As a challenging academic year drew to a close in May 2026, I sent an email to 12 administrators at the college where I teach, thanking them for their work during the year. Several years ago, when I served as part of the administration, I would have taken special note of such an email.

So, I was a bit taken aback when only a few of those to whom I sent it bothered to acknowledge it.

Around the same time, I emailed a group of 10 colleagues with whom I had been meeting throughout the semester, inviting them to join me in planning fall events. Two responded. Crickets from the other eight.

Email is now the default mode of communication in colleges and universities, as well as across most workplaces and other areas of life. Unanswered emails have become as regular a feature of academic life.

There may be good reasons not to acknowledge or respond to an email, such as simply not seeing an email that went into a spam folder. But research shows that not responding to emails can have negative consequences on senders and on the broader college campus climate. Unanswered emails can make people feel ignored or disrespected, or jump to worrying or envisioning worst-case scenarios, such as being on the brink of getting laid off or fired.

Waiting for a response

For students now entering college, email may seem slow, clunky and old-fashioned, especially compared to texting, which allows for brevity and informality. And students may not understand traditional email etiquette.

Many faculty take time to talk about email with........

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