By now, it's no secret that the School of Arts and Sciences Webmail sucks (another reason why I like being an engineer). Since 11:45 p.m. this past Tuesday, SAS Webmail hasn't been working, displaying a "Server is currently down" message instead and notifying the user it will be fixed as soon as possible.
I don't know what their idea of "soon" is, but for me, more than 12 hours is anything but soon.
Right now, as I write this column in a corner of Harnwell College House's computer lab at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, I've discovered that e-mail is working again (imagine me, sitting here, frantically refreshing the main SAS Webmail site every three seconds). So that's a little more than 16 hours without e-mail.
Hey, maybe it's no big deal. Maybe I'm just a computer freak (some prefer to call us Computer Science and Engineering majors) who can't imaging living without e-mail (oh no), Internet (oh my) or a computer (Oh my god!!) for more than 30 seconds.
But no. My dreams of being unique, at least this time, are not coming true. Either we're all computer freaks, or there's a great deal of people that have been significantly affected by 16 hours of non-functional e-mail.
"It certainly affects my work today. The end of the semester is the most hectic time, and we have relied so heavily on e-mails to receive and send important information. It's like a blackout [on] Christmas Eve," said Yijuan Chen, a teaching assistant for intermediate microeconomics.
Besides affecting our academic world, though, e-mail failure also impacts our social lives.
"I'm an RA, and I'm planning an event for my floor, and at this time of the year the turnout for floor events can get pretty low. Without e-mail, I can't remind my residents about the event, which I'm thinking about canceling," said College junior Sathish Subramanian.
Indeed, in a crucial period of the semester -the last week of classes- professors and TAs often need to communicate important announcements to the class: the dates of final review sessions and clarifications about homework, final papers or final exams. Not to mention that many students rely on e-mail to meet for group assignments and projects.
Thankfully, as you may know, the University is already planning on switching to a new e-mail provider, either Google or Microsoft. According to a recent Daily Pennsylvanian article, students on the Computing Advisory Board have already chosen a provider, which they have not revealed to date. Now, the final decision is in the hands of University administrators, and the new e-mail service is scheduled to be introduced in January.
Good move.
Right now, however, the issue is that e-mail has stopped functioning in a crucial period of the semester. Crashes like this are unacceptable, especially when students pay a "technology fee" each semester.
What's more, when I tried to interview an Information Technology Advisor in Harnwell's computer lab, I was told that their "manager told us we can't be quoted" on this issue.
This brings us to another subject. Granted, SAS Webmail is not very good and the University is already looking into a more reliable provider. In the meantime, however, as long as it continues to fail, better measures could be taken in order to inform the Penn community about the situation.
For instance, people who are not College students may not be aware of the fact that their colleagues' e-mail accounts are not working. Thus, they may send important information without realizing that their messages will not be read until e-mail starts working again (assuming, of course, that no messages are lost during the blackout).
In these situations, the University could send e-mails to the non-College community, promptly informing them of the issue and providing an estimated time for when e-mail will be working again. At the very least, a message could be put on the PennPortal Web site.
Hopefully, with our new e-mail provider, events like this will cease to occur. Until then, let's hope this won't happen again during reading days or final exams. And, if it does, let's do all we can to ensure that everyone is informed.
Agustin Torres is an Engineering sophomore from Monterrey, Mexico. His e-mail address is torres@dailypennsylvanian.com. The Friday Burrito now appears on Fridays.
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