San Jose City College is providing students with an authentic school email address using Microsoft Office 365.

As of last Tuesday, April 22, the school sent out an email to enrolled students regarding the announcement of this new perk.

“We wanted to create an email for students that was officially recognized,” said Mike Russell, chief information systems officer.

Russell said they wanted to create an email account that served as the main method of communication between students and the school. An email that not only became more efficient in making sure students received important school announcements, but was straightforward in its use and had collaboration tools such as Word, PowerPoint, Sharepoint and Lync, which is similar to video conferencing.

“To me it is like prioritizing,” Russell said. “One of the things we are trying to get the institution to do is stop sending out so much stuff. (Students) want to know when deadlines are, when it is time to register for classes, when to submit forms to graduate, when it is time to see the counselor. (Students) just want to know the important stuff.”

With a single email system, the institution can inform students about school-related issues more efficiently.

“We are one of the few (schools) that did not have student emails,” Russell said. “We went from a disadvantage to an advantage in that we did not have to transition students from an old email account to a new email account.”

SJCC used to have an email system for students called Jagmail, which was the previous campus-wide email system that was set up with Google.

“Jagmail’s use was very low,” Russell said. He said many students did not know about it and word of mouth was the best method to introduce students to the new email.

The use of this service is free for students in higher education, and they benefit from discounts on websites like Amazon, Russell said.

Some students disagree with the implementation of the new student email accounts.

“Why do we need them?” said Jennifer Guy, 25, accounting major. “We already have too much technology.”

She said she dislikes the idea that the school would force upon students an email address that must be checked daily when they have their own personal email account in the school system.

“If the reason behind this whole thing is because students can’t be reached via their personal emails,” Guy said, “then what makes the school think that the email they sent out earlier this week reached those who actually need the service?”

Students who had not updated their emails when the initial announcement was sent will find information about this change on campus posters and on the school website, Russell said.

“We are actually sending out some instructions, and there are YouTube instructions to automatically forward from the student email address to the personal email,” Russell said.

The email indicates students have until Thursday, May 30 to set up their school email accounts.

“It gives students no excuse (to use as to) why they didn’t receive something,” said Bria Garrett, 20, administration of justice major, “(The announcement) says to check on a daily basis.”