Students Rebecca Schwartz, left, and Christopher Dietrich, center, are helping implement a new e-mail system for students in a project led by Gaston De Ferrari of Information and Educational Technology. (Julia Ann Easley/UC Davis)
The UC Davis e-mail system is getting a makeover as the campus adopts Google Inc.’s Gmail for student accounts. The switch from the homegrown Geckomail service, beginning next week, gives students use of an e-mail system that is rich with features and provides access to Google applications that make it easier for students to work together.
“One of the biggest benefits of Gmail is that it has more than 100 times the storage,” said Christopher Dietrich, a third-year political science major from Davis. “I won’t have to continually delete e-mails to make room for more.”
Dietrich and about 300 other students participated in a pilot study conducted by the campus’s Information and Educational Technology last winter. After using the Gmail system, 94 percent of the students said they would recommend the new UC Davis service, powered by Google, to their friends.
Fostering collaboration
“Gmail offers students collaboration in education,” said Dietrich, who also serves on an advisory committee for the new system. “The calendar feature is a great tool to coordinate with other students to arrange study group meetings or just hang out.”
Rebecca Schwartz, a fourth-year student from Lafayette, Calif., also contributed to the pilot study and serves on the advisory committee. A double major in political science and Spanish, she said that many students already forward their e-mail to individual Gmail accounts and now they will have the UC Davis benefits as well.
“I also really like that we will be able to share calendars, so more student groups will be able to publicize their events,” Schwartz said.
Features
The most noticeable improvements in the new service, called DavisMail, will be a major increase in storage space, larger file sizes for attachments, instant messaging and access to a growing number of Google applications.
UC Davis will be the first UC campus to use this enhanced e-mail system, which was first marketed by Microsoft and Google about two years ago and is gaining in use at universities across the nation.
Students registering for the new e-mail will not have to change their UC Davis e-mail address, and their message archives will be transferred to the DavisMail system. The entire student body should be switched over by the end of fall quarter.
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