Chris Habermann | Contributing Writer
The technology department at Buena Vista University (BVU) recently announced that it would slowly be introducing a new email system using Microsoft Office 365. Currently, BVU is using Microsoft Exchange 2010 as its default email client. Over the years, it has become noticeably slow and prone to spam and virus attacks. The goal is that the new system will be implemented entirely by finals week.
The department’s director of infrastructure and operations, Scott Wunschel, spoke about the new system being implemented.
“Microsoft Office 365 is a collection of applications that Microsoft offers and they are all cloud based systems meaning they don’t live here on campus, they are based at Microsoft,” Wunschel said.
New features that will be offered with this system is an upgraded amount of storage space within students mailboxes, better anti-spam and anti-virus protection, online and offline versions of Microsoft office products, your own Microsoft OneDrive storage space, and access to SharePoint. While almost all of the parts are self explanatory, SharePoint is a new program that has the technology department and teachers very excited.
SharePoint will allow students to collaborate and work together on Word documents and PowerPoints. Students will also be able to upload photos and create discussion boards using this application.
“The ability to have students work on a document together that they can all access by using their BVU email account…is much easier to do now with this new integrated system,” Wunschel said.
To help get an idea of how this new system will affect the students on campus, the technology department reached out and offered the upgrade to any students who wanted it. In the end, 21 students decided they would like to give this new system a test run. One of these students was senior Lesa Turnquist.
Turnquist chose to be one of the early adopters of Microsoft Office 365 because she felt that everyone eventually will have to switch over and use it and wanted to try it now. So far, Turnquist hasn’t noticed any major differences between the two email systems. She notes that the only difference between the programs is the look and layout.
“It’s just like switching from a Blackberry to an iPhone — things are going to feel awkward and different at first, but I know that eventually it will feel like the norm,” Turnquist said.
Another student that took the opportunity to test Microsoft Office 365 is sophomore William Connelly. Connelly had the same reasoning as Turnquist when deciding to upgrade. He felt that doing it now would get rid of the hassle if he were to do it later. Connelly’s favorite feature of the new system is that he is able to access all of the Microsoft office programs online rather than having to download them.
“I would say that my first impression on the new e-mail system wasn’t the best in the world. It was a bit difficult to find everything, but after working with it a bit it just seems like the old system with a different look and some extra features,” Connelly said.
Introducing new technology always has its hiccups. So far in the small pool of students that have tested Microsoft Office 365, there have been only minor issues when making the initial setup. There have not been any major issues so far.
If people are having issues with the initial setup when they are migrated over to the new e-mail system, they are advised to visit the technology help center, 2-Fix, right next to the Center for Academic Excellence. Weekday hours are from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Weekend hours are from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday.
