Project update

Over the past few weeks, a select group of students, alumni and University staff have been testing the new Dolphin Email powered by Google system. So far, it appears to be working well.


The planning team continues to meet weekly to discuss issues related to the project. Here are some important updates:

1. One domain to rule them all: the University will have a single Dolphin Email domain, which will include both current students and alumni. Email addresses for both current students and alumni will end with "@myci.csuci.edu". This will enable students and alumni to have a seamless experience. 
2. A student directory...finally! After weighing several options, the planning team has recommended creation of an web-based, opt-out student directory, to enable students to find each other's email addresses more easily. Development of the directory is in progress, and we anticipate its launch within myCI in November 2010. 

In the next few weeks we'll be updating the Dolphin Email Migration FAQ with additional details about the upcoming changes to Dolphin Email. 

Project updates

We've had lots of activity on the Dolphin Email Migration Project over the past two months!

A survey was published in April to gauge current students' satisfaction with the existing Dolphin Email system. We learned that most students that responded are using it weekly, and that they don't forward to other email addresses! Also, a little over half of the respondents already have a Gmail account.

Two test domains have been configured in Google Apps for Education by our email system administrator: one domain for current students, one domain for alumni, to replicate our proposed production configuration.

The rules for who will get accounts accounts is about 80% complete:

• Current CI students will be provisioned with new accounts in Dolphin Email powered by Google according to existing business rules.
  
• Alumni will be provisioned in the Alumni Dolphin Email system according to a new set of rules which answer the question "who is an alum"? 

 A group of current students and alumni have been identified and contacted about helping to test the system before roll-out. The testing plan 80% complete. The test group participants will be notified in the coming weeks, and testing is expected to begin on Wednesday, June 2nd.

Single-sign on (SSO) and provisioning configuration is in progress, and is expected to be 80% (or more) complete for the beginning of testing on June 2nd.

A marketing meeting is planned for 5/25 to discuss further marketing for the project. Students were sent an email this week to notify them of the upcoming changes. Updates to brochures and signage, as well as further email and Web marketing will be discussed.

Updates to the project Web site, including a detailed FAQ, are in progress. Student Affairs has also drafted a policy and procedure (currently under review) for what kind of content the University should send to students using this system.

Stay tuned! If you have any questions, please contact IT Project Supervisor Peter Mosinskis at peter.mosinskis@csuci.edu.