Max Wiseltier was just trying to figure out if he should opt for the electronic delivery of his 1098-T tuition form this year. So he decided to email his mom. There was just one problem—he accidentally replied all. As BuzzFeed reports:
"His harmless inquiry, 'Do you want me to do this?' was inadvertently sent to every single student at NYU on the list—all 39,979 of them—prompting a campus-wide discovery that any student could 'reply all' with whatever they wanted."
Wiseltier, a sophomore, spoke with NYU Local earlier today. “I was trying to forward the message to my mom, to get her input on the paperless tax forms,” he said, “but all of NYU was cc’ed accidentally. I feel like I may have exposed a serious flaw in the way they handle their listservs."
And as email chains tend to do, this one took on a life of its own. Students began responding with witty barbs, Nicholas Cage photos, and complaints about rising tuition costs.
“Exorbitant tuition. Lazy e-mail maintenance. Port-Authority-quality restrooms. Union busting. Real estate speculation. What other things is NYU doing all wrong?” one student wrote.
“I want all of us to be happy forever," another student added.
The listserv was eventually dismantled and David Vogelsang, of the NYU Student Resource Center, issued a statement on the e-mishap. "I take full responsibility for this blunder and offer my sincere apologies for the frustrating situation that was created," he said.
[via BuzzFeed FWD]
