Over the Winter break the e-mail system used by students and faculty at Washburn University was switched over to Office 365 in the Outlook Web Application. The decision was made in November by a Washburn committee.

According to Erik Crouch, Technology Support Technician II, Information Technology Services, the company that developed the former e-mail system no longer exists, therefore it has become outdated.

Crouch says the Outlook Web Application is a much better program that has a lot more capabilities than the Washburn e-mail predecessor. This is due to cloud storage. By using cloud storage the system gained a far greater storage capacity without having to invest in a new server.

This change in e-mail service providers is causing some students around campus to struggle. The main problem encountered by IT has been the confusion caused by the differences in login between the My Washburn page and the Outlook page. Still, other students complain about not being able to log on outside the Washburn campus.

“I hate it!” says Louis Bourdeau, Criminal Justice Master’s student. “I can’t log on at home, so I have to come to the school to check my e-mail. I have a Mac, but my friend is having the same trouble with his Toshiba. Not to mention the fact that we are already trying to make the transition from Angel to D2L.”

According to Erik Crouch everybody should be able to log on with no trouble. If a student is having trouble logging on outside of the Washburn Campus the trouble may be with the browser. Google Chrome has accessibility settings that may not allow the user to log on. Crouch recommends that Internet Explorer or Firefox be used in order to avoid problems.

“Outlook is not as hard as it seems,” says Elise Blass, Information Literacy Librarian at Mabee Library.

Elise Blass recommends that students that are having trouble making the transition to the Outlook Web Application “poke around” and experiment with it. She suggests that students take the time to push buttons and see what the program’s capabilities are.

“Don’t worry too much. You won’t break it,” says Blass.

Students who are having trouble with Outlook should seek out help at the Information Technology service desk in Bennet 104.

Support can also be reached at (785)670-3000 or by e-mail at: [email protected].