With the escalating reliance upon email as a preferred communication vehicle, the value of establishing a simple, short naming convention for email addresses is becoming increasingly apparent. Over the course of this past year, a task force led by Shirley Baker, Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Dean of the University Libraries, and Jan Weller, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Network and Library Technology, has researched the possibility of implementing a standard University electronic mail address for our faculty, staff, and students.
Historically, electronic mail has been advanced by the schools and has used a wide variety of naming conventions. I am pleased to announce the addition of a "University email address." This address builds on the strong email systems developed by our schools and can be implemented without disrupting email service. This new University email addressing capability will be available July 1, 2003.
This is not a transition to a single email system; nothing about the way you currently send or receive email will change. It is a transition to a comprehensive email addressing convention that, for mail routing purposes, establishes a standard approach to name selection in conjunction with the "@wustl.edu" address. The advantages to all of us, in particular those students with multiple majors and faculty and staff members engaged in multidisciplinary projects, include:
- The continued promotion of our University as Washington University in St. Louis;
- The provision of a single, central electronic address book; and
- The opportunity for people external to the University, and those internal, to more easily contact members of the University community.
Students will receive details on their new University email address when they return to campus this fall. More details about the University address will be sent to the homes of faculty and staff members the week of June 30, 2003. In the meantime, a set of frequently asked questions and answers regarding this transition can be accessed at the following Web site: http://emailaddress.wustl.edu.
Much thought and coordination have gone into the work completed by the task force. I am grateful not only to the task force members, but also to the many others within the University community with whom the task force consulted during its year-long efforts. These efforts and all the input received in the process have created the foundation for a new University email address system that I believe will serve us well.