Thomas College Alumni E-mailing, Sharing Information with Ease

Now using Microsoft’s Windows Live @ EDU system, version 2

WATERVILLE, Feb. 2—Thomas College has upgraded its alumni e-mail services to version two of Microsoft’s Windows Live @ EDU system, allowing access to a variety of Microsoft services and sharing of information for free.

            The College is one of only a handful of colleges in the nation that is using version two of Microsoft’s Windows Live @ EDU system. The web-based system offers Thomas alumni free e-mail, address-book capabilities, a calendar, cell-phone alerts and synchronization with Microsoft Office products.

            More than 250 of Thomas’ 6,400 alumni, or about 4 percent, have signed up so far, according to Christopher Rhoda, VP for information services. “This partnership between Microsoft and Thomas provides alumni with e-mail and other Windows Live services for life. The system does this without using the College’s bandwidth,” he said, adding, “If we were to offer the same type of service, it would cost Thomas at least $50 per alumni per year.”

The version 2 upgrade further provides Thomas alumni with these enhanced features:

·         Display of Thomas’ logo and links to some choice Thomas’ Web site pages on the Windows Live mail interface

·         The ability to rename or change e-mail addresses

·         Ability to import and export calendars, e-mail addresses and other lists between students’ accounts and alumni accounts.

·         Increased storage space to 4Gb (available spring 2007)

Since October 2006, Thomas has partnered with Microsoft to provide all alumni with free e-mail and other services through the Windows Live site. The Windows Live partnership has given Thomas alumni access to:

·         An @alumni.thomas.edu e-mail account and Windows Live identification

·         Cell-phone alerts when new e-mails arrive

·         An address book

·         A Calendar

·          Synchronization of these items with other Microsoft Office products

·         2Gb of storage space

·         Customized opportunities within Windows Live such as shopping, searching, weather, news and maps

Thomas College is a private, career-oriented college that prepares its undergraduate and graduate students for careers in business, technology and education. Thomas is the only college in the nation that guarantees its graduates employment within six months of graduation. For more information about Thomas, please visit www.thomas.edu.

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