T-mail — the future of The University of Tennessee’s communication. Or is it?

Though the migration process is long and slow, T-mail may one day replace the archaic Webmail most UT students are currently using. As early November nears, the Office of Information Technology is eager to start helping the student body migrate to the system. But do all students really want to switch?

The SGA, which has already experienced the migration, responded positively. Student Body Vice President Michael Chirico, a senior in political science, is very happy with the new e-mail system.

“T-mail makes my life a little less hectic,” Chirico said. “I’d like to see the whole student body be brought over to this system, and hopefully that will happen soon, as soon as we get a few kinks worked out.”

The majority of the Career Services Department has also migrated to T-mail. Norman Rivera, a junior in engineering and employee of Career Services, praises the new system.

“T-mail is the bomb-diggity,” Rivera said. “It is almost as user-friendly as the current Webmail system, except it has many more features that won’t hinder everyday e-mail use, and it can handle heavier loads.”

Getting T-mail set up for freshmen like Brent Castro, a potential architecture major, is as easy as registering on the UT network. It’s included in the UT’s web-security bundle for new students. Though Castro has never experienced the love-hate relationship that older students have with Webmail, he nevertheless is highly impressed with the client.

“It’s faster than I expected,” Castro said. “When my brother started college a couple years ago, he ran into a lot of frustration with the e-mail system, but I really haven’t experienced any of the frustration that juniors and seniors express about Webmail.”

Yet, many students, especially seniors, would prefer not to migrate to T-mail.

Will Strahl, a senior in psychology, is adamantly against the switch.

“I think T-mail will be a waste of my time,” Strahl said. “Webmail works perfectly fine for me, and I’m graduating soon so it’s just going to make things complicated.”

Strahl also said though T-mail offers more features, he probably will not have the time to utilize them to their full advantage.

John Paul Hampstead, a senior in English literature, agreed.

“I don’t see any pressing need to switch to T-mail,” Hampstead said. “I’m fine with Webmail. If it’s not working, I go to the IMAP server and everything is fine.”

Some seniors are indifferent about the move.

Courtney Carmichael, another senior English literature major, said that she really hasn’t thought about the T-mail migration but is willing to try it out.

“I haven’t tried T-mail yet, so I really don’t have an opinion one way or another,” Carmichael said. “If a link is sent to my e-mail and I have enough time, I would probably check it out. It’s not something I’m going to go seek out, but I’m a little curious about it.”

Nevertheless, for most UT students, T-mail seems to be on its way. For those weary of migrating, installing T-mail is a simple automatic download, involving only your Net ID and password. There are also step-by-step tutorials posted on OIT’s Web site, http://oit.utk.edu/.

OIT hopes that T-mail will be ready for the entire UT populace migration as soon as possible.