In a two-month process beginning this February, student e-mail accounts will be transferred from the Emerald server to Coral, which is part of Tufts' Trumpeter e-mail system. Coral, which requires no special software, will allow students to conveniently check their e-mail via the web from any computer on the Internet. The new system resembles popular web-based e-mail clients such as Hotmail and Yahoo Mail.
Students who use Netscape Messenger or Microsoft Outlook will still be able to use those programs to check their mail. However, they will have to be reconfigured to accept the new firstname.lastname@tufts.edu-style e-mail address that all Tufts students will receive.
Many students complained last summer when Emerald administrators restricted e-mail access from certain off-campus locations, requiring students to download new, secure software to check their accounts. The restriction came after America Online, which was receiving illegal spam e-mails routed through security loopholes in Tufts' servers, threatened to stop accepting e-mails from Tufts altogether.
"You have to have Secure Telnet software so that decreases access to your Emerald account," senior Adnan Ozair said. "If Trumpeter allows either web-mail access (like Hotmail) or secure telnet access, then it's definitely much better than Emerald. In my opinion, it's a great move."
Insecure connections have caused e-mail headaches in the past, but Trumpeter's secure connection should alleviate many of those issues. The system, which coincidentally relates to Tufts' mascot, Jumbo, will allow students to download their messages to a computer or leave them on the web.
"Trumpeter offers additional functionality [because] you can keep your messages on the server or download them to your computer." Director of ITS Tony Sulprizio said.
The new system will also allow more space for e-mail and attachments, reducing the irksome "disk quota exceeded" messages, according to Associate Director of IT Training Kathleen Cummings.
System administrators plan to dedicate one week to converting each class, and do not anticipate any disruptions in service while the conversion is underway. Students will be given three days to come to the ITS Computing Center in Eaton Hall to receive their new account information. The process should take a few minutes, and students will be given a password sheet with their new information.
Students will also be able to forward their Emerald e-mail to their new Trumpeter account and sign up for training sessions if they want more information.
"I don't use my Tufts account that much. I didn't find it very user-friendly. I feel that just using Hotmail is easier and more convenient when traveling," junior Gingais Hadi said. "I'd switch to Trumpeter because Hotmail only has a certain amount of e-mail memory and Trumpeter will have more."
Junior Damaris Medina uses her Hotmail account more than her Tufts account by forwarding her Tufts e-mails to her Hotmail account.
"I used Emerald for two years and I found it uncomfortable," she said. "I'd switch to Trumpeter.... But, it depends on its user-friendliness and how much access I can have off-campus."
Medina said she knows of other institutions that had much more sophisticated systems.
"Emory University has a really good e-mail system where you have direct links to professors and have folders where you can transmit papers and assignments," she said. "I don't understand why this system has taken so long to be developed for a university with the technology we have."
Since seniors are graduating next semester, ITS will give seniors the option of staying on Emerald until the end of the spring semester or moving to Trumpeter. Senior Sultan Chatila is graduating in May but decided to switch to Trumpeter. "I live off-campus, and it's more convenient for me. With the expanded memory it's worthwhile even for people living on-campus."
ITS will work with leftover students, mainly those studying abroad, to change their e-mail systems next fall.
The e-mail system change is a joint project of Tufts Arts and Sciences Information Technology Systems and TCCS.
