The University will begin outsourcing its student e-mail services to Google in May. It is also in the process of coordinating future e-mail services with Microsoft.

The decision to discontinue the use of Express Email will be included in a press release Friday from Campus Informational Technologies and Educational Services, or CITES.

“Outsourcing student e-mail was one of the recommendations of the Campus Email and Calendaring Committee,” said CITES Director of Application Services Dan Jacobsohn in the release.

“CITES must retire Express Email by the end of 2010, so this is an ideal time to work with campus to determine how best to serve the needs of students, faculty and staff about e-mail and other services, like calendaring.”

Incoming students will be notified in the middle of May as to how to set up their e-mail account through Google Apps @ Illinois. Current students will have the ability to activate their accounts either through Google or Microsoft’s MS Live @ Illinois when they return for the Fall 2010 semester.

“It actually provides students with a greater diversity of e–mail and other tools that will enhance their Illinois experience,” Jacobsohn said.

The campus e-mail and calendaring committee, chaired by Chuck Thompson, assistant dean and director of information services for the College of Engineering, examined the current CITES system and surveyed students, faculty and staff as to their preferences with regards to e-mail and calendaring.

The committee issued a report in October 2009 recommending the University negotiate contracts with both Google and Microsoft for their free e-mail services. Recommendations also provided that students, faculty and staff be given the choice of one or both of the options. Students’ e-mail accounts will continue to be “@illinois.edu.”

The University’s Stewarding Excellence IT@Illinois project team, a separate team from the campus e-mail and calendaring committee, also mentioned the outsourcing of other CITES services in its charge letter. The team submitted its summary report to administrators April 16. Stewarding Excellence is an initiative driven by 15 project teams that are looking to consolidate University programs and services.

John Hart, chair of the project team and professor in computer science, said the team is also focusing on consolidating duplicate services across campus.

“The committee overwhelmingly agreed that we were focusing on coordinating and not on centralizing,” Hart said. “We have a bunch of people doing independent things across campus and if we can coordinate that then we can work much more efficiently.”

Ryan Thomas, member of the IT@Illinois project team and associate director of Information Technology, said that although the outsourcing of e-mail was not included in the team’s charge letter, he believes that outsourcing will give students more options.

“The outsourcing is already underway,” Thomas said. “The idea is that they’ll have two options on e-mail and calendaring.”

Jacobsohn said the addition of outsourcing services “meets the goals and spirit of (Stewarding Excellence).”

“It lowers the direct and indirect costs of providing student e-mail,” Jacobsohn said.

After the team’s summary report is published on the Stewarding Excellence website, http://oc.illinois.edu/budget/, there will be a period of feedback in which students, faculty and staff can comment on the report’s findings.