Keep e-mailing me, please

Both PZ Myers and Timothy Burke nicely summarize my views on a New York Times article that attempts to cast student e-mails as the evil of modern academia. The article is ridiculous; even the "outrageous" examples of student e-mails they cite (such as a freshman asking which school supplies to purchase) seem perfectly reasonable. At the very least these faculty should grow spines; if you don't want to give out your lecture notes to students who miss class, then just respond and explain your policy. If you don't want to reply to a midnight e-mail, then don't (or, even better, explain that you only respond to e-mail during business hours). And finally, if you don't want to receive criticism regarding your lectures, then what are you doing giving them to an audience in the first place?