The Teaching, Learning and Technology Center received reports that students were indicating e-mails sent from faculty and administrators were being captured by their built-in spam filter and deposited into their junk mail box, according to TLTC Director Paul Fisher.
Fisher said the problem is due to difficulties in the wireless domain system within the faculty and student e-mail accounts through the Microsoft Office Outlook system.
"This behavior is a response to an inadvertent change to the way e-mail routed at Microsoft. The change was enacted to protect against an increase in the distribution of junk mail and identity theft scams, called phishing, to the Live@EDU e-mail service," Fisher said.
Seton Hall University IT support staff notified the Microsoft Office Outlook Company of this issue and the problem was resolved within 24 hours of being notified.
"A lot of my emails, especially from professors and the office of the provost and broadcast announcements were going into my junk folder," sophomore Elizabeth Berger said. She said her e-mail problems were solved on April 16, but she was experiencing problems for at least a month.
"If a student finds legitimate e-mail in his (or) her junk e-mail folder, students should right click on the message and select the option of ‘Add Sender's Domain (@example.com) to Safe Senders List' from the right click menu," Fisher said. "Doing this will create a rule within your e-mail account to have it allow SHU.EDU messages to bypass the e-mail account's junk mail filters."
Computer fundamentals professor Vivienne Baldini Carr said she experienced a problem with the Microsoft Outlook Office and was able to contact the help desk assistance to resolve her issue.
"Any junk e-mail is being caught by the Quarantine filtering software which is excellent," Baldini-Carr said. "I had one or two e-mails I received that (were) spam and I contacted the help desk and they sent me an e-mail back saying to disregard the e-mail and then sent out a broadcast message about the virus."
Junior Robert Hough said that he has had mulitple problems with his Seton Hall e-mail, but the junk folder issue is the most recent.
"When I can open my mail, it sends legitimate e-mails from professors and administrators into my spam box so I'm not aware of them," Hough said. "It's rather annoying because PCSS always tells me that ‘it's not a software or technical problem, so it must be the internet connection,' even when I have perfect internet."
There have been suggestions among students that Seton Hall's domain system should include Google Mail accounts instead of the Windows Live accounts that the university has presently.
Other colleges have already converted their e-mail systems to Gmail. According to a report from National Public Radio, Google offers schools the Gmail system for free, significantly cutting costs during tough economic times. Univerisites have to pay to keep server space, and Google has lately aimed to be a cheaper alternative.
To date there are about 7.5 million students world-wide who use Google services and Gmail.
Google also offers applications that are specialized for universities.
Seton Hall has opted out of Google Mail because of the amount of free document storage available in the MS Office Suite.
"Many other factors played into the selection as well, including that the interface was the same for students, faculty and employees making the support of everyone's e-mail account much more efficient."
Hough said that he would rather the university switch to Gmail.
"Windows Live just isn't cutting it," he said.
Berger uses both Gmail and Outlook and said she preferred the Outlook system Seton Hall uses.
"I like the format of it and I think it's easy to navigate through." Berger said. "It's the e-mail system that I know and am familiar with the most. Seton Hall e-mail is the only one I ever really use."
Jacqueline DeBenedetto can be reached at jacqueline.debenedetto@student.shu.edu.
