For Immediate Release
Media Contacts:
Rhonda M. Greene | OIT Information and News Services | 919.513.1647
Dr. Marc Hoit | Vice Chancellor for Information Technology | 919.515.0141
Stan North Martin | Director, OIT Outreach, Communications and Consulting | 919.515.1348
Release Date: January 20, 2010
Students want access to the latest interactive software applications and ample storage for files. North Carolina State University – and the state of North Carolina – need to save money. How likely is it that both sides of this apparent dilemma can “win”? In the case of NC State’s new partnership with Google Inc. to host student email services, the answer is “very likely.”
NC State announced today that it will deploy Google Apps Education Edition™ as its official university email service for students. In addition to email, students will receive access to the suite of popular Google Apps collaboration tools, all from their @ncsu.edu address. Google offers the Google Apps Education Edition™ as a free service to educational institutions.
“Outsourcing email is a growing trend in higher education because it enables universities to improve technology services for students while reducing costs,” stated Dr. Marc Hoit, NC State’s vice chancellor for information technology, in the memo announcing the successful negotiation of the contract with Google.
NC State students will receive ad-free Gmail accounts with more than 7 gigabytes of file storage space, and they will keep their official @ncsu.edu address. The Google Apps Education Edition™ hosted services also include Google Sites™, Google Docs™, Google Calendar™ and Google Talk™. Students will be able to access these online services from their computers or many mobile devices.
“We’ve provided students with rock-solid university email services for many years,” said Stan North Martin, director of the Outreach, Communications and Consulting unit of NC State’s Office of Information Technology. “The move to Google Apps will enable us to go to the next level of services for students, providing the options and storage space they now expect as well as the opportunity to communicate and collaborate more effectively with each other.”
OIT has formed a Google Apps @ NC State Implementation Team to plan the rollout of the new services. OIT will launch a student beta email service by mid semester this spring and are encouraging students to request an invitation to participate by visiting NC State’s Google Web site: http://google.ncsu.edu. The production service will be rolled out over the coming year.
More information about NC State’s implementation of Google Apps Education Edition™ is available online at http://google.ncsu.edu.