On May 30, MSU alumni not registered for over two years were informed their @msu.edu email accounts would be deleted. Since then, the university and alumni association has received an earful from upset alumni who want to keep their email addresses.

“I like to take graduate classes now and then … and I might have a two-year gap,” Alana Tuckey said. “I wish that they would make an option for more lifelong learners like Steven and I.”

Due to alumni response to the issue, MSU is exploring other alternatives to complete deactivation of alumni accounts, said Vice Provost for Libraries and IT Services David Gift. Unless an alternative has been decided on before the email account expiration date, August 31, nearly 117,000 accounts will be deleted as planned.

Alumni Technology

Technology is one of the greatest issues when it comes to interactions between alumni and their alma mater, said Carnegie Mellon University Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Andy Shaindlin, who founded the website alumnifutures.com.

Shaindlin has been a part of a number of universities’ alumni relations departments, including the University of Michigan.

“Technology gives alumni access to people and information on their own, so they don’t really need the university like they used to,” Shaindlin said.

“Alumni offices are left looking for a unique role to play.”

Many universities are dealing with issues surrounding the need to delete alumni emails, said Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations and Executive director of the MSU Alumni Association Scott Westerman.

Nearly all Big Ten universities have plans for alumni email accounts listed on their websites or available information through their information technology departments.

Various actions taken by universities when it comes to these alumni accounts include forwarding accounts, separate alumni accounts, continued access based on continued use and lifetime access.

Westerman said in an email that MSU has offered a separate alumni email address for nearly 10 years but will be deactivating the final accounts in July because of lack of use.

Alumni benefits vary from university to university and can be based on an alumni association’s use of either a free or by-payment system. MSU, like many universities, have both membership and nonmembership benefits. For some universities, a membership benefit can include alumni email accounts.

“MSUAA’s relationship with our alumni is definitely improving. Our satisfaction scores are regularly in the upper echelons,” Westerman said.

“One big contributor is our ability to pass alumni feedback on issues like (alumni email) up the chain. We make sure alumni voices are heard.”

MSU’s Future
Part of the reason for deleting alumni email accounts has to do with MSU’s IT Services pursuing more sophisticated email systems with better calendaring services, which typically bases costs off of the number of users, Gift said.

Gift said MSU is in the “examining” stage of a Microsoft email system, Microsoft 365.
“The reason that we’re attracted to it is that Microsoft has offered legal terms … that satisfy a lot of our security and beta privacy,” Gift said.

Gift said there is nothing wrong with the current system, but when looking into future email services, many vendors do not provide protection in line with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA.

Microsoft 365 would provide protection fitting these standards he said.

Gift said cost is also an issue. The current system averages a cost of $600,000 are year, with individual accounts costing about $2.25 per year.

Eli Broad College of Business information technology professor Vallabh Sambamurthy said the costs per user aren’t the primary issues — the people who have to maintain the system are.

“(Universities) don’t have the luxury of paying more and more people to do those things — cost is always an issue but the bigger issue is being more flexible,” Sambamurthy said, adding that when systems are larger, it takes away time that individuals who maintain the system can spend working on more important things.

Gift said in peek hours on weekdays, five million emails are being sent. Gift said about two to three people manage MSU’s hardware system on average at a given time.

Alumni Relations
Since the announcement about alumni email deletion was made, over 380 alumni have called the help desk, university officials or sent emails voicing their concerns, making suggestions and asking questions, Gift said.

Although MSU has been struggling with negative feedback from the decision to delete alumni email accounts, Shaindlin said this could be a good thing.

“Someone that complains … (they) really care about their relationship with a university,” Shaindlin said. “Where you have a problem is where a person doesn’t complain because they’ve given up on the relationship.”

Shaindlin said the differences in alumni relationships with their university can also be based on the type of alumni association the institution uses, either a payment-based membership or free membership.

“Where there is (paid) membership, alumni have a slight different relationship … they might expect to get more benefits,” he said.

Despite some negative alumni feedback, Sambamurthy sees this as an opportunity for the university.

“What I would hope is that people don’t see this as an email issue (but) more of an effective communication issue,” Sambamurthy said.

“As long as the deletion of email accounts are part of a broader strategy … and they’re going to replace the email communication with another form of communication, then I understand the logic behind doing this.”

For the Tuckeys, MSU’s Alumni Association would be more appealing if they could pay for continued use of their email.

“I think it would be worthwhile fiscally for them,” Steven Tuckey said. “I would definitely join the alumni association if that were the … perk.”