 "Photo: Emily Kang/The Daily Texan")
The University of Notre Dame has decided to outsource its commercial sudent e-mail in favor of a free alternative: Gmail.
Notre Dame decided to look for alternatives after the vendor of its student e-mail program cut off key portions of its service, said Kathryn Rose, program manger for enterprise initiatives at the university.
“When we started looking at student usage of our Legacy e-mail system, we found that a good portion of our student body was forwarding their Notre Dame mail to another service,” Rose said. “When we started looking at solutions, we ended up finding out that Google was really the stronger candidate.”
She said Google outranked all other e-mail services in the number of students forwarding to it by 10-to-1. The student body campaigned heavily for Google over costly alternatives such as Microsoft Exchange, which would have cost the university $1.5 million, Rose said.
In addition to e-mail, Google provides Notre Dame students with an online calendar, document and spreadsheet programs similar to those of Microsoft Office and free text messaging and voice calling service.
Google groups these programs for colleges and universitites under Google Apps Education Edition. The same programs are also available free for individuals.
Rose said students seem to like the switch, especially because Google also provides support through Notre Dame’s Web site, such as how-to videos and discussion groups.
“[Students] have responded very positively [to the move],” Rose said. “Our customer satisfaction from students for e-mail and calendaring service increased 36 percent.”
A transition to Google Apps for faculty and staff has been discussed, but no plans have been made, Rose said.
UT uses its own Web-based mail service for students that allows e-mail to be forwarded to accounts such as Gmail. The University also provides Microsoft Exchange for faculty and staff, according to the University’s Information Technology Services Web site.
Technology service officials could not be reached for comment.
UT business sophomore Jonathan Kaplan forwards both his Texas and business school e-mails to his Gmail account.
“Not only do I think it’s convenient to check one e-mail account instead of three, because I check my e-mail multiple times a day, but also because I’ve had my Gmail account for several years before coming to UT,” Kaplan said. “Linking them all together allowed me to keep it simple.”
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