The transition to Google Apps E-mail affects only those individuals who currently have a FlashMail e-mail account, namely Kent State students, part-time and emeriti faculty members and alumni. Staff and full-time faculty who currently use Microsoft Outlook or Entourage for e-mail are not affected by the change.
Because of the size and scope of the services that Google provides, the university will be able to offer users several benefits as a result of this change. Most notably, these include significantly increased mailbox size; built-in chat, calendar and search features; and an easy-to-use interface with which many users already are intimately familiar.
Although there are some costs associated with making the transition to Google Apps E-mail, the service itself does not cost the university any money and will reduce the internal administration of e-mail by between 80 and 90 percent. This will allow the Division of Information Services to reallocate those resources and time for other important user support services.
Kent State is in good company in making the decision to use the Google Education Edition service for its students and community users. Other schools that are making or recently have made the switch include Indiana University, Northwestern University, Arizona State University, Oberlin College, Abilene Christian University, Sarah Lawrence College and others. In fact, since the service was launched two years ago, nearly 2,000 institutions worldwide have signed on, equivalent to roughly 1 million active student and faculty users.
No. Current e-mail addresses will be maintained, and they still will end in @kent.edu.
Beginning in October, those currently in FlashMail will be given the opportunity to migrate themselves to the new Google Apps E-mail service at their convenience. Detailed instructions will be provided on how to sign up (it’s as easy as clicking a button) and how to migrate current mail and contact lists. All users who remain in FlashMail by mid-December automatically will be migrated to the new Google Apps E-mail service.
No. Once you sign up for Google Apps E-mail, you’ll receive an e-mail with additional instructions on how to migrate your current mail and contact lists from FlashMail to Google.
The scope of this transition is limited simply to the replacement of FlashMail with the Google Apps E-mail service.