Spring Break
Students: HuskyMail 'sucks,' can be improved
News Department
Issue date: 11/4/09 Section: News
A small group of students assembled in the Student Union Theatre on Tuesday evening with one critical idea in mind: Huskymail sucks. An open forum called "Huskymail Sucks" was led by University Information Technology Services staff members in an effort to assess how UConn students feel about their e-mailing system. David Martel, the Interim CIO of UITS, opened up the forum by explaining that he didn't want to be "peppered with questions," but rather wanted to invite students up to the microphones to make suggestions about how Huskymail can be improved.
"I hope that UITS will make some changes to Huskymail or that we can get a different system," said Kat Cannon, a 3rd-semester biology major.
The general consensus was that students are fed up with the outdated interface, the unreliability and the small storage space that Huskymail provides.
Nathan Bean, a 7th-semester special education major, said that the receiving-time lag of e-mail messages to his inbox has affected his academics.
"Sometimes I am unable to get onto the system and therefore do not receive critical e-mails from professors until it is too late," Bean said.
"For an institution as big as UConn and with as many resources as UConn, the reliability of Huskymail is terrible," said Ryan Green, a 9th-semester economics major.
Martel asked if students would rather come into UConn with their own personal e-mail, rather than being provided with one upon arrival. However, many students said that they like knowing how to reach other students and faculty members - it's always "firstname.lastname@uconn.edu" - and that Facebook requires users to provide their university e-mail address in order to join a network.
Most of the students in the theater admitted that they no longer bother using Huskymail and have their emails forwarded to more user-friendly services like "Gmail," Google's emailing system. The students raved about Gmail because of the built-in instant messaging service, large inbox capacity, and specialized folder and labeling capabilities. Many of the students suggested that modeling Huskymail after Gmail's interface would make it a more favorable system.
Martel and the other UITS staff members said that the university will probably not switch to using Gmail because their main priorities are security, customer service and confirmation of delivery, all of which are controlled specifically by UITS and Huskymail. They are looking into revamping Huskymail's appearance and reliability based on the feedback that they received at the forum.
"I hope that UITS will make some changes to Huskymail or that we can get a different system," said Kat Cannon, a 3rd-semester biology major.
The general consensus was that students are fed up with the outdated interface, the unreliability and the small storage space that Huskymail provides.
Nathan Bean, a 7th-semester special education major, said that the receiving-time lag of e-mail messages to his inbox has affected his academics.
"Sometimes I am unable to get onto the system and therefore do not receive critical e-mails from professors until it is too late," Bean said.
"For an institution as big as UConn and with as many resources as UConn, the reliability of Huskymail is terrible," said Ryan Green, a 9th-semester economics major.
Martel asked if students would rather come into UConn with their own personal e-mail, rather than being provided with one upon arrival. However, many students said that they like knowing how to reach other students and faculty members - it's always "firstname.lastname@uconn.edu" - and that Facebook requires users to provide their university e-mail address in order to join a network.
Most of the students in the theater admitted that they no longer bother using Huskymail and have their emails forwarded to more user-friendly services like "Gmail," Google's emailing system. The students raved about Gmail because of the built-in instant messaging service, large inbox capacity, and specialized folder and labeling capabilities. Many of the students suggested that modeling Huskymail after Gmail's interface would make it a more favorable system.
Martel and the other UITS staff members said that the university will probably not switch to using Gmail because their main priorities are security, customer service and confirmation of delivery, all of which are controlled specifically by UITS and Huskymail. They are looking into revamping Huskymail's appearance and reliability based on the feedback that they received at the forum.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Peter G
posted 11/04/09 @ 9:29 AM EST
Why not outsource Huskymail to Gmail or MS Live? Hosting our own e-mail for every student is unnecessarily expensive and, I imagine, time and resource-consuming for UITS and its infrastructure. (Continued…)
Katie
posted 11/05/09 @ 8:41 AM EST
Why didn't you go to the forum and complain... hmm?
Peter G
posted 11/05/09 @ 3:17 PM EST
Surely UITS is already considering this option. IF not, they're REALLY playing catchup.
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