SGA, IT department develop program to allow graduates to continue use of their university emails
Since June, SGA Vice President Madison Green and the IT department have made a project to develop a system that will allow graduating seniors to keep access to their school email after graduation their top priority.
IT is projecting to have a final proposal for the project given to SGA by the end of the month.
Currently, once a student graduates from USD, they will lose access to their email account, therefore losing important files, contact information, as well as the professionality provided by the university email.
Green said allowing graduated students to continue to use their university emails will be a major benefit, since students use their emails for more than just school.
“(Their university email) is likely already linked to numerous things in their life aside from just school. For example, emails from their gym, employer, bank, social media accounts, church, and a whole host of other transactional related organizations,” she said. “The program would allow them to have continued use of their university e-mail, which may be the most professional or name-based email account that they have access to, like when applying for jobs they would not need to use their gmail, hotmail, or other accounts which may seem less polished.”
Hunter Padgett, a senior exercise science major, said he would enjoy using his email to stay in contact with USD.
“I would be able to see what is going on with USD after graduation. I could see how the teams are doing, hear about the events going on and see how the school is changing,” Padgett said.
Not only would students benefit from the continued use of university emails, USD departments can use this program to contact alumni.
“It would allow them to stay in contact with specific alumni affiliated with special projects, programs, or degrees; and to stay informed on the alumni’s job prospects after school,” Green said. “It may also offer students ways to give feedback to their former departments on what aspects of the program helped them most or least in landing and performing their current jobs.”
Allowing USD graduates to continue using their university emails would also allow the university to collect data on alumni.
“It would offer a way to contact former students for purposes of garnering interest in enrollment in other programs, like graduate school. It could be used to collect data from former students, like post-graduation employment statuses, and if they are employed in a field related to their degree,” Green said.
Green said allowing alumni the use of their email will allow USD’s name to spread.
“It would continue to invariably spread the name and affiliation with USD throughout the world, as graduates go on to use their email addresses elsewhere and could be used to keep alumni informed of university relevant events. major retirements, athletic events, D-days, etc,” Green said.
This new program would also allow the USD Foundation to benefit for multiple reasons as well.
“The program would offer the foundation a way of keeping in touch with alumni, irrespective of their physical address being kept up to date. The program could be used to reach out to alumni for purposes of garnering donations, getting updates on the Alumnus’ life, and informing them of events related to USD,” Green said.
Green initially was given this idea from Austin Oxner, a current student at USD’s law school, who was seeking a way to keep his current USD email upon graduation, since SDSU offers this service.
After initially brainstorming the idea Green and Oxner realized the benefits of USD allowing students to maintain their emails and began working on a plan to allow alumni to do just that.
“We both started meeting with representatives from IT to discuss the possibility, and after presenting our case in front of the IT Programming Committee, our proposal was approved,” Green said. “The project was then handed over to IT, and they spent the summer researching potential options.”
Green said the progress of working with IT on the project has been “promising.” SGA and IT are also working to ensure that this project becomes a main priority throughout the school year.
“The project is still in the works, but it’s come a really long way from where we originally started. IT is currently finalizing their findings from the research they conducted this summer, and some of the project manager’s recommendations included involving the Alumni Foundation, so the Programming Committee is currently working together with them before proceeding further with the project,” Green said.
