Div Dictionary: Dale Mail

Ed. Note: Here at YDS, we throw an awful lot of jargon around. Acronyms, colloquialisms, you name it. "Div Dictionary" is a recurring feature which will seek to clarify some things. You can search for other posts like this by clicking "Div Dictionary" in the "labels" menu at right.

Dale Mail (n): Email communications sent to all of YDS; our primary method of information distribution. (At right: The eponymous Dale Peterson, YDS Dean of Students, proprietor of the candy bowl, all around great guy.)

When I was going through BTFO, I kept asking what this "Dale Mail" everyone kept talking about was and how I could sign up for it. This was before I was getting 45 emails a day from Dean of Students Dale Peterson. Basically, if you've got anything to announce to the YDS community - financial aid deadline, upcoming lunch program, lost and found notice - you send it to dalemail@yale.edu. Emails are forwarded to the entire YDS community. You are automatically going to receive these emails. So don't worry, you'll be ankle deep in them soon enough.

Dale Mail can be somewhat overwhelming. I for one have set up a filter on my GMail* so that all of my Dale Mail skips my inbox. (I use my inbox as a to-do list, so seeing 50 unread emails in there whenever I opened it up gave me mild panic attacks all the time.) With all the relatively unimportant stuff (typical emails include "LOST BAG!" and two hours later "BAG FOUND!"), it's easy to write Dale Mail off. But please don't! All kinds of interesting and important information goes out - scholarships, lectures, worship services, etc. all get announced via Dale Mail. Stop reading it entirely and you might miss when to turn in the FAFSA or where to find the free food.

-Kate

* We can talk about how to forward all your @yale.edu email to another account if you want. It was very easy, and enables me to do a lot more with my inbox.