On Wednesday of last week I proved two things: How technologically challenged I am. And how strong the community at USM is.
In an attempt to manage the flood of emails from listservs inundating my mailbox, I tried to learn the command which would collect all of the messages I get from the USM Information Exchange list into a daily “digest.” I dimly recalled something about sending a one-word command to the listserv for a list of commands. It couldn’t be simpler, I thought.
Of course, it’s not that simple. The command has to be emailed to List Server, not just any list. That night everybody subscribed to the most popular listserv at USM received an e-mail from me with a single word: “help.”
It took a total of 45 seconds for the first response to appear. And then the flood came. Between 40 and 50 members of the student body, faculty, and staff began offering me help in various ways. One person e-mailed me to let me know counselors were standing by. A certain student senate chair asked if I had any problems he (and, I assume, the awesome powers of the senate) could assist me with in any way. A professor let me know that she was there for me.
That’s just the e-mails. My phone started to ring. It was the USM Police. A concerned reference librarian had asked them to find out who I was and make sure I was okay. I am married to a librarian (not this one) and I know they don’t call the police at the drop of a hat.
This was an unbelievable outpouring of caring in today’s suspicious age. Although I was embarrassed, I was touched by the instant response. This is what community is made of. The majority of the people who contacted me didn’t know me, but I was part of their USM community. And that was enough reason for them to go out of their way to check on me.
I hope the next person who makes such a mistake has a chance to realize what it means to be part of a community. I hope the police call him or her. I hope he or she has to write the crime log for the call (one perk of being the news editor), and that he or she is a realizes what it means to be part of such a caring community.