Conversion to a lifetime alumni email system has cost the University $75,000 so far, according to Todd Andrews '83, vice president for alumni relations. The program, which allows students to maintain their Brown Gmail accounts after they graduate, will officially launch early next semester.
"Making this investment is a very significant expenditure at a time when budgets are razor thin," Andrews wrote in an email to The Herald.
Computing and Information Services traditionally deletes the University email accounts of graduates in late September, but CIS has allowed the accounts of the class of 2011 to remain active. Until this semester, alums had the option of registering for an email forwarding service, but only about 20,000 of 85,000 alums took advantage of it, Andrews wrote. With lifetime email, brown.edu accounts will automatically convert to alumni.brown.edu accounts and retain all the features of the student's original email account.
In particular, the program benefits students who are continuing their research after graduation, said Stephanie Obodda, assistant manager of communications and computer education. All documents, emails and information remain with the account.
Lifetime email will improve alumni relations as well, Andrews wrote. Under the previous system, the University lost contact with some alums because it did not have an active email address on file, he wrote.
The Undergraduate Council of Students passed a resolution Sept. 26 in support of lifetime email, which marked a significant step toward the implementation of the project. CIS is currently handling conversion for the class of 2011. By the beginning early 2012, the 20,000 alums who currently use the email forwarding service will be transferred to the alumni.brown.edu domain as well. Class of 2012 accounts, and those of all future classes, will be transferred in the September following the Commencement of each class.
Despite the future benefits, lifetime email has encountered logistical problems in its implementation stage. "The programming to bring about the lifetime email service has been very complicated and has required CIS to put in many, many hours of programming and troubleshooting," Andrews wrote.
"There is a slight distinction between what UCS initially asked for and what CIS was able to deliver," said John Spadaro, director of technical architecture and outreach. UCS wanted students to maintain the exact addresses of their brown.edu accounts forever, but concerns rose about how the University would distinguish between current students and alums. To solve the problem, alumni accounts will be distinguished by the alumni.brown.edu domain name. If someone tries to contact an alum at their old brown.edu address, an automatic email response will indicate the address has been modified to alumni.brown.edu.
Another problem arose with graduates who remain directly affiliated with the University, either as graduate students or staff. Because these individuals are both alums and current University community members, their domain placement remains ambiguous. Spadaro refers to these individuals, who represent approximately 10 percent of each class, as "edge cases." The transition to alumni.brown.edu is currently not so clear-cut for these accounts.
CIS is still working to find an automated solution to the problem, but Spadaro said he is confident in CIS's ability to face these challenges. "We're plumbers," he said. "We just make it work."
The project will require continued costs related to customer service, including a new Help Desk staff to handle questions from alums. Though the project has garnered significant support from students, others are critical of the University's allocation of resources. "CIS should probably focus more on things that immediately impact us, such as Banner not crashing when I'm trying to register for classes," said Lorin Smith '15.
But "when you have both UCS and the Office of Alumni Relations saying they want this, it becomes a CIS priority," Spadaro said.
