Students who check their e-mail every five minutes might be surprised to discover that their professors do, too.

Professors say that their in-boxes are increasingly being flooded with e-mail, not from friends or colleagues—but from students.

Whether asking questions about assignments, scheduling appointments or just making conversation, many say that e-mail has relaxed the relationship between professors and students by facilitating communication between them.

Lecturer on the Modern West Brian Palmer, who teaches Religion 1529, “Personal Choice and Global Transformation,” says he sends two to three humor-filled e-mail updates to the class weekly, and he receives some student replies written in a similar tone.

Palmer says he averages about 30 to 60 student e-mails a day, and as many as 100 daily at the beginning of a semester.

He says he believes that the humor of his e-mail leads his students to be similarly casual.

When he sends out e-mail messages in the early hours of the morning, Palmer says he often receives immediate responses from students.

“They ask ‘What are you still doing up at four?’” Palmer says.

In addition, Palmer says that students often include him on mass e-mail messages about their personal lives.

“There’s a space for playfulness peculiar to the medium,” Palmer says.

Tamar Abramov, a teaching fellow for Moral Reasoning 22, “Justice,” says she uses e-mail for informal interactions with her students.

“I don’t like formality very much. I’m pretty informal myself,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I encourage them to send me whatever they have in mind, and if ever I get formal on e-mail it means I’m really angry with the particular student.”

But not all teachers believe that lighthearted e-mails between students and faculty members are appropriate.

Professor of Anthropology Michael Herzfeld says he does not encourage professors to send their students funny e-mails, or vice versa.

He says he feels that e-mails create the possibility for professors to misinterpret a student’s tone and to make light of a serious problem unintentionally.