As easy as it is, not many students are taking advantage of the e-mail access offered to them at The University of Memphis.
The U of M has been offering an e-mail account to students for several years and a Web-based version for almost two years.
But many students prefer to use the personal e-mail services they established before attending The U of M.
“I already had an e-mail account set up before I started school here,” said Katie Flippo, a 24-year-old public relations major. “I think a lot of people have Internet access at home before they started school, so it is easier to keep using what they already had.”
Some problems with this arise when teachers send students certain files that can only be opened through their memphis.edu e-mail Post Office accounts.
“Some e-mail systems don’t support a lot of features, like media files,” said Steve Terry, Director of Client Services at The U of M. “The advantage of the school account is that it can receive every kind of file.”
Some students complain it is just a hassle to set up a new account when they already have existing ones.
“It’s just easier for me not to have one since I’ve already got one set up,” said Flippo. “The teachers that I have who decided to send us e-mails usually ask what e-mail account they should send it to.”
Since early December, 5,497 Post Office e-mail accounts have been accessed.
Considering the number of students that attend The U of M, that number is relatively small. Only 25 percent of students use the service they pay for through their student fees.
“There is no certain reason why students aren’t using their school accounts,” said Tom Barton, Director of Information Systems Infrastructure. “The post
Office is automatically set up for everyone at The University, and it’s high quality.”
According to Terry, in the future, there will be even less hassle involved in accessing the Post Office e-mail. Down the line, no cards will have to be swiped to start the account. Instead, it will be activated automatically by The University.
Also, there is talk of allowing U of M students to keep their Post Office accounts for life.
“When a student leaves, they can keep the same account,” said Terry.
The only problem with this is that a lack of disk storage space may not allow this to happen.
Still, it may be that neither ease of use nor lifetime access will convince students to use their University e-mail.
“I really don’t have a problem with the post office accounts,” said Flippo. “I just find it easier to stick with what I already have established.”
