Move over IBM, and make room for Gmail as the official email provider for A&T.

Before the end of the semester, representatives from Information Technology Systems will be conducting a month long trial run of Google Apps for Education which allows schools to use Gmail as their email server. Gmail is an email service provided by Google.

This program offers a free set of customizable tools that enable faculty, staff, and students to work together and learn more effectively according to the software’s website.

“We’ve gotten a lot of complaints from students about our email platform,” said Maurice Tyler, Director of Systems and Operations. “We are trying to evaluate, as some of our sister institutions have done, whether or not it makes sense to switch all of our student population over to Gmail.”

Complaints ranging from speed to the amount of storage has been cited by some as the main annoyances voiced by students according to Tyler.

“I never get my mail on time, and sometimes I don’t get emails from the Honor’s Program,” said Rashida Scott, sophomore business education major. “Sometimes documents don’t open in files, and I have to go to my gmail to open them.”

Last year UNCG transitioned its students and faculty’s email carrier to this email platform.

After analyzing their progress and outcome, administration at A&T decided it was worth a test run.

“Students at UNCG seemed generally pleased with it,” said Tyler. “When we saw the outcome of their evaluation and their pilot program, we decided we wanted to do something similar for our students.

As representatives in IT shop around for a new platform, they stress this time they want more input and feedback from the student population on campus.

“The key is IT does not want to make the decision for you guys like we did for the previous email platform,” said Tyler. “We want you guys to actually decide whether it makes sense.”

This new email service will enable users to have more than 7GBs of storage, an integrated calendar, as well as web-based applications for smartphones. As far as security goes, this system offers anti-virus and anti-spam soft wares already built in.

“I’ve haven’t had any problems with our current server,” said Jarrell McCants sophomore chemisty major. “I wouldn’t mind if we went to gmail; however, I think it would be pretty cool.”

After the trial is up, a series of surveys and questionnaires will take place. From the information received, IT wants the students to make the decision on whether switch over to Gmail or stay with the current email carrier.

• Kelcie McCrae