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New UA e-mail system will provide greater accessibility,

Arizona Summer Wildcat

Growing UA population necessitates upgrade

There are many noticeable changes occurring around UA's campus in an effort to keep pace with advances in technology and an increasing student population.

An upgrade in the university's e-mail system is only the first of these changes.

Those who have a u cluster account, or have an e-mail address that ends in u.arizona.edu, are slowly being moved over to a new system.

"This new system has 20 megabytes of mail space, now you have only 1 or 2 (mb). You can store more and receive larger attachments," said Steven Buckler, Center for Computer and Information Technology project manager.

Along with greater speed in accessing e-mail and more saving capacity, now u cluster accounts can be accessed through a Web client, such as Outlook Express or Netscape.

This new feature allows students and faculty to access their e-mail from anywhere in the world.

"The old e-mail system has seen better days. The use of e-mail has grown considerably over the years," Buckler said. "We have 35,000 people using our e-mail system, and the old system can't handle it anymore."

Those who use the university e-mail do not need to be concerned with dramatic changes to their account. Users will receive several messages notifying them of the changes and giving them information on how to make the changes.

"When you get the first message that says your e-mail is going to change, do nothing. The second message will say that you have been migrated and you cannot change anything until it says that you have been moved over to the new system," Buckler said.

Changing over to the new system will not be difficult, Buckler said.

"There is a help page on the Web that will show a step by step on how to make the changes and the instruction is very good," he added.

People should make these changes promptly, so that stress is not put on the system, Buckler said.

"What I want to see happen in the next month is for everyone to make the changes as soon as possible. At some point in the future, I will be monitoring who has made the changes and who hasn't. Then they will get an e-mail saying that they need to change," Buckler said.