WKU officials sent out the following e-mail on Wednesday about upcoming changes to university e-mail accounts. Check Friday’s Herald for more on this story.

Dear WKU Students and Alumni –

We are pleased to announce that WKU is partnering with Microsoft to provide Students and Alumni with a new WKU email service called “TopperMail”.   Powered by Microsoft’s Live@EDU technology, the new TopperMail features a robust email client with integrated calendar, a number of versatile collaboration tools, and much more.

All active WKU email accounts for current Students and Alumni will be converted to TopperMail Accounts in early January 2011.  After Jan 3, 2011, all new students will receive TopperMail accounts when they enroll in classes and all graduating students (new Alumni) will keep their TopperMail accounts for life after graduation.

TopperMail will have many cool features and improvements over current Student/Alumni email:

• Email and Calendar — Integrated Outlook Web email and calendar with 10 GB of mailbox space and 20 MB attachments

• Messenger — Live chat, voice, and video communication on your computer and mobile device

• SkyDrive — Store, access, and share your files anywhere online with 25 GB of protected storage

• Spaces — Online workspace for collaboration.  Online access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint – viewing and editing

• Mobile — access and sync your email and calendar to your smart phone or mobile device

• Photo — Load, tag and share photos and make slideshows

There is nothing you need to do now.  We are still working on some of the implementation details and interfaces.  We will be sending additional announcements and instructions regarding the conversion schedule and how you access your new TopperMail account throughout November, December, and January.

Please DO NOT reply to this email.  While we understand this change generates questions, we are unable to respond individually to replies because of the large volume and size of this project.  We will be publishing a “Feedback” email address later and we will update our FAQs as common questions develop.

For more information on this project, please visit www.wku.edu/accounts and see the “TopperMail Accounts” links

Thanks.

Gordon Johnson, Jr.

Director Admin Systems and Applications

Western Kentucky University

270.745.6455