Cal State Long Beach is investigating changing its student e-mail service from a campus-based provider to a host provider in order to improve e-mail service, communications and cut costs.
The student e-mail changeover is currently in the research and planning phase, making any change unlikely until this summer.
“We have approximately 35,000 student e-mail accounts today. However, many students do not use their csulb.edu account as their primary e-mail account, and some do not use it at all,” said Janet Foster, associate vice president of Information Technology Services in an e-mail. “So we find we are setting up and maintaining many accounts that are never used, which is costly, wasteful and inefficient.”
Student opinion backs this statement and gives further reasoning to the lack of campus e-mail service usage.
When senior business major Roy Jang first came to CSULB, he already had a Hotmail e-mail account, he said.
“It just seemed easier to use,” he said.
Students who have used the campus e-mail system in the past remarked that they tended to turn from it in favor of other e-mail providers.
Stephanie Cuevas, a junior communications major, no longer uses her CSULB account.
“I used it my freshman year,” she said, “but now I just forward it to my most prominent e-mail.”
Some students do not find the service accessible.
“I actually couldn’t access my campus e-mail,” said Brad Caesar, a junior English and creative writing major. “Even if I could [use the campus e-mail], I don’t know if I would.”
Others expressed similar thoughts.
“I’ve never used [the campus e-mail system] and have never tried,” said Eric Mondragon, a sophomore computer engineering major. “I didn’t see any point in trying the campus e-mail.”
Any official change to the e-mail system will be made at a time that impacts students the least, making summer 2010 the most likely time, Foster said.
No figures are available on the cost of using a hosted e-mail provider or the potential savings, but as with most changes, the benefits will not happen immediately.
“Little cost savings are expected initially because the web-based student e-mail system is also used by many faculty, so we will not be able to realize cost savings by entirely eliminating the existing system until we look into the feasibility of replacing faculty e-mail as well,” Foster said. “However, if we are able to move to a hosted e-mail solution for students, faculty and staff, we will realize cost savings by eliminating campus-based hardware and software.”
Some of the new features that the CSULB committee, which includes student representation, is hoping to obtain in this project are increased e-mail storage and increased e-mail communications and services. This will go a long way for students who do use and enjoy the campus e-mail system.
“I like [the campus e-mail] a lot,” said Amanda Hamilton, a senior nursing major. “I don’t think [the campus e-mail] is any better or worse than Yahoo! or Google.”
Some CSULB students prefer the school e-mail over other non-campus e-mail providers, citing specific benefits to not being on a public system.
“No spam e-mail is the greatest thing,” said Colin Hurt, a sophomore philosophy major. “I use the campus e-mail as my main one. I check it everyday.”
The cross-divisional committee is also considering continuing CSULB e-mail access post-graduation.
Foster said, “We are also looking at the feasibility of providing alumni lifelong CSULB e-mail accounts, thus allowing students to retain their CSULB student e-mail accounts as alumni after graduation.”