by EMILY MELTON
Intern News Reporter

All Appalachian State University students will soon see improvements to their e-mail messaging.

“Students will still have [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ] e-mail addresses, but their e-mail services will be partnered with Google,” Director of Technology Support Services Tom M. Van Gilder said.

UNC President Erskine B. Bowles, who assigned a President’s Advisory Committee on Efficiency and Effectiveness (PACE) to give suggestions for the university, developed the new system. 

“One of those suggestions was to outsource student e-mail,” Van Gilder said.

The new system, called ASU Webmail, is a partnership between Information Technology Services and Google.

“The new system allows students to send more context and attachments in their messages. It is free of advertising, including pop-up advertisements and manages spam/junk mail. It is also a free service for ASU and other UNC students.”

Incoming freshmen began using Webmail Aug. 11.

“Freshmen are currently the only students able to use Webmail. Eventually, all students will be included,” Van Gilder said. “Technology Support Services, the Office of Student Development and the Student Government Association will work on how this is to be done.”

Two thousand, seven hundred fifty non-freshman have already been incorporated into the new system.

“Students will still have access to services on www.appstate.edu, but will also have a separate e-mail system. The new system will be located at www.webmail.appstate.edu.,” Van Gilder said.

Faculty and staff accounts will be considered at a later date, according to Appalachian’s Technology Support Services Web site.

E-mail  will still be accessed from AppalNET. However, when a student clicks on the e-mail icon he or she will be automatically linked to his or her’s ASU WebMail account, according to the site.

Students will also be able to access their accounts from http://webmail.appstate.edu .

The process is working well currently.

“So  far, so good,” Van Gilder said. “We’ve had no complaints, and any problems we experienced were able to be fixed.”

Last year, student e-mail access was disrupted by several technological outages.

“Since the system has been outsourced from Appalachian’s Web site to Google, any technical problems are a problem of Google’s, and problems with Google are very rare,” said Van Gilder.

“Google guarantees 99 percent of up-time (the availability of the system to its users).”

Van Gilder believes the system will improve student accessibility.

All students are predicted to be able to use the service by the end of the school year.

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