Over the past eight years of working in higher education in Boston (yes friends, my full time job is not in sports), I have worked my fair share of university-sponsored viewing parties for the World Series, ALCS and Super Bowl. Part of working these parties is convincing students to attend them and imploring them to lay off the rioting in the streets (part of the reason why we hold them.) Achieving both goals can be hard. Most times schools decide to share “Please Don’t Riot” messages via an all-university email, and over the past few years I’ve had to review or help write a number of them.
If the email is too lengthy, students read two lines in, realize it resembles a novella, and immediately strike the delete option. If the email sounds to harsh or overbearing, students reading it hear the Peanuts teacher voice in their head and tune out. If the email is too brief, then you risk not getting all of the points you need to across.
On top of all of that, universities are asked to include certain messages by the Boston Police and Mayor’s Office. The two entities produced a PDF called, “Play It Safe,” with tips they wanted to provide to Super Bowl revelers. The PDF was available for forwarding via email or posting to school websites. In giant institutional email systems with limited mailbox sizes, it is far easier to post the PDF online and incorporate the tips into university-wide emails.
Here’s a quick look at Massachusetts area colleges and how they tried to get the “please behave on Super Bowl Sunday” message out to their students:
• I’m biased, but my boss at Boston University wrote a great one this year – one that struck the perfect balance between length and importance. You can see it here. He also wrote a blog post.
• Our neighbor on the other side of the Fenway, Northeastern University, struck a different tone, with several different messages going out to students from various entities (individual resident directors as well as an all-University one.) One of those messages was subsequently called out by Boston Police for misrepresenting their policies. BostInnovation’s Laura Landry was on top of the story during the week. (If you don’t read her education writing on a regular basis, you’re missing out.)
• The UMass Amherst campus has had problems with sports-related rioting on their Western Massachusetts campus in years past. To get out the “behave or else” message this year, they chose to make videos with alums Victor Cruz of the New York Giants and James Ihedigbo of the New England Patriots addressing the student body. You can see Cruz’s video over at Gahden Gremlins.
• Suffolk University also sent out an email to their student body on Friday. According to the Suffolk Voice, the email focused on the precautions the BPD will be taking around the city during the Super Bowl.
Is there any perfect way to give students the “Please Don’t Riot” message, or will a select few always misbehave when the opportunity presents itself? Do you have examples of what your school sent out that you’d like to share?