Starting today, students will be able to opt in to HeelMail, the University’s new email interface, sponsored by Windows Live.
The service, provided free to the University by Microsoft, features more storage, collaboration tools and a calender feature that will allow students to share events and request meetings with professors and faculty members.
Students can sign up by visiting unc.edu/heelmail.
Most of the service’s features will become available immediately to students who opt in. New users will receive a new email address with the student’s Onyen followed by “@live.unc.edu.” Emails sent to old Webmail addresses will be forwarded to the new account.
But document, calendar and task sharing services will not be available until May at the earliest, administrators said.
HeelMail is expected to completely replace Webmail no later than this fall, and administrators said the transition will be smooth.
“I don’t see a downside on this frankly. It’s simply a transition,” said Mike Barker, chief technology officer for Information Technology Services.
Max Beckman-Harned, student government’s technology co-chairman, said that after working on the project, he is excited to see how students respond to it.
“We’ve put a lot of effort into making sure that it is compatible with multiple systems,” he said.