Changes in Webmail Leave Some Reminiscing
by Nora Warren

A campus resource center is seeing its New Year's resolution come to fruition. When it comes to e-mailing at this University, it's out with the old and in with the new.

The Information Technology Resource Center launched an updated version of Webmail during winter break. Although the new upgrade is supposed to have helpful new features, many students aren't impressed.

"You have more options, but it's not easy to navigate," said senior Sarah Blacklin.

Other students, such as junior Badar Siddiqui, echo that sentiment.
"It's very hard to organize e-mails in there," he said. "I liked before when it had the little ‘you have mail’ thing," said sophomore Megan Karney.

Students also complain about the speed of the new system.

"It could be a little bit faster," said junior Melik Brown.

Information Technology Services representatives admit the system is slower, making sending messages feel more like the Pony Express than the information superhighway. But ITS workers maintain these complaints aren't falling on deaf ears.

"We've taken and brought in another machine and added it to the Webmail cluster,” said Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enterprise Applications Joel Dunn. “And that's something that over the past few days has dramatically improved the performance."

And for those who miss the "you've got mail" pop-up box, it's still there, along with several other features--if you know where to look.

"All you have to do is go to preferences and there's a little check box. [Check it], and you'll have that little pop up window again," Dunn said.

ITS workers say they're trying to get another Webmail machine to make the e-mail service even faster. Contact ITS for more help using the new Webmail system.