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Students are resisting administrative efforts to prohibit linking their Stagweb accounts to a popular Internet e-mail service.
An e-mail service offered by Internet giant Google, GMail, is unlike any other type of e-mail system.
"GMail is an experiment in a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that you should never have to delete mail and you should always be able to find the message you want," the company's Web site states.
But when the university's StagWeb system was being developed, officials decided to prohibit students from linking their Fairfield e-mail accounts to any other service.
"The university policy is that students cannot have their StagWeb e-mail forwarded to another account," said Kevin Clancy, account executive for Sungard SCT Higher Education, the company that administers Stagweb.
"This policy was developed by a committee during the implementation phase of StagWeb," Clancy added. "If StagWeb e-mail was forwarded to other e-mail services, there is a risk that the official communications between the university and the student would be compromised."
But students are flouting the university's prohibition on linking their StagWeb accounts to other services, particularly GMail.
"GMail is so much more efficient than StagWeb," said Johnny Vaccaro '07. "It is also a lot faster to log on. I don't have to enter my info every time I go on and I don't have to worry about a full inbox with GMail."
Jennifer DeNapoli '06 felt the same way.
"Hooking our Stagweb up to GMail would only enhance the power of our StagWeb accounts," said DeNapoli. "It would allow me more space and the ability to send bigger attachments, as well as receive campus announcements and communication from the university all on one account."
GMail has three main assets that the company says sets it apart from any other e-mail service: the ability to search through all past e-mails, rather than having to sort them into folders; a massive amount of storage space, minimizing the need to delete old mail; and easy accessibility, with each e-mail grouped with all its replies, allowing the messages to read like a conversation.
"I think hooking up the accounts is a great idea," said Gregory Surette '06. "It is just practical. I do not understand why the university will not allow it if campus announcements are forwarded."
Graduate Tara Cushman '05 also switched to GMail because she said the service "provides a more professional e-mail account rather than a connection to a college and makes available a permanent account that will not expire."
Another benefit of GMail that StagWeb does not offer to students is the ability to receive and save large attachments.
Students also said GMail is easier to use and simpler than StagWeb, has better spam controls and makes organizing online contacts easier. For some, the most important plus is that GMail is more dependable than StagWeb, which is disabled for periods of time throughout the year for updates. During these times many aspects of StagWeb are unavailable.
GMail also recently launched a chat module through which users can chat with no need to have a separate program or find new addresses. Like e-mails, the chats are saved for future reference.
Not all schools are taking the same approach as Fairfield with respect to GMail. San José City College in California has started offering e-mail accounts to their students through GMail.
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