Div Dictionary: Dale Mail

Dale Mail (n): A clearinghouse for communication to YDS staff and students from…well, just about anyone it seems. The primary means for sending and receiving information as mass emails.


Our dear and beloved Dean Peterson (at left), is in charge of many things. First and foremost, the Candy Bowl. Secondly, Dale Mail. Third in my hierarchy of Dale’s jobs is being Dean of Students. But that’s for another day perhaps.

Dale Mail, in short, is a sort of free-for-all communication device. People can send information to Dale that they want passed out. He screens it (I assume) and then passes it along to all of our @yale.edu accounts. Sounds great, right? If someone hears about how to get cheap tickets to the Yale Rep, if financial aid information needs to be passed along, info on a new program, a speaker coming to town, etc, then they send info to dalemail@yale.edu, and almost as if by magic we all share in the good news.

Now when I heard about this last year, I had two thoughts: 1. greatest thing since Nebraska’s last national championship, and 2. I need to sign up! Now, while it may be the first, there is no worry about the second: you will automatically receive Dale Mails.

In fact, you may sometimes wish you didn’t receive so many. It can be overwhelming at times. If you don’t check your email for a day or two, you may find 132 Dale Mails about the upcoming All School Conference, the joint Lutheran/Taize/Episcoterian service, and threads of the “Lost tote bag” and “Bag found, thanks” variety. Some people find it best to have Dale Mails sent to Gmail or sent as one email once a day. Great idea, but sometimes you miss out on timely info if you don’t get it until 12:00 that night. It’s also easy, with so many Dale Mails, to either glance over or delete them without reading. I would not in any way recommend this, and actually strongly advise against it. Info on scholarships, jobs, lectures, prayer requests, and other things that are quite important get announced through Dale Mail. Dismiss them too easily, and you miss the info (and “but I didn’t get the memo” doesn’t work when everyone knows you automatically receive Dale Mail).

So never fear, when you arrive and get email set up, you will soon be receiving the same insider information we currently get…just one of the many perks of this Village on a Hill.