UVa Student/Alumni Email Transition
Moving Current Students & '06-'07 Alumni to Private Email Vendors
Student Email Transition: An Update
As announced earlier this academic year, ITC is working in conjunction with Student Council, the Alumni Association, and the UVa Development Office to dramatically enhance student email by partnering with private service providers.
The University's collaboration with Google (Gmail with Google Apps) and Microsoft (Live@edu) for handling student email is a new and innovative approach to student email. Both companies offer tools and integration with other applications that the current UVa Central Mail Service (CMS) does not.
Key Benefits of the Overhaul
- Complete Communication Packages - Both vendors offer a suite of online communication tools in addition to email, including instant messaging (IM), online document sharing, calendaring, Web publishing tools, and more.
- UVa Email for Life: A particularly beneficial aspect of the overhaul is that students can now retain their UVa email account for life, and upon leaving the University, their messages and folders will be preserved.
What's Happened Since the Initial Announcement
New system interfaces and tools have been in development and testing for the past few months, with ITC staff, UVa departmental technicians, and students collaborating to craft clear instructions and usable websites, including:
- a page for requesting an account with Google and/or Microsoft to sample the services of the vendors;
- an email address management tool for creating email aliases, adding email accounts, etc.; and
- migration tools for moving students' existing mail from the CMS to their vendor of choice.
Timeline for Students Moving Forward
Step 1: Choosing a Vendor/Queuing Account for Migration
Starting the last week of April, phased invitations are sent out class-by-class to students. If desired, students can get an account with one or both vendors to sample their services, but must choose only one vendor for migration.
- April 29: ITC emails any student who, according to the Registrar’s records, will graduate this May—including fourth-years, third-year law students, grad students, etc.—inviting them to request an account with one or both vendors and sign up to have their existing mail on UVa's Central Mail Service migrated to their new email account of choice.
- May through early Fall: Phased invitations sent to other student classes in descending order by year of graduation, ending with new students who are entering in Fall 2008.
Step 2: Managing Email Address(es) Using the New Email Address Management Tool
Students may now use the new Email Address Management Tool to create email aliases, if desired, and to direct where they want their UVa email delivered.
Step 3: Migration of Existing Email to Desired Vendor
The third step in the transition will not occur until later this summer, after testing of the migration tools is complete. At that point, students in queue for migration will have their existing mail and folders on the CMS moved to their chosen vendor.
- Throughout the summer: Students continue to queue their accounts for migration with the desired vendor. Existing mail and folders on the Central Mail Service (CMS) will be migrated to a student's vendor of choice before Fall 2008.
Accessing Your Email in the Interim
After you queue your account to be migrated to the vendor of your choice, you'll have to decide how you want to use your new email account until later this summer, when the migration of your existing CMS mail to your vendor of choice is completed. You may opt to:
- Continue receiving new email in your CMS account for now, with no new mail delivered to your new account, until later this summer when your CMS mail is migrated to your new account;
- Or, begin receiving new email messages in your new account now, and access your older email messages on the CMS, until later this summer when your CMS mail is migrated to your new account.
The default selection is the first option—continue to read email as you normally do, until you see an email message telling you otherwise, later this summer.