Portland State students will soon be using renowned Google email and calendar services through Google Apps for Education, joining thousands of university populations worldwide.
By August 3, all PSU email accounts are to be converted.
Portland State students will soon be using renowned Google email and calendar services through Google Apps for Education, joining thousands of university populations worldwide.
By August 3, all PSU email accounts are to be converted.
“Google just meets our needs,” said Ellen Weeks, project manager of Google Apps in the PSU Office of Information Technology.
She cited Google’s 7 GB of storage—compared to the 500 MB hosted by PSU webmail—as an advantage.
The application also provides unified campus calendaring and collaboration services like Google Docs for file sharing, Google Talk for instant messaging and Google Sites for web-based group collaboration.
According to Weeks, the migration to Google will save the university from the trouble of upgrading its current email software, sustaining software licenses and restocking email servers.
Google also provides more extensive recovery services than PSU can in cases of email meltdowns.
Savings amount to at least $100,000, Weeks said.
She also confirmed that the privacy settings of PSU email powered by Google will be stronger than the protection offered by Google’s public interface.
Google Apps for Education is offered pursuant to a privacy contract negotiated between Google and the Oregon University System as part of a higher education IT membership group that includes Duke University and the University of Virginia.
Weeks recommended that students comb the archives of their PSU Webmail for material that they don’t want copied to the Google system—particularly, any information that’s subject to U.S. export control regulations.
For years, the OIT office received complaints from students and staff alike who were frustrated with current Internet services.
“PSU Webmail is counterintuitive,” said PSU student Josh Doll. “I already use Gmail for my personal email and I’m pretty excited for the change.”
After the August 3 conversion, students attempting to sign into PSU Webmail will be notified that the PSU system has migrated
to Google.
