<p>My professor pals and I often find that a college-issued e-mail address is not a good way to reach students. Many students seem to check these in-boxes only sporadically, preferring instead to use the address they had back in high school (or text messages, too). So it didn't surprise me to read this brief, below, in today's Chronicle of Higher Education</p>
<p>What do CC members think? Would it be easier to have college mail come to a personal address or do students like to keep the official stuff separate (even if they rarely look at it)? ;)</p>
<p>**Are College E-Mail Addresses on the Way Out?</p>
<p>By Ben Terris</p>
<p>If the last four years are any indication, college-student e-mail addresses may soon be a thing of the past.</p>
<p>So says a report issued by Educause, a nonprofit dedicated to the advancement of information technology in higher education. The "Core Data Service Fiscal Year 2008 Summary Report" took information from nearly 930 colleges and universities regarding their IT practices and environments.</p>
<p>It found, among other things, that in 2008 nearly 10 percent of associate, baccalaureate, and masters institutions as well as 25 percent of doctoral institutions were considering putting an end to student e-mail addresses, since so many students were already using personal e-mail accounts. That is a large shift from the 1 to 2 percent of institutions that were considering this in 2004.</p>
<p>The survey highlighted findings from IT categories like networking and security, information systems, faculty and student computing, financing and management, and organizational structure and leadership.</p>
<p>Other key findings showed that 70 percent of all campuses have conducted an IT-security risk assessment and that only 2 to 6 percent of institutions offer 24-7 help desks. **</p>
<p>I like having a school email address. I feel that if I ever need to send something, it appears just a little bit more professional then sending it from my personal email. Also, it’s an easier way to contact students (at least at my school) since when you register for a class, your school email is added to the roster so that students and the professors can send emails at once to everyone in the class.</p>
<p>Then again, I have my emails forwarded from my school address to my main email and then only go on if I need to send/reply to any emails. But all emails are read pretty promptly as they go to my personal email. Just helps in keeping a bit of a boundary between school and personal life.</p>
<p>I’d prefer just having e-mails sent to my yahoo e-mail addresses. This would be a lot easier since they would just show up on my phone when received. I used to forward messages from my student e-mail to the other two addresses which I have, but my school switched to hotmail and I no longer have that option.</p>
<p>I think it’s a good idea. I don’t like giving my personal email to classmates, and it makes it easier to get a hold of my classmates. I also agree that it looks more professional. I didn’t get a student email at my first college and it was kind of a pain.</p>
<p>I like having my student e-mail. The best compromise for me is to have all my mail (Wake Forest mail and Google Mail) forwarded to a singular Google Mail Account.</p>
<p>I get all of my email accounts forwarded to one inbox (yay Gmail!), so it is not something that I have to check specifically and I get notifications on my phone for every message. Even though it’s not that hard to find out, I don’t want to have my personal email spammed with school junk from organizations, administrative mass emails, etc. and though it comes to the same inbox, having a completely separate email makes it easier to filter and manage. For projects it’s also easier to just get everyone’s Gatorlink, because most people use something somewhat bland and easy like firstinitiallastname with the school’s domain instead of having to remember something long that may not help you remember the individual like <a href="mailto:superstargazergirlfromtexas91@whateverprovider.com">superstargazergirlfromtexas91@whateverprovider.com</a>. </p>
<p>I don’t think college-issued emails will be going anywhere for a while because it’s also a way for companies to legitimize that you’re really a student for student discounts and other promotions.</p>
<p>I honestly just use my college email, especially since it’s powered by Gmail which is what I was using anyway. I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal to switch from your personal email to a school one…you can tell the people you email, or, like me, have your mail from your old account forwarded.</p>
<p>If cuts have to be made, I think it’s acceptable to cut the college-issued e-mail system while keeping the addresses. That is, you can no longer directly log-in to your e-mail account through an official school web page, but you will still have a <a href=“mailto:joetheplumber@x.edu”>joetheplumber@x.edu</a> address that forwards to your personal e-mail account. I agree with the above posters that *.edu addresses appear more professional than regular e-mail accounts.</p>
<p>I forward everything to Gmail, which even supports sending to emails with your .edu address (and has the option to automatically use the .edu address when replying to emails sent to that address that were then forwarded to the Gmail account). If there were widespread awareness of this functionality, I’m sure almost everyone would use it.</p>
<p>I forward to GMail and haven’t actually logged into my school’s system in over a year. No reason to. They recently transitioned to a Google supported system anyway.</p>