Be careful what you type
This past fall, Lisa Miller, a senior administrative assistant in the Yale College Dean’s Office, received an unexpected e-mail in her inbox. With a subject line reading “SEXUAL ERUPTION,” the e-mail announced a surprise get-together for the Yale women’s rugby team that night.
Within 15 minutes, Miller replied. “Hello,” she wrote. “I don’t believe you intended this e-mail to go to me.”
The e-mail’s sender, Lucy Sorensen ’09, had accidentally written to the dean’s office employee instead of to her then-teammate, Lisa Miller ’09, assuming that the student’s e-mail address...
When I was teaching a seminar in the humanities, I received endless emails from Yale admin that were meant for a freshman with a similar name, which is to say a variant spelling of my name. Her dean, her master, her coaches, and several departments made this error repeatedly, but I never once had a misdirected email from students.
yale.edu/directory
portal.yale.edu
I never type in an address myself. I always check one of the above and copy/paste the address if a contact isn't in my addressbook
How about a follow-up story on how shipping and receiving sometimes cross out the correct recipient's name and write in another?
yale-dot-edu-slash-phonebook