University Technology Services is making broad changes to student and alumni e-mail accounts.
Starting this month, DU will forward e-mail to off-campus e-mail accounts. Students and alumni will keep their firstname.lastname@du.edu mailing address but will be required to set up a “preferred” off-campus e-mail address, which will receive their campus e-mail.
The e-mail system for faculty and staff will not be affected.
Between Oct. 1, 2010, and March 20, 2011, students and alumni will be notified to log into webcentral.du.edu and set up the “preferred” off-campus e-mail address.
“Most students recognize that the free offerings commercially available are better equipped to meet the continual growing demand for advanced features, spam control, storage capacity and greater mobile access,” says Cindy Crouch, interim vice chancellor for University Technology Services.
Students were notified of the change in an Oct. 18 e-mail, which gave specific instructions for forwarding email. Students will continue to get e-mail reminders until March 20 if they have not set up the “preferred” off-campus e-mail.
Students must sign up for a “preferred” off-campus e-mail address and move any mail messages they want to keep before March 30, 2011. The campus mail system will no longer be available after this date.
Webmail/webcentral e-mail accounts will stay active until 10 days after the student has registered their new “preferred” off-campus e-mail address. Once the 10-day period ends, e-mails in the student’s DU e-mail box will be deleted access and will be denied.
The simplest way to move messages from one box to another is to e-mail them to the new address. Some providers will allow users to drag-and-drop folders from their DU e-mail account to the new account. Providers may also have web-based IMAP and/or POP3 tools that will import mail in group portions.
DU recommends students choose an off-campus e-mail address that in some way reflects their real name (e.g. firstname-lastname@gmail.com, firstname.lastname@yahoo.com) allowing faculty and staff to easily recognize who the student is. It is also recommended that students use a reputable service such as an ISP (Comcast, Qwest) or a larger free web-based provider (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, Live.com or AOL).
Students should maintain their “preferred” off-campus address and e-mail account to make sure they continue to receive important information from University offices, faculty and colleagues because official University communications will still be sent to the firstname.lastname@du.edu address.
“Each student’s @du.edu address will be known and accessible through campus applications such as Blackboard, Portfolio, and the DU online directory, so faculty/staff can still contact a student using the @du.edu address if desired,” Crouch says.
Students may use their DU-provided firstname.lastname@du.edu e-mail address while attending DU. Regardless of which “preferred” off-campus email address the student chooses, the student’s firstname.lastname@du.edu address will remain the same.
The firstname.lastname@du.edu e-mail will remain active until 290 days after a student graduates. The graduate will begin to receive e-mail notifications 90 days before their DU e-mail address is scheduled to be deleted. After the address is deleted, the graduate’s off-campus e-mail will be used as a permanent record with DU for future communications. The address can be updated at any time by logging into webcentral.du.edu and changing the “preferred” off-campus email address.
Crouch notes that alumni are encouraged to stay in contact with the University through the Pioneer Online Network.
For more information, visit: www.du.edu/studentemail. Students may also contact the UTS Helpdesk at 303-871-4700 with questions.