Feasibility of permanent accounts for grads examined

Author: Julie Ellenberger

The College recently dispelled rumors that Middlebury College e-mail addresses have already become permanent for alumni, though this does not mean that the idea is not under discussion.

Currently, when students graduate from the College, they receive an e-mail address at the domain middlebury.alumni.edu, and all of the mail received at the address they had as active students is forwarded to their main e-mail address. In a sense, Middlebury alumni do already have a "lifelong e-mail," but the administration is now looking into a hosted e-mail server that would make student accounts at middlebury.edu permanent.

Tim Etchells, editor for electric communications, expressed the strong interest of the Middlebury College Alumni Association (MCAA) in making this initiative a reality. "At the urging of the MCAA, and with help from some of the MCAA's board members who are in the online business, we're trying to figure out if there is a practical, affordable way to make this happen."

The MCAA and the Communications Office have looked into multiple options to have the alumni server hosted by outside vendors. However, all estimates up to this point have been far too expensive for the budget. Further, if a solution were to be found, the ultimate decision regarding implementation of the program rests with the Board of Trustees.

Very few institutions have successfully established a way for alumni to keep their student addresses. One notable exception is Dartmouth College, another relatively small school, whose system has been in place for around 10 years. The "Vox Alumni Network" allows all alumni to set up profiles with their contact information and search for other alumni by name, graduation year or geographic location.

The fact remains that much is being done to make the creation of such a server possible. However, planners are grappling with other issues besides money. As of now, the system is being considered for undergraduate alums only, who number around 24,000 - accounts for graduates of Bread Loaf and the Language Schools have not yet been discussed. As Etchells pointed out, "There are lots of things to consider. We hope to have an answer before long, but it's too soon to predict when or even if this will happen."