Student E-mail Transition Update:
The Future is Now Arriving
By: Bill Schmidt
Posted: 5/16/2008
The great e-mail makeover has begun. As recently announced, Google will be the new provider of Notre Dame student e-mail services, giving students plenty of new capabilities, additional memory, and a communication connection that will follow them even when they are alumni.
The first step in this exciting transition, which responds to growing student demands for faster, more capable e-mail systems, occurred last week. Incoming first-year students were given e-mail accounts with the new provider, Google Apps for Education. From this point on, all new student accounts will be hosted by Google.
Soon, all other students will be invited to join in the makeover. It will be virtually seamless:
- No new NetID or password needed.
- You will keep the familiar netid@nd.edu address.
- Listserv lists will stay the same.
You’ll be asked to visit a Web page and take a couple of easy migration steps. Your old e-mail will be moved to your new account.
Your Google Apps capabilities will include:
- collaborative documents (Google Docs)
- online talk (Google Talk)
- integrated calendar tools (Google Calendar)
- spam-filtering
- e-mail storage potential soaring from 100 MB to more than 6 GB
This transition to a new realm of possibilities will be rapid, and the Office of Information Technologies (OIT) hopes that many students will make the move this summer.
But don’t take any action yet. Check back here around mid-June for an update, advises Katie Rose ’99, the OIT special projects manager who is overseeing the migration.
The student e-mail makeover is due to be completed by the end of 2008. Notre Dame faculty and staff are on a different schedule for a different transition — to Microsoft Exchange software for e-mail and calendaring. But there will be no difficulties in continued communication among these various groups as the campus enters a new generation of online interactivity. To use a phrase from an earlier generation, stay tuned!