Here is mine (Andy)
Voicemail
One on the major communication tools in use today at Reinhardt is that of voicemail. Voicemail, in its simplest form it mimics the functions of an answering machine, uses a standard telephone handset for the user interface, and uses a centralized, computerized system rather than equipment at the individual telephone. Voicemail systems are much more sophisticated than answering machines in that among other things, they can store incoming voice messages in personalized mailboxes associated with the user’s phone number, send messages to one or more other user voice mailboxes, and play different message greetings to different callers.
While using voicemail may seem like an easy process, there are actually some guidelines that on should follow. The first thing one should do is clearly state your name, company, and number to which you can be reached. After that, you want to leave a clear and cut message. Finally end with thanking them for taking the time to listen to your message and tell them you hope to hear back from them soon. Once a voicemail is received, there is a common courtesy to return the call to the person who left the message within 48 hours. These are just some of the basic rule of voicemail that one should try to follow to the best of their ability.
Here at Reinhardt, both students and faculty utilize voicemail. As far as resident students go here at Reinhardt, every room has its own its own number and voicemail service. The campus voicemail is used for those students how wish to have a landline phone in their room. This is the number that professors will try to reach their students at. Of course, just because every student has it, does not mean they use it. On average, less than 40% of the students use their voicemail. There are many reasons why this might be. The first reason is that of cell phones. In today’s society, almost everybody has a cell phone. With cell phones, comes with, you guessed it, a voicemail system. With the convenience of being able to bring a cell phone everywhere almost negates having a voicemail service.
There are pros and cons to students’ voicemail. One of the pros includes that of the professors having a way to reach their students if they need to. But along with this pro come with one of the major downfalls with the Reinhardt student voicemail system. Reinhardt’s voicemail system is very hard to set up. This is actually the biggest problem with our voicemail. Reinhardt gives out instructions on how to use the system. The only problem with these instructions is they are very unclear and hard to follow. This is a major reason why most students don’t use their room voicemail. They just don’t know how to set it up.
As far as the faculty goes, voicemail is a very important communication tool. Whether students or other faculty members are trying to reach them, voicemail is a very reliable tool for the faculty and staff. All of the professors here at Reinhardt are very good about checking and responding to the voicemails they get.
So overall, voicemail can be a very reliable communication tool among professors and staff. But as far a the student voicemail system, there is a need for some serious improvement. Like in every way of communicating, it also has a lot to do with the other person. If the other person is unwilling to learn how to use voicemail or respond well to voicemail, then it would not be a very effective tool.
Grapevine
Another tool for communicating in both the business world and the “real” world is that of the Grapevine, or word of mouth. Word of mouth communication can be both the best and worst communication tool that people can use. Dictionary.com says, “Word of mouth, is a reference to the passing of information by verbal means, especially recommendations, but also general information, in an informal, person-to-person manner. Word of mouth is typically considered a face-to-face spoken communication.” There are both positives and negatives of using word of mouth communications. One of the biggest positives is the assurance that the person the message is meant for gets that message. This is because you tell the person face to face.
At the same time, this could also lead to the biggest negative of the Grapevine. That of the message either, (A) not being received by everyone who needs to get the message. Or (B) the message is altered is some way. An example of the message being altered is that is one person hears that a meeting starts at 9:00 am, but in reality, the meeting starts at 8:00 am. This is why the Grapevine is such a dangerous way to communicate with other people. It is just like that game telephone everyone played as a kid. The first person creates a message, and then passes it down the line one person at a time. The best part is to see what the message is by the time the last person gets it. Usually, it is nothing like the original message.
Another part of the Grapevine is that or rumors. Dictionary.com says that a rumor is “a story or statement in general circulation without confirmation or certainty as to facts.” This means that a rumor is spreading information about someone when you don’t know if that information is true or not. Here at Reinhardt, rumors can be quite a common thing. If you pay attention to what students are saying in class, there are many people that are brought up in the conversation that are not taking part in the conversation. The rumor list is not limited to students either. Anyone and everyone is liable to have a rumor started about them at any time. If someone were to say something false about someone else, it would be considered slander. There have been many people to get in trouble, and even sued, over slander.
As far as using this word of mouth at Reinhardt goes, it is just like every other business. It can be either very good or very bad. When you look at it through the eyes of the students, they often rely on the Grapevine quite a bit. Often one can overhear students asking each other about things such as when homework is due, whether class is canceled or not, and what is going on that night. If you were to walk through the hallways of any of our academic buildings during the day, you will more often than not overhear at least a few students speaking through the Grapevine.
While word of mouth is a popular thing among students, professors do not like to rely on it as much. This is because they know that there are many, much better, ways to communicate with each other.
In the end, word of mouth, or the Grapevine is not very good way to communicate with people. There are some advantages of word of mouth communications. But overall, there are too many big disadvantages of using the Grapevine. Word of mouth might be good for just chatting about things of little importance. But, try avoiding using it for your important matters.
The next form of communication that Reinhardt uses is that of the campus wide newspaper, the Hiltonian. The Hiltonian is a school wide newspaper that comes out once a month. The Hiltonian was started in 1925. It was appropriately named for the way the campus use to be up on a hill. The campus use to just be a few buildings. These included Paul Jones and the administrations building. The newspaper was on and off for about twenty years until 2002.
This is when the paper’s staff decided it was time for a change. The Reinhardt news paper was renamed the Reinhardt Eagle. Although the new name was popular among some people, it was not very well received. So this name change was quickly forgotten about. In 2004, the paper was once again named the Hiltonian.
Company wide newspapers or newsletter were once very popular, but are now slowly fading out of circulation. Company wide papers, like every form of communication, have both positives and negatives with it. One of the positive effects of a company wide newspaper is that you can mass-produce it very well. You can get a few hundred copies for relatively cheap. Here at Reinhardt, it cost somewhere around $300 a month to produce our paper. So for an entire year of newspapers, it cost Reinhardt about $2000 a year.
While this might not seem to be that much money, there is also a major downside to Reinhardt spending this money. Research has shown that there are very few people who actually read the Hiltonian. Among students, the Hiltonian has a very low fan base. You don’t even have to really ask around or survey people about it. All it takes is to just take a look around campus to all of the spots where the newspapers are put out. One thing you will notice is that the racks are still there. This is why some people seem to think the $2000 a year is too much to be spending.
This is one of the reasons why the school newspaper might be going through some changes. Walter May, Pro Staff at Reinhardt, has mentioned that they might try and bring the newspaper fully online. This will be a big change for the news staff. There are many advantages of having the paper online. The first is that it will cut out almost all of the cost. This is because we already have a school website that it can be posted on. Another reason why this would be good is because with the time of printing would be cut out, the staff would have more time to focus on their stories.
An online paper might also help eliminate one of the biggest problems of a company wide newspaper, feedback. Unlike communication tools such as email, voicemail, and face-to-face meetings, responding, or giving feedback to a newspaper is very difficult. Newspapers are a perfect example of a one-way communication tool. They have always been that way. That is the purpose of a newspaper, to give information.
Overall, the Hiltonian is not a good communication tool at Reinhardt. Maybe it was at one point, but in today’s society, newsletters are not a great way to communicate to college students. Maybe the online Hiltonian will put an end to this downfall. Only time will be able to tell.
