Sophomore Meghan Howard, like many students at UNC, forwards her e-mail from Webmail to a private provider.
Students across campus are choosing to abandon their Webmail accounts for private e-mail providers that they say are more convenient, leaving school technology officials nationwide to question the need for university-supported e-mail systems.
EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association that deals with information technology in higher education, found that in 2008, 10 percent of colleges with associate’s, baccalaureate and master’s programs and 25 percent of doctoral colleges were thinking about putting an end to campus e-mail accounts.
Larry Conrad, vice chancellor for information technologies at UNC, stated in an e-mail (from his Webmail address) that he believes college e-mail accounts could become extinct within the next couple of years.
“We find the preponderance of students already come with an e-mail account, which is why we think the University can get out of the business of providing e-mail to students,” Conrad stated in an e-mail.
“This is actually occurring quite rapidly as institutions struggle with budget cuts. Plus, the available upside services provide more storage space and other options which we can’t afford to provide,” Conrad said.
Administrators could not provide an exact value of the cost difference between a UNC-based e-mail system and outsourced e-mail. Maintaining the Webmail system costs the University more than $100,000 a year, Conrad said.
Andrew Phillips, co-chairman of the student government technology and web committee, said that students are using outside e-mail providers because they supply services such as calendars and note systems that Webmail doesn’t.
“Quite frankly, unless the University is going to outsource that e-mail to a company like Yahoo or Google, the Webmail that the University is going to provide is not going to be as good,” Phillips said.
“On the whole, you’re going to get lots of those features that students demand with private e-mail accounts.”
Tim McGuire, manager of ITS messaging services at UNC, said the University has been considering the possibility of outsourcing college e-mail to other private accounts.
“We are exploring those options. We really want to offer the best service that we can and a competitive service,” McGuire said.
McGuire estimated that approximately one-third of the student body forwards their e-mail address to another account.
Some students said that Webmail tends to be confusing and not as convenient as other providers.
Bryan Casciere, a sophomore from Raleigh, said he doesn’t like Webmail and uses Gmail instead.
“I started using Gmail last year because one time I accidentally deleted all of my e-mail. With Gmail, everything is saved. Even if you delete something, it can still be found,” Casciere said.
Hope Griffin, a sophomore psychology major from High Point, said she uses both AOL and her Webmail account but has been trying to figure out a way to link the two.
“Really, I’d probably switch to anything. Just something less confusing than Webmail,” Griffin said.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
