2008 Woodie Awards
ITS weighs e-mail options, plans for updated TruView
Turner, Heather
Issue date: 2/14/08 Section: News
Faced with the growing number of uses for student e-mail accounts, some colleges are opting to go the corporate route.
Todd Kuhns, technical information director at Information Technology Services, said the University signed up with Microsoft Live more than a year ago, about the same time the University of Missouri-Columbia began looking into the program. He said that if the decision were made to change over to the Microsoft platform, the program would most likely be test piloted with alumni e-mail first.
"It's getting to be more and more difficult to handle not just student e-mail, but alumni e-mail," Kuhns said. "One thing that schools are starting to offer now is e-mail for life."
He said this is something the University currently is unable to do. If Truman does decide to outsource student e-mail services in the future, Kuhns said the current policies would remain, including the requirements for password changes on accounts every 180 days.
Although there are no plans to test a Windows Live platform at this time, some students will get to test drive a new version of TruView that comes out this summer.
Kuhns said the new version will feature a rich text editor for e-mails. If the program tests well, it will be available for students in the fall.
However, in the meantime, colleges continue to weigh their options.
"I think it's natural for universities to move in this direction because managing student e-mail, especially if ... students want to keep their e-mail addresses as they move on, ... gets to be beyond the abilities and scope from a technical and money standpoint [of what] universities can reasonably maintain," Kuhns said. "So I think that's why a lot of universities are looking at the options for their student e-mail."
A little more than a year ago, Missouri State University and Mizzou began considering whether to switch student e-mail accounts to a Microsoft platform. Currently Mizzou is pilot testing Windows Live@edu with a small number of students.
Todd Kuhns, technical information director at Information Technology Services, said the University signed up with Microsoft Live more than a year ago, about the same time the University of Missouri-Columbia began looking into the program. He said that if the decision were made to change over to the Microsoft platform, the program would most likely be test piloted with alumni e-mail first.
"It's getting to be more and more difficult to handle not just student e-mail, but alumni e-mail," Kuhns said. "One thing that schools are starting to offer now is e-mail for life."
He said this is something the University currently is unable to do. If Truman does decide to outsource student e-mail services in the future, Kuhns said the current policies would remain, including the requirements for password changes on accounts every 180 days.
Although there are no plans to test a Windows Live platform at this time, some students will get to test drive a new version of TruView that comes out this summer.
Kuhns said the new version will feature a rich text editor for e-mails. If the program tests well, it will be available for students in the fall.
However, in the meantime, colleges continue to weigh their options.
"I think it's natural for universities to move in this direction because managing student e-mail, especially if ... students want to keep their e-mail addresses as they move on, ... gets to be beyond the abilities and scope from a technical and money standpoint [of what] universities can reasonably maintain," Kuhns said. "So I think that's why a lot of universities are looking at the options for their student e-mail."
A little more than a year ago, Missouri State University and Mizzou began considering whether to switch student e-mail accounts to a Microsoft platform. Currently Mizzou is pilot testing Windows Live@edu with a small number of students.
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