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| To: |
The
University Community |
From:
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Timothy C. O'Rourke,
Vice President for Computer and Information Services |
Date:
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November 7, 2002 |
Subject:
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Computer Services Exploring Options for New E-Mail System
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Since the beginning of the semester, students, faculty and
administrators have encountered various problems accessing
their e-mail accounts and receiving messages on the
University’s various e-mail platforms. As the new Vice
President for Computer and Information Services, I wanted to
let you know that we are very much aware of the problems and
are working on a comprehensive solution.
Computer Services recognizes the importance of e-mail at
Temple, and on college campuses everywhere. The evolution of
this vital form of communication has brought us to the point
where Temple now has more than ten different legacy hardware
and software messaging solutions operating throughout the
University. One of these, Temple's Astro UNIX system, on the
average, processes over 250,000 messages a day.
The simple truth is that due to increased demand for
messaging and the proliferation of spam and viruses,
Temple's e-mail platforms have reached their capacity. In
the immediate term, we have taken a number of steps to
increase this capacity and to improve speed and performance.
To solve this problem for the long run, Computer Services
has assembled a team of technical staff members to research
and implement a new University-wide e-mail system. We have
been meeting with various vendors to investigate possible
solutions and evaluate costs.
Computer Services is carefully reviewing the resources
needed to handle Temple's heavy e-mail traffic on a daily
basis. In addition to providing reliability and efficiency,
the new system must offer a web-interface for accessing mail
as well as the capability to manage mail through local
e-mail clients, such as Netscape, Outlook Express, or
Eudora. A group of faculty, administrators and students is
being assembled to review and evaluate the various systems.
Together we will make every effort to select a solution that
meets our growing needs and allows for a smooth transition
to a centralized platform providing the most advanced
messaging capabilities available.
The implementation of this project has been given very high
priority. If we can find the appropriate solution, it is our
goal to have a new system in place for the Spring Semester.
For periodic progress reports on the development of the new
system, continue to visit the Computer Services website.
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