Editorials

Gmail is here

The University’s shift to Gmail will give students a complex, superior webmail application.

Published: 04/29/2009

Editorial Board

Students at the University of Minnesota will soon see the option to get a much more functional webmail application. The University Google Initiative Team recently announced plans to give students the option to use Google’s Gmail webmail program for their University e-mail, instead of the limited Gophermail system. Gophermail, which was the only option offered for webmail at the University, is too basic, lacking many of the features of its online counterparts. But now Gmail, in conjunction with other free Google products such as Google Talk, Docs and Calendar, will give great potential for future technology at the University as well as greatly expand on what is being offered.

Security issues have been said to be a concern for the switch. Critics of the move say that moving users’ information to Google’s servers could pose an issue. Moreover, different people from the medical school have shown concern over sending private data over commercial servers such as Google’s.

Yet the benefits of switching to Google outweigh potential pitfalls. Security issues will be a nonissue as large companies such as Google define the word “security” in sorts. If faculty fear sending sensitive data over commercial servers, they probably should not be sending the data over email in the first place. Gmail is a highly complex webmail application capable of much more than what Gophermail can offer.

This partnership between Google and the University will benefit every student, and we urge the University to look to further increase their partnership with software companies in the goal of offering quality software to students, staff and faculty. This move with Google, along with the existing Microsoft Campus Agreement, makes great software available at students’ fingertips, which is most important.

8 Comments

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uhh

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 7:37pm.

you've always been able to set up your u of mn account to forward to gmail - essentially making checking your email on the gophermail unnecessary.

Congrats! Great move..hopefully WI will follow

Submitted by Jim Kreilich (not verified) on Thu, 04/30/2009 - 2:29pm.

Very good move for Students and Taxpayers!!!

Have been trying for years in Wisconsin to get the Technical College System and the UW University System to seriously consider...seems they need more time and facts before they can more.
We do have UNIV of WI Parkside on MS Live along with Western Technical College and Chippewa Valley Technical College also on MS LIVE...
article on subject http://wistechnology.com/articles/4362/
"Outsourced e-mail: Are UW, tech schools missing a chance to save taxpayer dollars?"

Congrats to the Leaders in MN making this move...you provide a strong LINCHPIN on the IQ Corridor..as they say....

Regards,
Jim K - Concerned Technologist

privacy?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 05/01/2009 - 10:57am.

I guess I'm a curmudgeon, but I'm not excited about the University feeding the Google (name your vendor) data mining behemoth. The several steps removed in terms of administrative control implies we'll be a lot less likely to learn about inappropriate access than we might be with it managed within the University.

Check your facts

Submitted by Brian Hayden (not verified) on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 12:14pm.

Gophermail has more features than GMail. You can claim that GMail is easier to use, is better because of its connection to Google Calendar... those are valid points, dependent on one's tastes and needs. But Gophermail (and the rest of the U's current mail infrastructure) is most definitely not "limited" compared to GMail. Very much the opposite. GMail does not offer mailbox proxying/sharing, roles, themes, any mechanism for self-directed message restores if you accidentally get rid of something, etc.

Users who need any advanced mail features will, after this switch, be forced to use a desktop mail client such as Outlook or Apple Mail with Google's incomplete and broken IMAP access. They'll go back to the 1998 days of being tied to a single computer for checking their mail. This is NOT progress.

And if you think Google defines security, you aren't paying attention: http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/019578.html is just one of the recent breaches. Google Mail and their other apps are in perpetual beta, with very little security/assurance process, and so they are continually vulnerable to new cross-site scripting attacks that are not addressed until enough people are compromised to build a public stink about it. Not to mention that by default Google uses NON-ENCRYPTED connections for your mail and documents over the web. When you pull out your laptop in class and check your University Google mail, the person next to you can and will be reading your mail right along with you on their computer.

How in the world is this acceptable in 2009?

"When you pull out your

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 2:08pm.

"When you pull out your laptop in class and check your University Google mail, the person next to you **can and will** be reading your mail right along with you on their computer."

Hmmm...that seems like an exaggeration.

Not convinced

Submitted by skeptic (not verified) on Fri, 07/10/2009 - 10:26am.

I agree - I'm not convinced this is a "secure" solution. But I'm not an internet / wireless security expert so somebody assure me, using a technical explanation that demonstrates your very deep knowledge of the subject, about why this IS secure. Until someone can prove how secure this is, I'll assume that everything on google mail will be data mined like crazy. It will be interesting when the first security breach gets publicized...

not convinced

Submitted by faboge on Wed, 09/16/2009 - 11:41am.

Maybe this will work for students but try getting support for email problems
at google and you will have some interesting times! Their support is largely email with
no guarantee of when your issue will be addressed! For students who rely largely on
email, 24 to 48 hour google response time to email questions will be brutal!