While students are away on Spring Break, their email platforms will change from Google Workspace to Office 365. According to an email sent by Elon Information Technology, the shift will happen on March 14.
Assistant Director of Campus Technology Pat Donohue said the switch will have no impact on past documents or emails. Students will still have access to the rest of the Google Workspace — such as Google Drive — just not Gmail.
“We see this as you get the best of both worlds,” Donohue said “We're not taking away anything, we're simply defaulting the email to one place.”
The update comes after a two-year delay —IT decided to hold off on the switch when the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020.
But not everyone sees it as a good change. Sophomore Quin Student said he's upset that the shift will happen halfway through the spring semester.
“I don't understand why they would do it in the middle of the middle of the school year, or middle of the semester for that matter,” Student said. “That's probably something they should have wheeled out during the summer, especially if they had a better plan.”
The change only affects sophomores, juniors, graduate and law students. Undergraduate seniors aren't changing their platforms. The freshman class and other first-year students have only had access to Outlook for email, so the switch will not impact them.