UVa Student/Alumni Email Transition
Moving Current Students & '06–'08 Alumni to Private Email Vendors
[Jun 28, 2008 8:06] Email phishing scam targeting WebMail users has been reported. More Information
About the UVa Email Transition
As announced in Fall 2007, ITC is working in conjunction with Student Council, the Alumni Association, and the UVa Development Office to dramatically enhance student email by partnering with private service providers.
The University's collaboration with Google and Microsoft is a new and innovative approach to student email. Both companies offer tools and integration with other applications that UVa's older Central Mail Service (CMS) does not.
Key Benefits of the Overhaul
- Complete Communication Packages: Both vendors offer a suite of online communication tools in addition to email, including instant messaging (IM), online document sharing, calendaring, Web publishing tools, and more. The email interfaces are also considerably more modern and user-friendly.
- UVa Email for Life: A particularly beneficial aspect of the overhaul is that students can now retain their UVa email account for life, and upon leaving the University, their messages and folders will be preserved.
Timeline for the UVa Email Transition
Step 1: Choosing a Vendor/Queuing Account for Migration
Starting the last week of April, phased invitations were sent out to students and alumni, inviting them to sign up to have their existing email messages queued for migration to their vendor of choice.
- April 2008: ITC emailed any student who, according to the Registrar's records, would graduate in May 2008—including fourth-years, third-year law students, grad students, etc.
- May and June: Phased invitations were send to other student classes, ending with new students who are entering in Fall 2008.
Step 2: Managing Email Address(es) Using the New Email Address Management Tool
Students and alumni may now use the new Email Address Management Tool to:
- Create and manage email aliases, if desired (e.g., if a student's computing ID is mst3k, they may use the Tool to set up an alias such as miketurner@email.virginia.edu, in addition to their primary address of mst3k@virginia.edu); and
- Direct where they want their UVa email delivered, if desired (e.g., a student may use the Tool to set a forward from their UVa email to a personal email account).
Step 3: Migration of Existing Email to Desired Vendor
The third step in the transition will not occur until testing of the migration tools is complete. At that point, all students and alumni in queue for migration will have their existing mail and folders on the CMS moved to their chosen vendor.
- Throughout summer 2008: Students and alumni continue to queue their accounts for migration with the desired vendor.
- Late summer/early Fall 2008: Existing mail and folders on the Central Mail Service (CMS) will be migrated to the vendor of choice.
Accessing Your UVa Email in the Interim
After you queue your account to be migrated to the vendor of your choice, you'll have to decide how you want to use your new email account until later this summer, when the migration of your existing CMS mail to your vendor of choice is completed. You may opt to:
- Continue receiving new email in your CMS account for now, with no new mail delivered to your new account, until later this summer when your CMS mail is migrated to your new account;
- Or, begin receiving new email messages in your new account now, and access your older email messages on the CMS, until later this summer when your CMS mail is migrated to your new account.
The default selection is the first option—continue to read email as you normally do, until you see an email message telling you otherwise, later this summer.