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Undergraduates: Sign Up for Google Apps!

Sign up for Google Apps at UMass Amherst and get Google-powered email and much more. To sign up, log in to SPIRE, then go to Menu > OIT Accounts > Google Apps.
Google Apps Support Site | Log in to Google Apps

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UMass Amherst and Google Join to Offer Google Apps to Students - OIT - UMass Amherst
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Undergraduates: Sign Up for Google Apps!

OIT is partnering with Google to launch “Google Apps at UMass Amherst,” a customized version of Google’s popular suite of online productivity and collaboration tools, including Gmail, designed especially for educational institutions.

Beginning in late summer, the university’s 19,000 undergraduates will be able to sign up for a Google Apps account, choose to have their official UMass Amherst e-mail delivered to Gmail, and start using the other tools in the Google Apps suite, including Google Docs, Google Sites, and Google Calendar.

Using Google Apps, students will have dramatically increased e-mail storage – 7 GB and growing – and will be able to maintain their current official @student.umass.edu e-mail addresses. They’ll also be able to collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in real time using Google Docs, easily create Web sites using Google Sites, and coordinate their schedules and events using Google Calendar.

“We decided upon Gmail and Google Apps after a study of options for an e-mail system to help us meet our rapidly growing needs and students’ expectations,” says John Dubach, special assistant to the chancellor and chief information officer. “Google Apps stood out because it offers cutting-edge technology and a high level of service. Because Google offers this service for free, we’ll be able to refocus our IT resources on other projects.”

For now, students will not be required to have their UMass Amherst e-mail delivered to Gmail. OIT will be slowly making the transition from UMail, the current e-mail system, to Gmail for undergraduate e-mail. Gmail will be the default e-mail system for undergraduates starting with those entering the university in spring 2010.

UMass Amherst joins other large research institutions, including Arizona State University, Northwestern University and the University of Southern California, which participate in the Google Apps for Education program.

OIT will be keeping the campus community informed as the project progresses using the project Web site (www.umass.edu/googleapps), e-mail, and other communications channels.

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