Cynthia Munoz
Published: October 25, 2006
“An account will automatically be created for all students enrolled,” Gomez said. “Students will be able to log in to SpyGlass and see a link for piratemail.students.pjc.edu.”
Each username will consist of the user’s initials and a four digit combination provided by the system.
For example, Cindy N. Munoz is the 36th student with those initials; the e-mail address might be cnm1036@students.pjc.edu.
“We’re pretty excited about being able to provide institutional e-mail accounts to our students,” said Martha Caughey, registrar, “and plan to make e-mail our primary means of communication with students.”
According to Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. James Martin, there will be a slow transition for the e-mail usage so that students and teachers can adjust to using the mailing system.
“We’re going to test it out,” Martin said. “We want everyone to get used to it, and we want to make sure everything is functioning properly.”
Gomez and Martin are sure that the new e-mail system will end the use of outgoing postal mail.
“We’re trying to eliminate paper communication,” Martin said. “It’s too expensive and [e-mail] is a lot quicker.”
The new e-mail may cause excitement with the potential of technology advancement and upgrades in school organization.
“It’s cool because [students] can access it anywhere so that they can get grades, announcements, drop dates, reminders about payments or even purge dates,” Martin said.
Presumably the e-mail accounts will be enforced by the spring semester. To ensure that students access their accounts, students will have to read all emails in order register for classes.
“Theoretically, it should work,” Martin said. “You have to have both e-mails working, but if the students don’t check their e-mails, saying, ‘Oh, I didn’t get the message,’ will not fly anymore.”
But Rebecca Yost, a pre-veterinarian student, said there could be some issues with this situation.
“There’s an upside and a downside to this,” Yost said. “It’s great that students can check their accounts daily, but some students don’t have regular access to computers unless they are on campus.”
But Yost realizes that this convenience will benefit everyone: students, teachers, and staff.
“It seems like it will be useful,” Yost said. “You can put questions in e-mails and they can answer back.”
Not to overwhelm people or scare the technology department, Martin said, but this may bring more technological advancement for the future, such as instant messaging.
“I’m really pleased and appreciative with the e-mail, but I really want to move to IM,” Martin said. “Being able to IM admissions, the bursar’s office, even an ‘Ask PJC’ link.”
“We want people to realize it’s coming,” Martin said. “It’s coming.”