You are sick and you must notify the professor of your absence via e-mail, but it never gets there. A paper is due. and you must attach it from your Stagweb account; the professor gets the e-mail but no attachment.
These are some problems students experience using their Stagweb accounts. Problems do not seem to lay in the system itself, but rather in the way the system is used by students, faculty, and administration, according to officials.
Since the change from Campus Pipeline to Stagweb in September, students find it hard to send and to receive e-mails of all types.
“I have had some trouble,” said Ben Manchak ’05. “Sometimes I receive e-mails, sometimes I don’t. It’s neither here nor there.”
“I’ve had several e-mails bounce back for no reason, so i had to write them over again which was frustrating, to say the least,” said Ann Cavallaro ’06. “It always seems to be down or in repair at the most inconvenient times for students.”
Other students such as Gerry Abbey ’04 complained of e-mail bounce backs and prefer other e-mail systems over Stagweb. “I like my hotmail account much better,” he said.
Other students disagreed.
“I haven’t had any problems with the new system; I just find it odd that they changed the name,” said Jack Kershaw ’05. “I guess Stagweb is all about letting loose and trying new things.”
If students are complaining, it is not to the administration, according to Dean of Students Mark Reed. “My office has not received any complaints,” said Reed.
The biggest problem with Stagweb seems to be how students, faculty, and administrators use – or don’t use – the system. Many students do not check their emails; many do not even know their passwords.
“I did not know my password until I went abroad,” said Amy Miklos ’05. “I didn’t receive a lot of e-mail I was supposed to because I never checked my mailbox.
Other students are not familiar with the new e-mail system’s name.
“Stagwhat?” said Doug Broadman ’05.
“The Campus Pipeline name was changed to Stagweb so that the portal has more of a connection to the Fairfield University community,” said Kevin Clancy, account executive of Administrative Computing SCT. “The application itself did not change, only the name did.”
The new name was established to give a more personal connection with the university, according to Reed. “Why use a corporate name that has no meaning to the university, when you can use a personal name that is connected to the university and fairly easy to remember?” Reed said.
Checking e-mail is an important part of using the site.
“Each student is allotted 2 megabytes of disk space,” said Clancy. “If a user saves all of their e-mails, eventually that person will reach their allotted e-mail capacity.”
Not emptying the mailbox often can affect sending e-mails with attachments, according to Clancy.
“The downside is that the system won’t work if the students won’t use, or at least check, that e-mail address,” said Hugh Humphrey, a religious studies professor.
Faculty e-mail addresses are associated with Stagweb addresses but are not considered part of the system.
“I do find that much more convenient because all my Microsoft programs areintegrated on my desktop,” said Humphrey. “With Stagweb, I would have to access that program every time I wanted to send e-mail.”
Other professors agreed.
“I have not been using this ‘new and improved’ technology being somewhat off the beat,” said Philip Eliasoph, an art history professor. “There is no doubt in my mind that the Stagweb must have wonderful features.”
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