As Barnard makes the jump from eBear to a Gmail system, Columbia University Information Technology is exploring the possibility of a switch for Columbia College.
According to Candace Fleming, vice president and CIO of CUIT, the department is currently exploring a switch from the current email system, CubMail, to the Google Apps system, which includes Gmail and Google Calendar.
Barnard is currently implementing the Google Apps system, and plans to finish the switch for all students by December.
But Fleming said CUIT is only in the primary stages in reviewing the merits of moving the system over to Gmail, an evaluation they hope to complete by spring.
Although Fleming said she hadn’t heard many student complaints about CubMail, she thinks there may be more practical alternatives for the Columbia email system.
“Gmail offers some excellent features and is one of the options we are evaluating,” Fleming said.
If they decide to change, Fleming said Columbia College will experience the switch before exploration of the possibility of a transition for the rest of the University.
Christian Meininger, CC ’11, said he would like to see a switch to Gmail. “It’s probably a good idea because CubMail is terrible and slow,” he said.
Amanda Hallack, CC ’12, who uses CubMail for school emails and Gmail for all others, agreed.
“It’d make checking and sorting my emails so much easier,” Hallack said.
“I think CubMail is decent but kinda old. Definitely not as good as Gmail,” Andrew Lamping, CC ’12, said. “CubMail is slow and old and deleting messages is dumb. It also seems like it [CubMail] has a low memory size.”
But CUIT has some concerns with Gmail, Fleming said. Several other universities, including New York University, have made the transition to Gmail, but worries about security still remain.
“Information security is an important criterion in our evaluation,” Fleming said.
Still, she noted, “While we have not completed our evaluation, I know of other universities who have chosen Gmail after evaluating its security controls.”
Columbia College Student Council President Learned Foote, CC ’11, said that CCSC has been discussing the possibility of a switch over to Gmail with CUIT. Some of the main benefits of the Google Apps system, he said, are a more effective in-box search engine, an archiving function, a labeling mechanism, and a system of thread emailing.
Foote was particularly enthusiastic about the Google Calendar system, which can sync up separate student schedules.
“You can set up a meeting with someone by having a computer compare your calendars and subsequent free time to come up with a time that you both are available,” Foote said.
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