The idea was to use e-mail to publicize registration for rush. Things ended up going a little overboard. Two e-mail messages from a Panhellenic Council listserv this week designed to draw attention to the group's upcoming events did just that -- but not in the way Panhel officers had intended. The messages -- which were sent to all freshman and sophomore non-Greek women with unrestricted addresses -- announced a rush registration event today, as well as Monday's "Dine Out for Charity." But when women tried to respond to the messages to ask to be taken off of the listserv, their messages were accidentally forwarded to everyone on the original list, flooding students' mailboxes and prompting dozens of complaints -- which also ended up going to every name on the mailing list. Additional errors on the computer program mistakenly included a number of graduate students on the listserv. "[The listserv] was kind of a new-age target at publicity," said Panhel Vice President for Rush Jen Wigman, who sent the messages. But she added that the "computer fiasco" ensured that the group would not be "doing this again." Panhel got permission through the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs to set up the listserv. Women who weren't interested were meant to just delete the messages, said Wigman, an Alpha Chi Omega sister and College senior. But she added, "what was meant to attract people got a little out of hand." Many students stressed that while they didn't mind the original Panhel messages, the large number of seemingly random responses got a bit annoying. "I was surprised when I opened my e-mail to find 50 messages from people I don't even know," Nursing sophomore Lisa Partridge said. Wigman said she ran to OFSA to delete the listserv after noticing the errors around midnight Monday. But she noted that she is still feeling the effects of the mistake and continues to receive irate messages from women who want their names off the listserv. "I'm scared every time I check my e-mail," she said. "From my end, this is still going on." Wigman added that she hopes the incident will not deter students interest in rush. "I don't think this should create a significant effect [on rush numbers] because we contained it before it went any further," she said. Women interested in Panhel's rush next semester will have the opportunity to register outside of Hill and Stouffer dining halls today from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The deadline for rush registration is December 1. The process began in late September. Hoping to exceed last year's total rush number of 520, Wigman said the extra publicity and longer registration period worked to attract more women. In previous years, women could only register in late November, shortly before Panhel's December rush orientation. About 250 women are currently registered.
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