UCSU and ITS have agreed on MicrosoftLive@EDU as a replacement for CULink in 2010.
New e-mail server still in the works
With the 2010 CULink expiration date approaching, CU’s student government and ITS department have been working together to find the best replacement: Microsoft Live@EDU. As students may have noticed, no changes have been made—yet.
Before the summer hiatus, students were polled and questioned on what they’d like to see in a new e-mail carrier. Through several questionnaires and polls, the committee decided against Google Apps and in favor of Microsoft.
Director-Exmpt Prof of ITS-Administration Jon Giltner is working on implementing the new Microsoft carrier, but faces a few challenges.
After negotiating and officially choosing the carrier—which took several months—technicalities appeared.
“I hope we didn’t give [students] the wrong impression in the spring that the migration from CULink to Microsoft Live@Edu was going to quickly happen over the summer,” Giltner said. “This process is something we have discussed with student leadership and I believe they understand the basic timeline.”
Giltner did not comment on the timeline of the project.
Just after UCSU settled the agreement between CU and Microsoft, ITS began implementing the service.
So far there are numerous technical details to work out, including: account management, student enrollment confirmation, details concerning Colorado.EDU e-mail addresses routing to the new service and difficulties with how student IdentiKeys will be used to authenticate students to the Microsoft service.
The project schedule is still in development. Giltner says the ITS department will continue to communicate with the student leadership and the two will work to provide that information to all students.
Daniel Oxenhandler, UCSU director of communications and press relations and junior international affairs major, said the change is for the better. With the new provider, he said he hopes to cut student costs.
“Microsoft is the widest range of services for the lowest price—it’s basically free,” Oxenhandler said. “Our main goal is to reduce those fees.”
Nick Gates, a sophomore psychology major, has no problems with CULink, but said he doesn’t want any new issues to arise with Microsoft.
“I haven’t had any problems with CULink so far,” Gates said. “But I hope the new carrier isn’t worse—a cheaper price isn’t worth more issues. From what I’ve heard the new system sounds cool and has a lot of benefits so that would be nice too; hopefully no problems come with it.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Adrian Kun at Adrian.Kun@colorado.edu.
