Flagstaff vol. 11, issue 7

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ARCHIVES
a biweekly newsletter for faculty and staff
October 13,1997
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New E-mail System Change
Within the Year
FLAGSTAFF
by Lorrie Rubino
A change is coming, and it will affect everyone on campus using Thomas Nelson's E-mail
system By the end of the year, the college will be using the newly created Virginia Commu-nity
College System network for its E-mail services.
The VCCS created the network in an attempt to increase and simplify communication
between the state community colleges. Thomas Nelson will be among the first six commu-nity
colleges switching over to the central network.
The transition from Thomas Nelson's current E-mail system, Vines, to the VCCS system
will be relatively simple. Certain groups will start pilot testing the system within the coming
weeks and by the end of the year, the entire campus will be using the new system.
The new system will allow users to easily send or receive files such as those created by
Word or Excel, the ability to compose messages in the same way as in Microsoft Word or
WordPerfect, the use of multiple
mailboxes, and personalized mes-sages
among other things. The
VCCS will also create an employee
directory for Virginia's community
colleges, as well as a student direc-tory.
Students' addresses will be
distinguished from faculty and em-ployees.
There will be extensive training
available for new users through
classes, videos, and written instruc-tions.
User's E-mail addresses will
not change with the transition, but
everyone is advised to save or print
important mail before the transition
is carried out.
There are still certain technical
problems that will have to be addressed before the system is fully functional on campus.
Among these problems is the question of whether the software used with the new E-mail
system, Eudora Pro, can be used in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook, which will be used
for calendaring, and how to configure student workstations to balance privacy for one student
with ease of access for the next student to use a given workstation.
Problems aside, the VCCS system offers users powerful new features and fast response
times. Wayne Davis, User Services Manager, has already started using the new system and
commented that "it is fascinating seeing the things I can do with the system."