Google Apps for Students Launched

CmailWe are excited to announce the launch of Google Apps for our students, including “CMail”. This is the replacement system for Edisto email. A group of SGA members have been pilot testing this system since January.

Google Apps offers significantly improved mail service for our students, with storage limits exceeding 7.5 gigabytes, messages up to 20 megabytes, and integrated spam protection. It also includes a full suite of Apps, including Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Groups.

Accounts have been created for all current students, including all new students who have paid their deposits through last week. A request process for anyone else who has taken a class (alumni) who desires an account will come during the Summer. We plan to have all active Edisto accounts migrated by the beginning of the Fall semester, and expect to decommission Edisto by 9/30.

Faculty and Staff will be able to get Google Apps accounts later this year, but are not permitted to use CMail.

Student Google accounts are username@g.cofc.edu. The username is the same one used for MyCharleston and WebMail.

The username@edisto.cofc.edu address will continue to work, and will be set to forward to the CMail account. These addresses will still work after Edisto is decommissioned.

Students must agree to Terms of Service before using their new account. A “Google Apps Account Request” channel is on the MyCharleston Academic Services tab for students to sign-up.

The student College email address in Banner will automatically be set to their username@g.cofc.edu address during the sign-up process.

Mail will be copied from the student’s Edisto mailbox to CMail automatically, but the processing time will vary depending on mailbox size and sign-up volume.

The Edisto mailbox will expire 15 days after Google account sign-up. Once the mailbox expires, the student will not be able to login to Webmail, but the address will continue to forward to CMail. Students should avoid sending messages from their Edisto account after they sign-up, as mail will only be migrated once.

The Google account password is separate from the user’s Active Directory password (used for MyCharleston). We expect to implement a single-sign-on and/or password synchronization process in the next few months. We encourage the students to use the same password for Google that they use for MyCharleston.

Problem reports and questions should be directed to the Helpdesk at helpdesk@cofc.edu or 843.953.3375 for tracking and resolution.

Further information is available on the IT webpage at:
http://it.cofc.edu/accounts-email/cmail/index.php
http://it.cofc.edu/accounts-email/cmail/cmail-faqs/index.php
http://it.cofc.edu/accounts-email/cmail/using-cmail/index.php