Cast from Eden

Someone on campus must have taken an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, because the University is planning to shut down the Eden email network on July 1, 2014 and replace it with ScarletApps.

Rutgers-Newark and Rutgers-Camden will also see their respective email services, Pegasus and Clam, deactivate on the same date.

Provided by Google Apps for Education, ScarletApps will allow students to access Google’s collaborative services, such as document sharing and calendars through their University email addresses, said Keri Budnovitch, associate director in the Office of Information Technology.

It will include all of the applications Google usually provides, excluding those that would have to be purchased, she said.

“Students can use it to work with assignments, faculty members can use [Google+] Hangouts for their student advisory meetings or office hours, and [students can] share email calendars for different student groups,” she said. “It has a lot to offer that we weren’t able to offer in the past.”

Budnovitch said ScarletApps would be more suitable to the students compared with Eden’s services because the Google interface is more popular among students, making it easier to use and manage.

“We found that a lot of students were already coming with Google accounts so this isn’t something they have to learn,” she said. “They already know how to use it.”

She said the only difference between a Gmail account and ScarletApps is the domain, meaning students log into their accounts directly through the University rather than Google’s website.  Advertisements will also not be visible on ScarletApps.

“It’s very similar [but] it’s separate,” she said. “We’re running a Google Apps for Education domain. It’s a whole different set of storage and space but it’s pretty much exactly the same without any advertising.”

Even though many students use Gmail and the other services offered by Google, Sean Barbieri, a School of Environmental And Biological Sciences first-year student, said he does not use Google and is unfamiliar with the site.

“I don’t think highly of the idea,” he said. “I am not really a big fan of Gmail, I think it is very confusing.”

Since Google Apps can seem complicated to non-users, Barbieri said the switch will initially cause problems for students, but they will alleviate over time as those students adjust.

“Maybe it will be more beneficial in the long run as it will become more mainstream but I think right now it will cause a lot of confusion,” he said. “I don’t really see the need for it.”

Dariusz Augustynowicz, a Rutgers School of Business senior, said as a Google user, he looks forward to the University’s transition.

“I personally like it. I already have my stuff in the Gmail system,” he said. “It will probably be easier to integrate and be simpler for most people.”

Augustynowicz said the Eden system is problematic and confusing. He has an Eden account set up but his mail is forwarded directly to his Gmail account.

“Well, it was kind of complicated. It wasn’t as bad as other schools that I’ve seen but I’d rather just use what I already have,” he said.

The University made the transition possible by signing a seven-year contract with Google, which provides the service for no cost. The only expenses the University will manage are the staff and team used to ensure the services run effectively, Budnovitch said.

“Of course there are administrative costs that go with that. We do have to have the staff to implement [and] support it. … [We] are just able to provide a great service to the Rutgers community than we have before,” she said.

Eden has the capacity to provide the same services as ScarletApps, but adding these features would be more costly, she said.

“It would take much longer and be much more expensive if we decided to develop something like that in house,” Budnovitch said. “[ScarletApps] is being offered for free to universities so this is something we jumped on … and decided we needed to do because the services are really tremendous.”

She said the transitioning process would be completed once the current email system is turned off and decommissioned. Although the email portion is being turned off, other services the University’s Eden program provides will still function, since students and faculty use the services for some of their courses.

“Right now if you go through the account creation process, you can still create accounts on those systems in addition to the ScarletApps account,” she said. So right now there is a choice … but in the near future ScarletApps will be the only option for students’ email services.”

She said the University wants to test the service’s success with students before it extends the further.

“There are no plans to replace faculty and staff email with ScarletApps … At this point we’re going with the students, seeing how that goes,” she said. “I can’t say that it wouldn’t be a possibility for the teacher but at this point … our goal is mainly just to replace student email.”