Chris Simmons
The StagWeb email system will be getting a facelift next fall when it switches over to the popular Google e-mail system known as Gmail. At the beginning of the spring semester, a group of faculty and students began planning a new e-mail system that would prove to be more efficient that the current StagWeb system.’
Brian Remigio, assistant director of Computer and Networking Services, was the chairperson of the Student E-mail Committee.
‘Due to the constraints of the aging hardware, it was necessary to make a change now, rather than sink resources into upgrading the current StagWeb e-mail system,’ said Remigio. ‘Storage space, including attachment size on StagWeb mail is considerably limited in comparison to Gmail.’
The amount of storage available with Gmail will allow students to keep almost every e-mail they receive during their four years at Fairfield.
The Student E-mail Committee was put together and composed of faculty from departments such as Student Affairs, Information Services, and Marketing and Communication, as well as Student Senate members. They hope that the new e-mail system will be ready to launch in the fall for the incoming freshmen next year. Sophomores, juniors and seniors will be changed over as well.
Remigio said that the complaints about StagWeb mainly came from students. Two student senators, Elizabeth Rogers ’09 and Lauren Nugent ’11, served as student representatives of the Student E-mail Committee.
In addition to Rogers and Nugent, there were informal polls conducted from students working in CN’amp;S and through Residence Life. These results showed the student’s unhappiness with the StagWeb e-mail system and the liking students took to the Google e-mail system.
‘I was able to talk to all my friends and ask their input as well, and report back to the committee with their thoughts,’ said Nugent. ‘In a room of 20 faculty and administration, it was just Beth and I as students, and they wanted to know our opinion about what we wanted to see in an e-mail system.’
Nugent also noted that there were many things to keep in consideration including security, attachment size, inbox size, the domain name, the format and layout of the new e-mail.
Scott Barnett, director of web communications, and a member of the Student E-mail Committee said that the student input of Rogers and Nugent was very helpful, and they helped to make the issues that students were facing very clear.
‘ ‘Their desire to ‘compartmentalize’ school e-mail from personal was clear, and a system like this lets students keep their academic careers separate from their personal accounts’ said Barnett.
The switch to Google is a growing trend among many universities. Fairfield has been in contact with colleges around the country such as Hofstra University, Delaware Community College and the University of Southern California, which have all replaced their in-house e-mail systems with Google Mail.
One of the main reasons that this switch is becoming so popular is because the cost of maintaining an in-house e-mail system is very expensive. Remigio explained that Fairfield University does not have to pay Google for the e-mail service because Google is using the service as a way to promote Google Apps.
‘I hope it proves to students on our campus that their voice does matter, and they can have a say in change that they want to see on campus,’ said Nugent.
Click here for a 2006 article entitled, ‘Fairfield opposes students’ linking StagWeb email to Gmail.’
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