University debuts poor man’s Gmail

When the University switched to Hoyamail on Tuesday, most students probably did not mourn the death of its predecessor, GUMail. An e-mail server run by Google, Hoyamail comes with over 7,000 megabytes of storage space—a welcome boost from the paltry 20 megabytes GUMail provided for students. But Hoyamail is a deliberately crippled version of what it could be, preventing students from taking advantage of all the applications Google offers.

Hoyamail is almost identical to Gmail, and like Gmail, data on Hoyamail is stored on Google’s servers. Georgetown has access to the program free of charge through a program called Google Apps for Education. Unlike Gmail, however, Hoyamail does not include access to any other Google programs, such as Google Calendar, a calendar program; Google Docs, a suite of programs similar to Microsoft Office; or even Google Chat, an instant messenger program.

The service is so limited, in fact, that e-mails sent to Hoyamail accounts cannot even be forwarded to mobile devices like Blackberries.

Georgetown has disabled all these features because having them would require giving Google students’ NetIDs and passwords, according to University Information Services director Beth Ann Bergsmark. Hoyamail uses encryption software that keeps usernames and passwords hidden from Google, but the encryption does not work on other Google applications.

Bergsmark said that the University is “definitely interested” in other Google Apps programs, and that a working group will be formed this fall to consider whether to add new applications to Hoyamail.

While Georgetown should be commended for considering student privacy, it has already handed Google control of our e-mails by storing them on their servers. Alternatively, students could receive a user name and password for Google Apps, and another for University services like MyAccess, so there would be no concern about Google having students’ NetIDs.

Because of the collaborative nature of applications like Google Calendar and Google Docs, a large community like Georgetown cannot afford to ignore the potential these applications have to improve campus life. The possibilities are endless—club or university calendars on Calendar, or collaborating with classmates on a project through Google Docs. Georgetown should forget its concern about sharing NetIDs with Google and give students access to all of the Google applications.