EDITORIAL: Villanova welcomes Gmail

After just three years of using the Microsoft Exchange e-mail service, Villanova students will welcome the transition to Gmail. The advantages of Gmail over the current platform are no secret to Villanova students. Many students already maintain their personal e-mail accounts on Gmail, and many set their student e-mails to automatically forward mail to the Gmail server.

The Gmail transition has many obvious benefits for students. Gmail accounts have a virtually unlimited storage capacity. Additionally, Gmail will allow students to keep our accounts indefinitely after graduation, instead of maintaining the current practice of gradually phasing them out.

Almost all of the credit for the recent upgrades goes to UNIT, even though UNIT seems only an object of attention when something goes wrong. Whether our laptops break, the wireless goes down in the Quad or the printers malfunction in the library, UNIT gets more than its share of the blame when technological disaster strikes. But UNIT gets none of the credit when something goes right.

The transition to Gmail will greatly enhance the productivity of Villanova students and will make all of our lives easier in many ways, but it should also serve as a reminder that UNIT is responsible for a lot more on this campus than wireless outages.