Northwestern says to students: You’ve got Gmail

EVANSTON, Ill. - Northwestern University’s WebMail upgrade crashed within hours, but three weeks after switching e-mail providers to Gmail, the new service is still going strong. \nThe Gmail option became available during finals week, said Wendy Woodward, director of technology support services. Since then, 25 percent of students who have the option to switch have done so, she said. \n“The reponse has been overwhelmingly positive,” Woodward said. “We anticipate this will be a service that students will enjoy using over the year.” \nThe new accounts, which are through Gmail Applications for Education, end in the slightly longer @u.northwestern.edu. \nSo far, they have been offered to rising sophomores, juniors, seniors, the just-graduated class of 2007 and students in the school of continuing education. This year’s incoming freshmen will get to choose between WebMail and Gmail, Woodward said, but after this year NUIT hopes to make Gmail the default for all students. \nIn addition to the new freshmen, plans are also under way to invite incoming students at the School of Law. Existing law and graduate students will be integrated during the 2007-08 academic year, she added. \nThough most students still have yet to take advantage of the new service, Woodward said she hoped positive word of mouth would influence more students to sign up over the summer and into next year. But some don’t want to make the switch. \n“What I have now works fine,” junior Katherine Corkery said. \nCorkery said she already has her WebMail forwarded to Gmail, so she doesn’t see the point in changing. \n“Right now, it’s not worth it,” she said. She said she had not heard anything negative about the program, but also had not heard anything overwhelmingly positive. \nWoodward said more people might make the change when they see everything the new service will offer, including more available memory, larger e-mail boxes, instant messaging, calendars and file sharing. \n“I think people will be intrigued and interested,” Woodward said. \nStudents will also be able to keep the new addresses after graduation, which has been a big draw for recent graduates. \n“I changed over, and most of my friends were happy to change, too,” Kevin Palms said. “A lot of them were already forwarding to Gmail, so it was an easy transition.” \nKeeping a Northwestern e-mail address is also comforting to graduates, Palms said. \n“People are happy to have something to hold on to from Northwestern,” he said. \nSome classmates experienced a minor glitch in getting e-mails forwarded to PDAs, like Treos and BlackBerrys, he said, but added that overall he was glad he made the switch. \n“It’s a vast improvement,” he said.\nAnd it’s going to keep improving, Woodward said. \nGmail has plans to continue adding more features, she said, especially as other colleges and universities start signing up for the program. “This is only the beginning,” Woodward said.