Good news! Your email address will remain username@cedarville.edu (applies to faculty, staff and students.)

Email addresses for alumni should continue to work with either the username@alumni.cedarville.edu or username@cedarville.edu address.

Google allows a user to have multiple accounts and easily switch between the two. Each account is differentiated by the email address used. In this case, your existing Gmail account will be your personal account, while your @cedarville.edu account will be your school/work account.

Google Apps is a free service for participating colleges and universities and converting from GroupWise to Google Apps will result in fewer servers for information technology to maintain. However, the university may have to purchase some additional services that will offset any savings.

Therefore, information technology anticipates the email conversion will be budget neutral. The motive for change is to leverage the newer technology provided by Google Apps and to promote efficiency for all users.

The conversion will be staggered throughout 2012 to provide ample opportunities for training and adjustment to Google Apps. The anticipated roll-out is as follows:

• Alumni from years prior to 2011: June
• Alumni from 2011 and 2012: July
• Students: July
• Faculty and staff: October

Information technology will provide helpful hint emails, online training materials, hands-on training classes and phone support throughout the summer and fall of 2012.

Support will include introductory materials about Google mail and calendar, an in-depth look at new features, and guides for how to perform specific tasks in Google Apps.

If you would like to get started right away, there are a variety of online resources already available on the web because Google Apps is a popular and well-used email and calendar system.

Information technology will make provisions to convert GroupWise email to Google Apps for all users. GroupWise calendar appointments will be migrated, but may be limited to faculty and staff due to migration costs. This will include both future appointments and those from the 18 months prior to conversion.

There are multiple ways to access your Google mail and calendar. The easiest will be the superior web interface provided by Google Apps. This option, which is nearly identical to the personal Gmail interface, will be suitable for the majority of users.

Your Google mail and calendar will also be accessible on smart phone and tablet devices. The Google Apps delivery system greatly improves the reliability of information displayed on your device.

For administrative assistants and other power users, information technology will provide Microsoft® Outlook desktop software for university computers. Outlook provides a look and feel similar to GroupWise and enhances functionality beyond what the Google Apps web interface provides.

Yes, the full suite of Google Apps will be available with your Cedarville account. However, information technology will not provide support and training beyond Google mail and calendar at the present time.

Cedarville University has signed a contract with Google that obligates Google to maintain the confidentiality of your data.

• In order to create a Cedarville Google account, the University provides Google with your name and username. Google does not receive any other personal information about you.
• Logging into a Cedarville Google account uses a Cedarville server. Your password is never sent to Google.
• Google Apps for Education is a product suite that is distinct from public services (Gmail, calendar, search, etc.) provided by Google. Google does not cross-reference data between the Apps environment and the public environment.
• Data generated by using Google Apps for Education (mail, calendar, Gdrive, etc.) will not be used by Google for marketing purposes nor will the data be shared with third parties.
• When you are using Google Apps for Education, you control the retention of data. You may delete messages, documents, and other materials at anytime.
• For additional information see http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/edu/privacy.html

Note: For legal compliance reasons, the University will capture some material generated in Google Apps for Education by non-student employees. This capturing does not apply to students or alumni.

Information technology will either automate or provide instructions for moving your personal contacts from GroupWise to your Google Apps account.

Information technology will provide a means to move your archived mail from your network drive to your Google Apps account.

Unlike GroupWise and its mailbox limitations,the increased mailbox size provided by Google Apps greatly reduces the need for regular archiving.

All of your email will be available in Google Apps unless you specifically delete it.

The increased mailbox size provided by Google Apps reduces the need to delete emails. However, once an email has been deleted and purged from the trash in Google Apps, it will no longer be available to you.

Unlike personal Gmail accounts, there will be no advertisements in Google Apps for current students and employees using the email interface. (Alumni will see advertisements.)

Your Google mail will be scanned so that Google can perform spam filtering and virus detection, but not for purposes of targeting advertisements.

The Google Apps Service Level Agreement provides an uptime (availability) of 99.9% or better.

Yes. Unauthorized parties cannot access your email. This includes other users and institutions on Google Apps. In fact, all user accounts are protected via a virtual lock and key that ensures that one user cannot see another user's data. This is similar to how customer data is kept separated in other shared environments such as online banking applications.

Yes, Google Apps provides an improved and robust spam filtering system.

Yes. Information technology understands that this feature is important to you. Documentation will be provided explaining the best method to access multiple calendars and schedule meetings.

As an added benefit, using Google Apps you can subscribe to many different types of personal calendars and conveniently view them alongside your Cedarville calendar.

Yes. Information technology will provide documentation about the best way to access shared and department calendars.

Google Apps also provides a method to schedule resources, such as department conference rooms, that are not managed by event services.

Yes, Google Apps provides proxy capability to calendar and email. This feature is called “delegation” in Google Apps.