UA student Hector Gutierrez was transformed into a campus celebrity Wednesday evening after he accidentally emailed an Honor Society Eligibility Listserv with a letter of recommendation an instructor wrote for him.
Gutierrez’s message was sent to thousands of students on the Listserv, who immediately turned to social media sites to make memes of his email mishap. Dozens of students also joined in replying to the email chain.
Gutierrez, a freshman majoring in business management, said he copied and pasted the email of the Listserv which sent out information about honor society applications. When he emailed the Listserv, he was next to his friend, who immediately asked Gutierrez why he had sent an email to him.
“I checked my phone, and then I started getting a bunch of texts, and I was like, ‘what?’ And then I got an email reply from a random student. And then, yeah, at that moment, I knew,” Gutierrez said.
Following the initial email from Gutierrez, multiple students took it upon themselves to respond to the email, letting Gutierrez know that he sent his information to the “wrong email.”
“I thought the email was just the two of us, so I replied to him,” said Camryn McDonald, a senior majoring in nursing who was one of the first replies. “Then I woke up to texts telling me I emailed the whole university.”
The Listserv stopped receiving replies because it hit its daily limit of 50 replies, full of messages who informed Gutierrez that he had the “incorrect person,” the “wrong email” and one person wrote that they were “a student, not a professor.” In the replies, multiple students leaked their phone numbers and CWID numbers within their email signatures.
Others have been researching Gutierrez, finding links to his pet-sitting business. Gutierrez said “random people” have been calling him since his email was sent, as his personal phone number is also listed on Google as the number for his business.
Some students even questioned if this was a marketing ploy for his business, though Gutierrez dispelled any notion that his reply was intentional.
“It’s cool to see other people kind of look at it [Hec’s Pet Sitting] and see I’m legit, but I guess it was accidental marketing,” he said.
Gutierrez said his business account gained over 200 followers in 20 minutes, which he says is “a big milestone.”
Students who did not reply to the email still found joy in reading the responses. Caden Avery, a junior majoring in graphic design, said he “didn’t know it was possible” to email such a large swath of campus.
“I think it’s hilarious. I love when something silly and unexpected like this happens, and it’s something that the whole community can laugh at,” Avery said.
The reactions have crossed platforms, with anonymous social media app Yik Yak blowing up, and popular Instagram accounts such as Bama Chicks joining in. Bama Chicks made up mock merch with Gutierrez’s name and text reading “I emailed the entire student body.” The account even posted about a fake meet and greet, which Gutierrez said was “made up.”
“I have not reached out to them. I don’t know where they got a meet and greet from. I don’t think it’ll be right for me to do a meet and greet,” Gutierrez said. “I don’t want to be like an attention seeker.”
Students remain hopeful that Gutierrez will be admitted into the honor societies he applied to.
“There is no doubt in my mind that he will. I will stand ten toes down for Hector to get accepted into that honors society,” Avery said. “Everyone makes mistakes. That doesn’t mean he isn’t eligible.”
Gutierrez thinks that he’ll “hopefully” get into the honor societies that he applied to. Honor Society applications close on Feb. 1. There are six participating societies, including the Carl A. Elliot Society and Lambda Sigma, both of which Gutierrez said he was interested in.
“I feel like they could see my determination, and hopefully this spoke louder for them to see it,” he said. “I’ll make them proud if I get in.”
