SMU scraps university email accounts

Saint Mary's says students not using email service

Jonathan Cannon, a commerce student at Saint Mary's, is worried a generic email address isn't as attractive to employers as one provided by the university. Photo: Geoff Bird

Saint Mary's University told students this September to say goodbye to their university email accounts.

The decision to scrap email accounts came after the university polled students to find out if they used its service. The results have not been released, but the school says the answer it heard was no.

"We asked ourselves, why are we providing something that isn't being used?" said Perry Sisk, director of information systems.

It's a decision that has upset many.

"We had heard from a myriad of students that those who had the accounts wanted to keep them. In effect, it was taking a service away from those who already had it," said Mike Mercer, vice president of university affairs with the Saint Mary's student union. "It really made people react viscerally."

Dal email widely used

At Dalhousie University, the administration is discussing the future of its email service. It's widely used, though, with nearly 90 per cent of accounts accessed on a regular basis. Dalhousie students are required to contact professors using their university email.

Dalhousie's service is outdated and inadequate for today's needs, and wasn't designed to integrate calendars, documents or online storage, says Dwight Fischer, Dal's chief information officer.

Dalhousie has a few choices: keep the system as is, update its servers, use an online service or go Saint Mary's route and eliminate it.

Updating the existing system would be expensive, says Fischer. New servers, software licensing, training and labour could cost millions of dollars.

"Should we go with the minimal, or go with state of the art?" said Fischer. "We should be spending finite resources on technology in the classroom, teaching, learning and research."

Dalhousie is exploring the possibility of changing to Google's popular Gmail service. Its domain name would stay and it university wouldn't have to maintain the system.

According to a recent survey by the Campus Computing Project, 60 per cent of American universities have outsourced email to online services.

Gmail considered

The University of Alberta's website says it made the change because Gmail provides what its old service could not: a shared calendar service and applications designed to enhance teaching, learning and communicating.

Saint Mary's considered this option, said Sisk, but ultimately decided students would rather use their other accounts instead one provided by the school.

Saint Mary's was forced to modify its decision after students complained. The student union lobbied to keep existing accounts for another five years or until its user graduates, whichever comes first. Faculty and graduate students were also spared, because it was argued that their email accounts officially represent the university.

Some students are still upset.

"I don't think it looks as good to employers," Saint Mary's commerce student Jonathan Cannon says of generic domain names. He thinks a university email address is an advantage when he sends off résumés.

His concern may be misplaced.

"I hire people for a wide variety of jobs, and the last thing that could catch my eye was the domain name in their email address," said David Wicks, dean of the Saint Mary's Sobey School of Business.

Future students at Saint Mary's will find out who's right.

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