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Partnering with Google will give University students, faculty, and staff access to a suite of state-of-the art communication and collaboration tools that will enhance their ability to work together.
In addition to increased productivity opportunities, Google Apps also will allow the University to save costs in the long run by reducing the need to buy and support software, hardware, and storage to maintain our own independent e-mail service.
Faculty, staff, and students will be able to choose U of M Google Mail and Apps as an option beginning in fall 2009. The long-term goal is to have all students using U of M Google Mail, so at some point, all incoming students will be required to use it as their official University e-mail account. A number of roll-out options are being considered at this time for expanding the use and availability of U of M Google Mail and other apps beyond the opt-in period.
Yes. Those who choose to opt-in with UM Google Mail also will be able to use other Google Apps. The project team is investigating which of the Google Apps will be available.
The University will use the Google Apps for Education Edition, which includes the following applications:
Keep in mind that the project team still is investigating whether all of these applications will be available in the University Google space.
The project is still in development, and sign up has not yet begun. We're anticipating a late fall implementation, and will notify the campus community through various avenues—including the Google initiative Web site—when the implementation date is closer, and again when opt in becomes available.
All coordinate campuses--Crookston, Duluth, Morris, and Rochester--will be included in the process and the project team will solicit their input. We currently are in the process of identifying who should represent each of the coordinate campuses and the best means of including them in the planning process.
The University really is not transitioning from anything, but rather will offer a choice to the University community to transition to our implementation of Google Apps for Education (Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Sites, Chat) with their umn.edu addresses.
Students will not see advertising while they are active students. However, once a student leaves the University, their account will revert to a regular Google account and they will be subject to advertising like any other Gmail account. Faculty and staff accounts will not be subject to advertising.
Shibboleth, a standards-based, open source software will be used to provide single sign-on access, so University users will use their Internet (X.500) ID and password to sign in through the University standard Internet login page.
In addition, you will need to use the University's central authentication process to access your University account. Log in at http://google.umn.edu. You will not be able to access your University account via the Google personal edition interface such as www.gmail.com, www.google.com/accounts, or www.google.com/ig.
We will be able to have our own domain names such as @umn.edu. Whether we will have a single domain name, or more than one, is being researched.
Yes. At this point, the plan is to make Google Apps available to eligible retirees at the same time it becomes available for eligible alumni, after the initial wave of student, faculty, and staff implementation.
UM Google accounts will be set up and administered by University staff. The University also will provide user support through the help desk and Office of Information Technology (OIT) technical staff.
Storing faculty and staff data, and storing data with specific legal requirements for privacy certainly introduces additional security concerns and complexity. We are doing further research in this area.
Under our contract, Google will protect University data with the "same standard of care with which it protects its own confidential information." Google will disclose University information only when required by law, and then only after giving the University the opportunity to challenge the disclosure request.
OIT standards and guidelines state that "The University of Minnesota has a responsibility to maintain high standards of security for private/non-public electronic information. University data that is stored on or accessed by computers and other electronic devices must be secured against intentional or unintentional loss of confidentiality, integrity, or availability regardless of location (off-campus, on-campus, home computer, etc.)."
www.umn.edu/oit/security/standards/OIT__12647_REGION1.html
These guidelines further state that "computers and other devices must be either continuously managed or reviewed on an ongoing basis for appropriate security measures by a full-time information technology professional, such as competent local information technology support staff. These reviews must include adherence to baseline security requirements as well as additional strategies for protecting the information."
The federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy rule protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information. General information about HIPAA regulations can be found at www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html. For more information or questions about how the HIPAA rule applies specifically to University health information, contact the University of Minnesota privacy officer at (612) 624-7447 or privacy@umn.edu.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of a student’s education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education, and applies to all records directly related to a student and maintained by the University. For example, highly sensitive information about a student such as Social Security or credit card numbers, and student grades should never be stored in Google, in accordance with FERPA and the University of Minnesota's Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources policy governing the use, transmission, and storage of highly sensitive information. Student grades, for instance, are best stored in a secure course management system. More information about FERPA rules can be found at www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html.
University members who choose to sign up for a Google account will have access to the Google Apps for Education suite of applications, including e-mail, personal calendars, and collaborative document sharing. Since faculty and staff have a different user profile than students, and because of the collaborative nature of Google Apps, there are several caveats and circumstances about which University faculty and staff members particularly must be aware.
Yes. The message size limit is 25MB.
The 25MB message size limit includes all attachments. Other options for sharing files within the University are NetFiles or, if you're sharing files with someone in the same collegiate unit, Active Directory. Google Apps is designed to simplify file sharing by providing links to shared content rather than including it as an attachment, in order to ensure that people will be working and collaborating on the newest version.
There are multiple ways we can move accounts, while preserving old messages, and those options are being explored.
Yes. At this time, we plan to keep e-mail addresses the same.
Your University of Minnesota Google Apps account is totally separate from your personal Google/Gmail account, so nothing about your personal Google account will change. Your private account and institutional accounts will not be merged. Remember that you will need to use the University's central authentication process to access your University account. Log in at http://google.umn.edu. You will not be able to access your University account via the Google personal edition interface such as www.gmail.com, www.google.com/accounts, or www.google.com/ig.
You can access your account using your Internet ID. To login and backup your files, visit http://docs.umn.edu and http://sites.umn.edu before Monday, Sept. 7. If you wish to continue to use Google Apps, you will be able to sign up and opt in later this fall as part of the official University implementation.
The account you set up previously was established by an individual who used the available umn.edu domain name unofficially, and not by the Office of Information Technology (OIT). OIT has since taken over maintenance of this space and domain, and it is now officially University Google space. The address you need to look for documents to export, etc. is http://docs.umn.edu where you'll find links to the other apps, as well.
Information and help about how to export Google Docs is found in the Google Help Center at http://docs.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=15171. For help with Google Sites, visit http://sites.google.com/support/?hl=en.
Yes. Although it may change, the working plan is to keep e-mail addresses the same.
There may be difficulties in viewing or receiving information from University systems in some foreign countries. This challenge exists regardless of the service provider. Users are encouraged to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, which may, in some cases, lessen the difficulty.
The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) reviews and approves all contracts to which the University of Minnesota is a party. If you would like to get a copy of the Google contract, contact Susan McKinney at susanmckinney@mail.ogc.umn.edu.
Google calendar is not the official University of Minnesota calendar system, but does support syncing with many other calendar systems (via CalDAV support). We will not be able to sync Google Calendar with UMCal, the University's official enterprise calendaring system.
It is the plan that full calendar sharing will be allowed within the same campus, and that free/busy information will be sharable (for scheduling meetings, etc.) between campuses.
Google uses "labels" instead of folders to organize e-mail. You can assign multiple labels to a message.
GMail accounts are provided with 7GB of e-mail storage.
You can retrieve your Gmail messages with OIT-supported clients or devices that support IMAP, such as Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail, as well as with your mobile device, but you will need to set a Google desktop/mobile client password if you want to use either of those options. To read your Gmail with another e-mail client, you will need to use your Google Desktop (IMAP)/Mobile Client password to access your e-mail in that other client.
Gmail can be configured to work a number of e-mail clients and mobile devices. For a complete list of Gmail supported clients and setup guides, please visit Gmail's supported IMAP client list page.
To set up your desktop or mobile client or device after your new account has been established, follow the instructions for your particular client or device on the Google Help Center Web site, and use this University of Minnesota-specific information (Note—IMAP has been enabled for you already by the University):
1. Username—Enter your full University of Minnesota e-mail address (username@umn.edu).
2. Password—Enter the Google desktop/mobile client password you created.
3. E-mail Address—Enter your full University of Minnesota e-mail address again.
4. Incoming Mail Server—Enter imap.gmail.com.
5. Incoming Mail Port—Enter 993 and select Use SSL.
6. Outgoing Mail Server—Enter smtp.gmail.com.
7. Outgoing Mail Port—Enter 587 and select Use TLS.
While the Google Calendar will be available for use with the University's suite of applications, at this time it is not the official University of Minnesota calendar system. You will be able to use Google Calender with your iPhone. Complete information about Google Calendar, including a link to Google Calender for Mobile can be found at www.google.com/support/calendar/?ctx=ausers&hl=en.
U of M Google account users will need to use Google's autoreply, forwarding and mail filters features available in Gmail. The existing central functions will no longer be available to Google users. Please note that in Gmail, you cannot forward to more than one account as is now possible with the existing University user tools.
Aliases will continue to work as they do now. We will continue to accept mail for the various domains, such as @epi.umn.edu, forwarding them on to users whether they are in Google or not. However, you should note that the "To" and "Cc" lines will show the Google domain rather than the original domain. For example, e-mail addressed to user@epi.umn.edu will appear as "To: user@umn.edu" in Gmail. Likewise, useralias@umn.edu will show up as user@umn.edu in the Gmail.
Autoreplies will be sent by Google based on mail they receive and should work for those aliases, but that process is still in the testing phase.
Google does not offer Wave to the public at this time, but we expect that it eventually will be offered for use with Google Apps for Education. When that happens, a careful process of evaluation and testing will determine if we should add it to Google Apps for the University of Minnesota. We invite you to please check back once it has been rolled out for public use.
No. Gmail does not support sharing of mail folders.
Yes, but they will not have the ability to share documents with current students, staff, and faculty.
Default permissions and sharing settings currently are being worked out to balance flexibility and security. Updates will be provided as information becomes available.
Google Talk will be supported, and video chat has been enabled.
At this time, we are not creating any new user accounts in the University of Minnesota Google space. Existing user are able to continue using the space, and new accounts will be available when Google Apps goes live later in fall 2009.
Google's Help Centers support documents are available for your review at anytime at www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=portal_more.cs.
Additional documents with University of Minnesota-specific items are planned, and will be available at a later date.
Information, schedules, and registration for Google Apps hands-on and seminar training is available at http://uttc.umn.edu/training/courses/googleapps/index.jsp.
The e-mail application, Gmail, may be used with a screen reader for users with disabilities. More information is available at the related Google Help Center at http://uttc.umn.edu/training/courses/googleapps/index.jsp. The Google Docs Help Center on accessibility is not yet available, but University staff are working with Google on this issue.
Please send any questions or comments about the U of M Google Initiative to gpilot@umn.edu.
