Students may see a change in their school e-mail accounts as the University prepares to switch from Groupwise Webaccess to Gmail beginning next year.Tom Bonvillain, director of academic computing, said this switch should come at a lower cost to both students and the University.

The University will no longer have to house the application and data of Groupwise, so it will not need servers for that purpose in the future, Bonvillain said.

“The server support personnel should be a bit more productive because they would not need to manage hardware and operating systems,” he said.

However, Bonvillain said there will still be management of the new Gmail system by that same server support personnel group.

All large-scale e-mail systems are basically the same, Bonvillain said. Every system provides ways to group distribution lists, search and filter information, attach documents and manage contacts.

Bonvillain said permanent school e-mail addresses will link students to the University even after they leave, and students will also have access to Google Docs as long as they are enrolled.

According to Google.com for Educators, Google Docs is an easy-to-use online word processor, spreadsheet and presentation editor that enables students to create, store and share data instantly and securely and collaborate online in real time. Users can create new documents or upload existing documents, spreadsheets and presentations without downloading any software. Work done in Google Docs can be stored safely online and can be accessed from any computer.

Bonvillain said Google Docs is a way of storing data on the Google system and allows a student to share word processing or spreadsheets with others in a group.

The date of the actual switch is pending, but Bonvillain said the University hopes to give students a chance to forward their e-mail from Groupwise to Gmail and plans to provide links to the Gmail system once the system has been implemented.