By Will Gilson, Currier Times Staff///

Recently, an email was sent out to the Curry community from Curry IT that said in the 2024-2025 academic year, Curry will be switching its primary email system from Gmail to Office 365 or Microsoft. First-year Marketing major Lucas Pasternak, unhappy with the move, immediately sent out a petition on change.org to stop the switch.

Pasternak says the reason for the petition was to explain how the change will impact Curry students.

“I also thought about all the students that on top of stress regarding tuition, work, and other issues, now have to adapt to an entirely new software,” Pasternak said. “So I decided to create the petition to bring some of these problems to light.”

Pasternak also highlights trouble with students who may have Apple computers, and their compatibility with Office 365.

“And unless Curry is saying they will buy everyone brand new computers this can create problems regarding compatibility,” Pasternak said. “Google has been working perfectly fine and I have heard almost no complaints regarding compatibility as it is a universal software that works on all devices.”

Other students across campus are concerned about how the change will affect their ability as students. Nicole Schindler, a sophomore Early Education and Care major, highlights how changing the email provider will make it harder for students to access their work.

“Everything I have is on Gmail and changing to Microsoft and Word’s very challenging,” Schindler said. “I feel many people are frustrated with it.”

Although some Curry students view the transition as negative, Curry IT sees the two email providers the same. Dr. Mark Nestor, the Chief Information Officer, says that the two are important for user support.

“Gmail and Office 365 are very similar, and each could be argued for being better than the other,” Nestor said. “However, having to support two separate systems is limiting our ability to support users and ensure continuity.”

How students will access their work on Gmail platforms such as Google Docs is still up in the air.

“We will ensure at a minimum that students will have the opportunity to get their data from Gmail services,” Nestor said. “However, we will notify the community and members of the expectations, impact, and transition process of services and provide resources to assist with the transition.”

Nestor also mentions that the transition will be beneficial for community members.

“Currently, Curry faculty and students are using two separate systems,” Nestor said. “The net result will be providing a better experience for the Curry community.”

Other students on campus agree with IT’s transition. Rose Conner, a first-year Computer Science major, highlights the security Microsoft provides that Google doesn’t.

“Google actually has trackers on top of trackers and Microsoft is a more secure email platform,”  Conner said. “It’s all upfront, while Microsoft is, your data’s more encrypted.”

Although students have mixed responses, Pasternak says that the plan is to keep fighting to change it or meet common ground.

“Because it is unfair and unnecessary to change the software,” Pasternak said. “Especially when it has been working so well.”