Photo Illustration/ Peter Caty
During last spring semester, the University’s Computer and Networking Services announced that a new e-mail system was going to be implemented at the start of the 2009-2010 school year. Instead of using Fairfield’s StagWeb system, the University has created accounts with Gmail, Google’s popular e-mail system. With the switch occurring soon before students and faculty returned to campus, it is still being determined as to how beneficial this will prove to be.
Along with the new e-mail, the University has also created NetID, a new username and password system that allows access into all of the University’s accounts, including the Fairfield Gmail, StagWeb and Eidos. The NetID also had to be claimed by all students in order to log into Fairfield’s network.
According to Steve Dailey, the assistant director of Computer and Networking Services, the Gmail switch took place on August 27.
“We, as a staff, decided to take some extra time to ensure that the NetID system was ready for release,” said Dailey. “We would have liked to have released this much earlier; however, a project of this size and extremity warranted the delay.”
Chad Stewart ’10, a Computer and Networking Services technician, called Gmail a “smoother e-mail system.” Although he acknowledged that C&NS has been backed up with work for the first week, he said it is understandable because of the amount of students who needed to update their computers to sign into the network; he said the C&NS overload has not been caused by the e-mail switchover.
Dailey agreed. “There were indeed some issues with students not being able to claim their NetIDs due to various reasons, but the switch to Gmail had nothing to do with these claiming issues,” he said.
The technicians, who were not involved in the decision-making back in the spring, were brought onto campus a few days earlier to help out with the switchover and they got a “run-down of what was happening with Gmail,” according to Stewart. Though he admitted that there is still some “fine tuning” that needs to be done in regards to Gmail, he said that it will be “way more beneficial” for the University, noting that “Google is automatic” as opposed to the old StagWeb e-mail.
In addition, Dailey noted all of the applications associated with Fairfield Gmail, which include huge amounts of storage, new collaboration tools, as well as the same basis as normal Gmail, which many students use already.
The Student E-mail Committee, which was put together with the purpose of creating an improved system for the students was composed of faculty and Student Senate members, along with Brian Remigio, assistant director of CNS and the chairperson of the committee.
According to a previous Mirror article, Remigio said the main purpose of converting to Gmail was “due to the constraints of the aging hardware. It was necessary to make a change now, rather than stick resources into upgrading the current StagWeb e-mail system.”
Dailey said that he was involved “with the general, overall implementation of the new e-mail system, working with our technical team to setup the service and decide upon what services would be offered.”
Although most of the University staff has been on a different e-mail system anyway, they have been using Microsoft Outlook instead of StagWeb. The faculty find it to be an improvement as well.
“It’s much easier for staff members to get in contact with the students,” said Matt Dempsey, an admissions counselor and tour guide coordinator.
Fairfield students said they are adjusting to the new e-mail fairly quickly.
Sophomore Julia Grimm said, “It was a good change because I think StagWeb had so many problems. As long as nothing changes too much I am okay with it.”
Stephanie Stadig ’10 feels that the actual switch was a great idea and will prove to be beneficial, but the whole process was something that could have been made much easier.
“The Gmail system is overall much superior to that of StagWeb due to the storage capabilities,” she said. “However, the transition from StagWeb to the other e-mail system was a bit confusing.”
Dailey and the other members of C&NS think that the new system will prove to be very beneficial, especially when compared to the old StagWeb. For students, it is something to get used to at first, though all seem to be confident that Fairfield Gmail will catch on sooner rather than later.
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