Wicked Emails (Oct 2018)

Our Strategic Impact Group explored the “wicked problem” of “wicked emails.”  While email is a valuable communication tool within our Carleton community, and between Carleton and our many partners, it raises questions and challenges related to overload, miscommunication, inefficiency, hierarchy and relationships between faculty, staff and students.   Resolving the complex and multifaceted problems created by “wicked emails” is perhaps impossible, so our goal was to look for a simple, accessible, and creative way to engage with these issues.  How do we enhance respectful and collegial communication within the Carleton community, and between Carleton and our many partners? Our project does not provide the answers, but rather, endeavors to provoke self-reflection and dialogue.

• Ummni Khan, Joint Chair in Women’s Studies & Associate Professor, Law and Legal Studies
• Greg Schmidt, Manager of Computing, Sprott School of Business
• Peter Thompson, Director, School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies
• Elizabeth Disabato, Stewardship Specialist, University Advancement
• Daniel McNeil, Associate Professor, Department of History
• Chris Smelser, Associate Professor, School of Information Technology
• Darlene Hébert, Departmental Administrator, Systems and Computer Engineering