2008 Woodie Awards
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OIT begins switch to Google mail
Current students, alumni will get e-mail to migrate their accounts over summer, receive bigger quotas
Becky Hogan
Issue date: 5/16/08 Section: News
Notre Dame's Office of Information Technologies has teamed up with Student Government to provide current students with a new e-mail system though Google Apps.
"We are hoping the system will be up and ready for students to migrate in the middle of the summer, so we can e-mail students and get them to migrate their accounts before they get back this fall," said Katie Rose, project manager of the OIT's latest initiative.
Graduating students will also be allowed to migrate to the new system and OIT will eventually open Google Apps at Notre Dame to all alumni. Rose said that the timeline for allowing alumni to use the service is uncertain at this point.
"Right now we are working to create incoming first year student accounts within the Google system, and after we are done with that, we will be working to integrate existing accounts into the new system," Rose said.
According to Rose there is currently a team of about seven OIT professionals who are working to implement the new e-mail system.
"We know that students have not been satisfied with the existing system and have been asking for systems more like Google," Rose said. "Student Government has been voicing the same concerns."
Rose said that changing to a new e-mail system has been a topic of discussion for some time since the current e-mail provider's plans to discontinue the current system by Dec. 1, 2008
"A lot of other schools have been migrating to outsourced systems like Google and Microsoft, so we felt like now was the time to do this," Rose said.
According to Rose, Google Apps is provided to educational institutions free of charge, and even though the new service will be provided though Google, it is still a Notre Dame service.
"The new system will use the Gmail interface that many students are familiar with, however students will still be using the nd.edu address," she said.
The new system offers several improvements to the old Webmail system, Rose said.
"We are hoping the system will be up and ready for students to migrate in the middle of the summer, so we can e-mail students and get them to migrate their accounts before they get back this fall," said Katie Rose, project manager of the OIT's latest initiative.
Graduating students will also be allowed to migrate to the new system and OIT will eventually open Google Apps at Notre Dame to all alumni. Rose said that the timeline for allowing alumni to use the service is uncertain at this point.
"Right now we are working to create incoming first year student accounts within the Google system, and after we are done with that, we will be working to integrate existing accounts into the new system," Rose said.
According to Rose there is currently a team of about seven OIT professionals who are working to implement the new e-mail system.
"We know that students have not been satisfied with the existing system and have been asking for systems more like Google," Rose said. "Student Government has been voicing the same concerns."
Rose said that changing to a new e-mail system has been a topic of discussion for some time since the current e-mail provider's plans to discontinue the current system by Dec. 1, 2008
"A lot of other schools have been migrating to outsourced systems like Google and Microsoft, so we felt like now was the time to do this," Rose said.
According to Rose, Google Apps is provided to educational institutions free of charge, and even though the new service will be provided though Google, it is still a Notre Dame service.
"The new system will use the Gmail interface that many students are familiar with, however students will still be using the nd.edu address," she said.
The new system offers several improvements to the old Webmail system, Rose said.