On May 30, MSU alumni who have not registered for classes for more than two years were notified their MSU email accounts and storage files, called AFS, would be deleted come August 31. Fifty to 100 emails and phone calls from concerned alumni, such as Allen, following the notice have forced the university to reconsider complete deactivation of these accounts, Vice Provost for Libraries and IT Services David Gift said.

“The last thing I want to do is spend hours going through all these (outside accounts linked to the MSU email address) and updating everything to my new email address and hoping that I didn’t miss anything,” Allen said.

Although MSU is looking into alternative options, currently alumni with accounts set to be deactivated have until the end of August to transfer any emails or files they want to keep by following instructions on the Academic Technology Services website.

“I like being able to identify myself to other people as an MSU (graduate),” alumnus Marcus Sanborn said. “It seems there should be a way for me to pay to keep what I really want to keep.”

According to MSU officials and alumni, an email was sent on May 30 by MSU IT Services Support informing all former students who have been unregistered for over two years that their email accounts and storage files would expire on June 26. After receiving large amounts of negative feedback, a second email was sent the same day, apologizing for the short notice and extending the deactivation date to August 31.

Before a surge in the outpouring of concern from alumni, Gift had said in a previous interview that continuing the email service for free or by payment would not be feasible.

“It’ll take some time to work through the alternatives, but they are getting some active consideration,” Gift said of ideas alumni have submitted to avoid the looming deletion date.

Scott Westerman, associate vice president for alumni relations and executive director of the MSU Alumni Association, said he has heard of similar issues with deleting alumni accounts in several other Big Ten schools, and many universities don’t let alumni keep their email in the first place.

“The thing I have empathy for is the love we all have for the Spartan brand,” Westerman said. “I would want to find a solution that wouldn’t put an additional burden on the university.”

Gift said the decision to delete these accounts has been in discussion for years due to the high volume of information being stored, the high costs associated with running the system and the MSU IT Services’ interest in finding a system including more sophisticated email and calendar services, which typically is priced by the number of users. He said in the future, if no other alternative for deletion is made available, alumni email and AFS accounts will be deactivated annually.

There are about 250,000 accounts currently in MSU’s system, said Gift. Nearly 117,000 account holders were notified they would be deleted.

Part of the issue with this decision has been due to what Gift said was a misunderstanding about former MSU president M. Peter McPherson’s Technology Guarantee, which states “MSU alumni will have affordable lifelong technological access and two postgraduate years of free email access.”

Many alumni were under the impression they would have some kind of access to their MSU email for life due to this guarantee.

Gift said the vague use of language and difference in the meaning of technology in 1996, when the guarantee was made, and today has caused this confusion, but nothing officially stated alumni would have their email for life.

“We don’t feel good about needing to do this, but it’s become necessary,” Gift said.