I rode on a sudden impulse last week and signed myself up to go ice skating with the Ice Skating Club last Thursday night. I'm not particularly good at ice skating; in fact, I've only done it perhaps three or four times in my life, hanging onto the wall for a good percentage of my time on the rink every single time. But after hearing friends' rave reviews of the previous week's trip, it sounded like a good idea. So I went about figuring out how to register myself-and then I got stuck.Eventually, after asking my peers some excessively pointed questions about this mysterious sign-up process, I came to realize that the way to inform the relevant authority of my interest in joining this trip was hidden in the weekly Student Union Announcements. After spending several moments scrolling up and down the lengthy message, waiting for the right text to pop out at me and send me on my way, the endless stream of Arial with dotted lines scattered at random intervals did me little good. So I settled on the more efficient route of typing, "ice skating" into the search bar. And there it was-B16! Ice skating. Bingo. I clicked on the link and signed myself up in a matter of seconds.

Well, the trip itself was a blast, but I still wonder why navigating the Student Union Announcements can be such an aggravating procedure. I'm not quite clear on the difference between "things to know" and "stuff to do." And though I hate to question the legitimate attempt to organize all of the "things to know" and "stuff to do" into lists of categories A and B, I must confess that these long lists with seemingly arbitrary numerals in my inbox don't effectively distinguish each announcement and activity. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I'd call myself an informed Brandeis student simply because I have very little patience to read an extensive display of 10-point Arial font just to educate myself about A11 and B20 aspects of campus life.

All hope is not lost, however. Spreading information at Brandeis has its share of issues, but one specific medium has truly inspired me to consider the possibilities of successful communication: the Stall Street Journal. Gross? At the outset, maybe. Effective? Without a doubt. The Stall Street Journal captures students' attention at one of the few moments of the day when they must stop completely and leave their senses open to whatever stimulation they can most immediately absorb. The placement of that single sheet of paper on the back of the stall, while perhaps a bit distracting from the matter at hand, ensures that students take in at least a page's worth of information about campus goings-on.

It's been awhile since I last saw my favorite synopsis of campus life on the back of a bathroom door. I would love for the Student Union to publish the Stall Street Journal more often-especially as groups like the Constitutional Review Committee and the Student Advisory Committee for the Presidential Search Committee begin the process of making crucial changes to the way our University functions. But in the meantime, while I can't enjoy the convenience of reading just a few bullet points about campus current events in my toilet stall of choice, it would be nice to see more attractive, easy-to-read announcements from the Student Union.

Here are some suggestions for improvements: In lieu of the uniform typeset that drags on and on down the page, how about trying some funky fonts? Bold, italicized and colored text would also help make the announcements harder to disregard at first glance. Interspersing text with images would also make the reading experience more exciting-a graphic of ice skates, for example, would surely have aided my eyes to more quickly spot B16, the Ice Skating Club's claim to fame. I also wouldn't be opposed to the elimination of the "A" lists and "B" lists, whose only ostensible purpose is to distinguish between the nebulous categories of "things to know" and "stuff to do," which both mesh into the same long list as they stand.

Campus clubs and organizations can even help the Student Union better advertise their events by submitting their own formatted text and images for weekly emails. The only responsibility that would fall on the Union's shoulders would be copying and pasting everything into one master e-mail that would effectively showcase the full extent of the sheer multitude of diverse activity occurring at Brandeis on any given week.

Perhaps advocating an end to 10-point Arial, event titles boxed between dashed lines and the celebrated distinction between "things to know" and "stuff to do" seems radical. But realistically speaking, the Stall Street Journal, when printed, can't cover everything. Revamping the announcements guarantees a better-informed Brandeis community.