An unfortunate email blunder has been made by members of the English Department staff. Sent to all first year English students, the email has named and shamed all of the those who have failed their Shakespeare module exams.
Last month, the Faculty Administrator of the English Department at Royal Holloway sent an email to all the first year students to inform them that their essays for module EN1106 were marked and ready for collection. However, attached to this was a thread of earlier emails sent between members of the English Department staff and presumably not meant for the eyes of the first year students.
The earliest email in this thread outlined not only the student numbers of each individual that had failed the module exam taken last term, but also stated their full name for all the recipients to see. However this breach of confidentiality was not the only piece of information mistakenly given to the students.
In the chain of emails, one member of staff stated that a particular student had recently suffered from a ‘nervous breakdown’ and that he would need to be ‘dealt with’. This student was also made identifiable to all of the recipients by his full name and student number.
Shortly after this mishap, the department presumably noticed their mistake and attempted to recall the email. Unfortunately this merely sent the students a message informing them that the department had unsuccessfully tried to recall the earlier email. So far no acknowledgements or apologies have been made.