Welcome to the Borg!

Georgetown’s email service is moving to from University servers to Google Apps for Education, which means a couple things for you. It’s all spelled out in an email going to out to students later this week (after the jump), but here’s what we’ll get:

• 3 gigabytes of storage.
• Access to other Google services like Reader and Docs. The idea of easier Doc collaborating alone makes this a great switch.
• Email address after graduation, although ads will start then.
• No more drunken emailing.
• Entry into the Google privacy-gobbling machine. Google’s only offering this for free because it will use harvest your data for targeted ad placement, although the service itself won’t have ads. If you don’t want that, you can get a non-Gmail email account.

What won’t change is your email address–it’ll still be netid@georgetown.edu. GW didn’t stick with their old addresses after switching to Gmail and it was a mess.

After the jump, the email that will be sent later this week to students.

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We checked in with VP of Student Affairs Todd Olson to see if there was any truth to claim by American University Dean of Students Sara Waldron that we’re “taking some action” against Juicy Campus. His response? Umm, no.

I just don’t know where that understanding came from. We are not pursuing any action against Juicy Campus.

Sorry AU, looks like you have to figure out a policy on your own.

Yesterday, the American University Eagle reported that Georgetown officials had nefarious plans for Juicy Campus. We thought that was funny considering that GUSA President Pat Dowd, once enamored with the idea, had dismissed it weeks ago.

In an email, Pat Dowd denied that our beloved Juicy Campus is threatened:

It is unfortunate that certain media outlets tend to speculate on these sort of things without first checking the facts, but let me assure you that There was never, nor is there now, a decision made between GUSA and the University to ban the site.

That doesn’t rule out an administration move separate from GUSA, but we’ll take it.

Sara Waldron, the AU official who’s the basis of the Eagle’s story, wrote in an email that she has not talked to anyone in Georgetown but rather heard Georgetown was doing something from an AU colleague.

The most pernicious website of our time, Georgetown Juicy Campus, recently expanded to include our neighbors at George Washington and American. Now the AU Eagle is reporting that the AU administration’s official response is to wait to see what we’re doing.

[Associate Dean of Students Sara] Waldron said Georgetown will be “taking some action” and AU is waiting to see what action this is.

“We’ve contacted them to see what they’re doing with the site,” she said. “We’re going to wait and see what Georgetown does.”

Huh? Last time we checked up on Juicy Campus, GUSA President Pat Dowd told us he didn’t think the administration was going to ban it, but maybe things have changed? Perhaps the Hoya and President Pat will get their way after all…

Gmail hold-outs have another reason to switch: now, Gmail isn’t just an email service–it’s a sober best friend, too. Google is instituting a program called Mail Goggles which will check your sobriety before you send an email by forcing you to solve simple math problems in one minute.

“When you enable Mail Goggles, it will check that you’re really sure you want to send that late night Friday email…By default, Mail Goggles is only active late night on the weekend as that is the time you’re most likely to need it…Hopefully Mail Goggles will prevent many of you out there from sending messages you wish you hadn’t.”

So now go come back inebriated from the Tombs at 3 AM and take comfort in the fact that you will not accidentally send an email to that guy you just met about how the vile comments written about him on Juicy Campus are an understatement.

The Hoya’s 40 years in blog wilderness may finally be coming to an end. First there was their unannounced partnership with Saxaspeak, and now they have Outside the Gates, a blog about Georgetown neighborhood goings-on. I’m all for it, especially if it means more people to drink wine with me at Citizens Association of Georgetown meetings.

Won’t you be Vox Populi’s friend? I promise it’ll be like friending someone you’ve known for a while who just got a Facebook, and not at all like friending someone you met once at a party and never saw again, except while walking to class.

Over the summer, Congress passed the 900-page Higher Education Act. A bill that huge and with such a vague name has to have an impact on the lives of Georgetown students, and indeed it does. While specific regulations are waiting to be decided by the next presidential administration, Georgetown’s federal liaison Scott Fleming said several parts of the bill will affect Georgetown students.

Course registration

The bill requires professors to announce the books required for their classes before the semester starts. This probably will mean syllabi will be published earlier, perhaps even in time for course registration. You win because you can know better whether a class is what you want, and you have more time to find the best deals on textbooks.

Illegal downloading

Copyright owners like the RIAA and the MPAA have strong lobbies in Congress, so it’s only natural that they could slip some provisions into the bill. Universities are going to be pressured to monitor and report filesharing traffic (although not necessarily names of downloaders).

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The earnest congressional aides in the College Democrats have relaunched their blog/webmagazine The Georgetown Progressive, and it’s not half bad. I don’t really trust the Progressive after their blog went dead for 3 months, and the redesign’s confusing, but any blog that’s concerned about grenades in Rock Creek Park is worth reading.

Looks like the problem of ICC computers not loading Gmail is mostly resolved. I got an email this morning from UIS saying all the computers have been “reimaged” and are now able to log in, except for one on the second floor that still won’t.

The problem seems to have been as commenter Matthew Smith said: the computers’ clocks were going crazy, and that messed with Gmail somehow. So now you can check your Gmail and get the correct time.