looked up, “Honestly we just don’t get it.”