Ignore Me at Your Peril

Well, this is breaking my vow not to discuss work, students, colleagues, etc., but last week I needed to contact a student -- let's call him/her "Pat Doe", and disguise the details so he/she won't be embarrassed if he/she happens upon this blog from my Facebook profile.

Pat needed to do either X or Y but had done neither. Repeated requests had been ignored. Secure e-mail had not been opened. (I love our secure e-mail system -- you can see when the recipient read the message. Correction -- you can see when the recipient OPENED the message -- who knows if the message is read or not.)

I noticed that Pat had a class one floor up on Thursday, so I printed out the important message, put it in an 8 1/2 x 11 1/2" envelope, wrote on the envelope in large black letters, "PAT DOE -- IGNORE ME AT YOUR PERIL", and parked myself outside the door 5 minutes before the class was due to end. I got a few chuckles as the students start streaming out, and in a few moments, Pat appeared and I was able to deliver the message.

Follow up -- I saw Pat open and read the message, and Pat has since read the secure e-mail, but as far as I know, Pat has done neither X nor Y. Oh well. . .