Until the most recent edition of Student Association (SA) Line came out on Friday, March 1, freshmen and transfer students had not received any emails from the SA since the start of the 2018-19 academic year, preventing them from receiving SA election information.

According to the SA’s Management Policies, the SA is required to communicate election information, including letters of intent, sweeps and a candidate’s eligibility requirements to all undergraduate students. The organization generally does so via email.

Rachel Anszelowicz, chair of the elections and judiciary committee and a junior triple-majoring in philosophy, classical and Near Eastern studies and philosophy, politics and law, wrote in an email that Information Technology Services (ITS) at BU is responsible for adding students to the Listserv used by the SA and that the SA is unable to access to view or edit the Listserv for confidentiality purposes.

“Without having notification from [students] themselves, the Student Association has no way to confirm whether every student is on the [Listserv] or not,” Anszelowicz wrote in an email.

According to Anszelowicz, the SA has notified the ITS help desk to ensure that the list is updated. Additionally, Anszelowicz wrote that the election information has been marketed in other ways aside from sending emails through the Listserv.

“This year, the elections committee, in conjunction with the marketing and promotions department, has extensively increased advertising and promotion for this [year’s] election,” Anszelowicz wrote. “In addition to the four emails we send out to the [Listserv] we were provided, we emailed all student organizations about letters of intent, announced the election schedule to Congress, live-streamed sweeps via Facebook, in addition to [posting flyers] about elections, eligibility, sweeps and letters of intent on physical announcement boards around the University Union and in each community dining hall, as well as doing Instagram [Live] interviews with all the candidates.”

But some students, such as Angelo Nardo, a freshman majoring in mathematics, still feel left in the dark. Nardo said he thinks there should be better management for Listservs.

“This is a matter of importance for all freshmen,” Nardo said. “Without Listservs such as the SA-Line, there are opportunities missed, and the University must take steps to review Listserv management.”

According to David Nachman, a junior majoring in business administration, ITS and the SA must work together to ensure everyone receives informational newsletters.

“I think in order to prevent this in the future, ensuring the most up-to-date lists are used when deciding who will receive the emails would be a good idea,” Nachman said.

Michael Baccari, a freshman majoring in electrical engineering, said ITS should ensure all students are included on University-wide Listservs.

“I didn’t know that the email list was a thing,” Baccari said. “I wasn’t aware that was something available to people. I think that if ITS is in charge of the Listservs, they should make students aware that there are Listservs that they should be on and not miss out on opportunities.”