New e-mail a welcome change

I would like to start out by commending the powers-that-be who made the decision to allow Gmail and Microsoft to supply e-mail to IU students. The antiquated nature of our previous e-mail system made this a necessary and extremely efficient choice for the University. On this note, I would also like to say that maybe the University should consider further switches like this to enhance the services provided to students, while decreasing the costs for the University. Oncourse is almost universally reviled throughout the University; in response to this, I think we should seek out innovative companies who are willing to give us a system that works much better. I think everyone respects the fact that our IT professionals at IU work extremely hard to keep the systems up and running that facilitate all Internet traffic on the network. The best option, though, would let them stick to their core competency and use their finite resources on maintaining the network throughout and selecting good outside systems; leave the development and maintenance of systems like Oncourse to other innovative professionals in the private sector.