Problems with new e-mail system plague students

By Nate Adams
Collegian Editor
October 17, 2007

In response to student concerns, La Salle has upgraded its e-mail system to a newer version of Lotus Notes. The upgrade will help alleviate difficulties encountered when replying to e-mails, a problem synonymous with the old system, Director of Information Technology Ed Nickerson said.

In addition, the new interface has a sleek blue look, and informs users how much of their alotted e-mail space has been used up. The improvement is not costing the school anything financially, as La Salle has a license that allows cost-free upgrades.

However, the new e-mail system is coming at the expense of the patience of the students, who have complained the new system is sluggish and non-responsive.

“It’s so buggy,” junior philosophy Stacy Armstrong said. “It takes forever to load up on my computer.”

Junior accounting major Laura Martin also has had some problems with the new program.

“I tried sending something with an attachment the other day and the e-mail wouldn’t work,” she said. “It’s really slow to load. I hate it.”

Nickerson says that IT is aware of the problems and is working on a solution. One quick fix is to use the Firefox Internet provider instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Nickerson said.

“The Firefox browser does not seem to have these performance issues,” Nickerson said. “We recommend using it for reading e-mail if you are having issues.”

Nickerson advises students with problems to call the IT help desk at extension 1788.

Not all students are experiencing problems with the new system.

“I have no problem with it, and I use it all the time,” said freshman psychology Karen McShea.

Other students have turned to alternative e-mail providers like Gmail for reliability, but Nickerson doesn’t recommend it. “There’s too much chance of data being lost or accounts expiring.”

adamsn1@lasalle.edu