Outlook Ousts FirstClass: FC Sorely Missed Change Spurred by Administrators Looking for a Better Service
By Gilbert Tetteh ‘08
News Staff Reporter
The Choate Rosemary Hall community was recently introduced to the capabilities of a modern and emerging e-mail system called Exchange. However, hand-in-hand with this establishment came the demise of the campus’ beloved FirstClass e-mail server.
The students and faculty were informed of the switch during the summer, but were not given much of an idea of exactly what to expect. With the new system now implemented and well-established, there has been a polarization of the school in its reaction to the unfamiliar e-mail system. This was not completely unexpected, as the faculty and Student Council were not granted a say in the ultimate decision, although they had expressed concerns.
Exchange is an e-mail server produced by Microsoft with various pathways for connection. Microsoft Windows systems can use Microsoft Outlook while Macs commonly use the Microsoft Entourage program. There are also various third-party solutions available. Members of the community without any of these programs are able to utilize the web component, appropriately named CHIP (Choate Information Place), though the programs are supplied for free via Choate’s Information Technology Services Department.
FirstClass was arguably more user-friendly than Outlook or the other Exchange clients. It was loaded with several features (conference, private chat, unsend, history, etc.) that have the majority of students and some faculty negatively responding to the switch over to Exchange.
Students interviewed for this article did not express much enthusiasm for the new system. Dan Thomas ’08 said, “I miss the little red flags when you get an e-mail.”
“I miss The P-Cup Conference and the instant messenger,” commented Alex Reiss ’08.
Some community members have articulated a sense of lost identity during the switch over. For about a week in the process of inaugurating Exchange, teachers like Andrew Murgio were unable to receive e-mails sent to the faculty as a whole.
Marissa Hunter-Mingrino ’07 asserted, “CHIP doesn’t think that I exist sometime. It doesn’t recognize me.”
This response to the omitted system is understandable because of the effortlessness with which FirsClass operated and the complexities of maneuvering through Exchange.
As a result of the shift, students have asserted that it is harder for club conferences to communicate or know who is online if one needs to quickly instant message a friend or a teacher for deadline reminders.
Some students have said they want to be able to un-send e-mail and not have to recreate address groups. The Faculty wants to check the history of their sent e-mails to ensure that all their students received the homework assignment. Deans, who had to switch over in the summer, and some faculty, were assisted in the transition process by ITS, but some students found it difficult to move their FirstClass e-mails into their Exchange inbox on their own.
The entire faculty was informed of the switch last spring but some are still holding out, taking comfort in knowing how to navigate through FirstClass. What was supposed to be a systematic departmental conversion has now turned into a selective renovation of the e-mail accounts of those faculty members who volunteer.
There is still hope, though, to complete the adaptation to Exchange of the entire community by December with the aid of ITS in moving e-mails and providing training for the older faculty who have grown attached to FirstClass.
Andrew Speyer, Acting Director of ITS, replied to all this by saying, “I acknowledge there are some FirstClass features that will be missed by the people of the community; however, I hope people will discover all that Exchange has to offer.”
He was also quick to point out the hundreds of other features on Outlook and Entourage that the FirstClass e-mail system lacked, such as shared calendars and tasks lists. Admittedly, it will take a while before any of these new features are put to use on a large scale by the Choate community.
So what exactly prompted the interchanging of e-mail servers?
First, a lot of colleges and some of our peer including Deerfield, Andover, and Exeter have already made the switch to Exchange from other e-mail systems.
The decision, at Choate and elsewhere, was mainly made in light of budgetary benefits. The school is not obliged to pay a separate fee for Exchange due to the Microsoft contract it is already engaged in; FirstClass presented additional costs.
However, budgetary benefits and staying in sync with our peer schools were not the chief reasons prompting the switch. “We were looking for one e-mail system that met all the needs of the whole community, and FirstClass did not meet the needs of the administrative staff”, explained Speyer.
Exchange offers calendaring, which one can use to schedule daily meetings and commitments, publish them, and give access to them to others it if it is a group schedule.
Attributes such as this can definitely profit the students, administrators, faculty, and staff in the long-term. According to Speyer, all in all, this new system is far more robust in what it offers, such as a task list and contacts with the ability to add pictures and more details. It does, however, fail to completely replace the history, un-send, and conferencing functions of FirstClass, three features that will be sorely missed by all.
Meeting FirstClass halfway, there is a request receipt feature, though this mechanism is not automatic and a public folder for community clubs and groups with more a complex route. There is also a cumbersome “Recall” function that works almost like un-send, but leaves a receipt in the mailbox of the recipient and only works some of the time.
Another good feature of Exchange is that it integrates well with Blackboard, Daily News, and the school website. Users are able to click back-and-forth from e-mails to calendars to Blackboard.
Not all members of the community are dead-set against Exchange. In fact, Mr. Stanley, Dean of Fourth Form Boys, enjoys that he can set rules that file e-mails into folders to save time and space in his inbox.
Other faculty members are not so happy with the change, and are holding onto FirstClass as long as they can.
Mr. Cobbett proclaimed, “I will be on FirstClass until ITS drags me over to Outlook.”
“The difficult part, I would imagine, would be in the switch itself,” said Ms. Shea.
Mr. Stowe attempted to explain these reservations, saying, “Outlook is workable, but there are many things I miss about FirstClass, like unsend and history.”
School president, Jeff Rosen ’07 admits, “The fact is, this is permanent and we have to learn to live with it.”
