There’s a new bear at Barnard.
Students have begun testing out Barnard’s new web-based Google email system, which provides users with several applications, including “gBear” email, calendars, and contacts. The opportunity to migrate from the previous Barnard College Webmail system to gBear began on Monday morning, and will continue every weekday until winter break.
The shift is meant to make communication easier and more efficient, and most say they are excited to say farewell to the old-fashioned, outdated system.
“Barnard Webmail is kind of a hassle,” Gabrielle Ferrara, BC ’12, said. “It’s slow and it doesn’t sync as quickly. It’s frustrating to have a million emails go to my Barnard account, and I don’t check it as often because it’s unreliable.”
GBear offers a mailbox size that is 15 times bigger than the current Barnard Webmail system, and the Google search engine makes it easier to search through archived messages.
Natasha Cline-Thomas, BC ’12, said she thinks Google Apps is the best system because students “can pretty much sync their lives to one server.”
Though Barnard mail is now more appealing, some students said they will continue to sync all their mail to one Gmail address.
“I still don’t want to use two different emails,” Lily Friedman, BC ’11 said. “It’s good to have everything synced to one account.”
Other students, like Marilyn Erazo, BC ’14, prefer to keep their Barnard and Gmail email accounts separate.
“My Gmail account is personal and my Barnard account is for school,” Erazo said. “I don’t want to have them mixed together.”
One benefit for students who prefer to maintain two email accounts is that they will be able to have both a Gmail account and a gBear account open on the same window at the same time, a feature that is not permitted with multiple Gmail accounts.
Academic Computing Expert Rosemary Bramante, BC ’12, said that another reason to move toward Google Apps is the calendar feature, which is set up so that anyone on the Barnard network can see another students’ “busy hours,” or when they are unavailable.
“GBear is similar to Gmail, but it’s exclusive to Barnard,” Bramante said. “It [gBear Calendar] will make it more convenient for study groups to schedule.”
In a survey recently conducted by Barnard College Information Technology, students gave positive feedback on gBear, and based on responses, BCIT has been making various system adjustments including interface redesigns.
“We want to continue to stay ahead of the curve,” Nicole Williams, BCIT Manager of Student Computing, said in an email. “We plan to continue making user-friendly improvements, stay up-to-date on the latest Google offerings, and look into rolling out additional Google Apps.”
Ultimately, the lack of space was the main concern that many students had with the previous system.
“The space was a problem with Barnard Webmail,” said Mia Neustein, BC ’11 and Academic Computing Expert. “Now that we’re switching over to gBear, I don’t think we’ll have to deal with that at all.”
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