Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

New Hoyamail Service Offers Expanded Storage

Operations of Hoyamail, the new Georgetown University e-mail system, began this week. [Provided by Google Apps for Education](https://www.thehoya.com/news/gmail-to-provide-gu-email-service/), Hoyamail became accessible to students on Aug. 25. The University Information Services Help Desk has used a series of e-mails over the past month to make the university community aware of the changes and benefits of the Hoyamail system.

During the transition process, which lasts until Oct. 15, all e-mails sent to imap.georgetown.edu accounts will be forwarded to the corresponding Hoyamail account. At the end of this period, the former accounts will be closed and data deleted.

Those wondering whether their actual e-mail address will change with the Hoyamail switch need not worry. All e-mail addresses will remain NetIDgeorgetown.edu now and after graduation.

The partnership with Google will allow the university to maintain seven gigabytes of storage space, trumping the 20 megabytes offered by the previous system. Further benefits listed by the UIS e-mails include an advanced web interface to manage e-mails, no advertisements until after graduation and the ability to keep your Georgetown e-mail address after graduation.

“We selected this service because it offered a way to continue to provide seamless e-mail addressing, secure authentication, ensure students would receive critical announcements and deliver the same consumer e-mail experience they expect,” said UIS Director Beth Ann Bergsmark. “Many of our students were already forwarding to Google’s consumer service.”

“Last year, I arranged for my Georgetown e-mails to be forwarded to a Gmail account because the imap account was too small and continually overflowed. It’s great to see that Georgetown is expanding its e-mail services to avoid the overflow,” Mia Curran (COL ’10) said.

Hoyamail, though a Google mail service, is not the same as Google’s Gmail. University members will need a NetID in order to access their Hoyamail accounts and, unlike standard Gmail, there are no additional services like instant messaging or calendars available at this time.

“Now I won’t have to worry about e-mails bouncing back from classmates or professors because of overcrowded inboxes. Although I am a fan of Hoyamail, it does not have all the personalization features of an ordinary Gmail account,” Chris Reid (COL ’10) said.

The use of the NetID could also be a drawback for some. The Hoyamail service is not currently compatible with e-mail software like Outlook, according to UIS, because enabling this feature would have required Google to save NetIDs and passwords.

According to Bergsmark, the current focus of UIS is to successfully complete the transition to the new service.

“In the fall, we plan to convene a group of interested faculty members and students to look at the Google Apps for Education. One of the benefits of the Google relationship is that we will have access to these services, but we want to make sure we roll out the right ones in the context of other services and any privacy or educational records issues,” Bergsmark said.

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