New E-mail System

"Did you get my email?"

"No......."

This is a conversation that has been going around campus a lot lately. The switch from the old system to the new is causing a lot of confusion among students. Some are sending emails from their old accounts, and the mail is not getting delivered. Some people are checking the wrong account and they don't get any mail at all. Although the new system will not be finalized until Nov. 4, there are some problems now that are causing a lot of stress for some.

Although the new "Outlook Web App" system may be for the better, we, as students, do not know how to use it. Hopefully there will be some training sessions or communication that will shed some light on where our contacts went and how can we get the folders from our old email accounts back.

Many schools, both colleges and secondary, are using Google's "Apps for Education System," which has a lot of features and seems to be more user-friendly than Outlook. The switch has been easy and students haven't needed any training to use gmail, especially since many use it for personal email accounts. And Google documents and calendars have been incorporated as well, enhancing the educational process. Schools such as Boston University, Brown University and Northwestern are using Google's system. Did Norwich consider using Google? If not -- why? If it did, why was Outlook adopted and not Google?

It is great that the university is moving forward, but it has caused some to take a serious step back. We are looking forward for the email system to be complete and for us to learn better how to use the system.