Contact: Cathy Smith, Information Services, (785) 864-0419; or Mike Wellman, Kansas Alumni Association, (785) 864-4760.
LAWRENCE - University of Kansas graduates usually take with them mementos that will last a lifetime, from a diploma and class ring to fanatical devotion to Jayhawk basketball. Now add a KU e-mail address.
KU's Academic Computing Services has created a permanent e-mail forwarding service that has been offered initially to class of 2000 graduates and will eventually be offered to all KU alumni through the Kansas Alumni Association Web site, http://www.kualumni.org.
"It's a wonderful service to provide to alums," said Cathy Smith, assistant vice chancellor for information services. "It's a virtual community for alumni, and we have the unique ability to provide it."
The free service allows graduates to establish a permanent, lifelong e-mail address at KU - name@kualumni.org - that will forward e-mail to the graduate's current e-mail address no matter where they end up living and working.
While personal or work e-mail addresses can change as people switch jobs or Internet providers, the KU address will never change. The graduate can repeatedly change his forwarding address and continue to receive e-mail sent to the KU e-mail address. The service presently has a few hundred subscribers, Smith said.
"I've gotten a lot of positive feedback," said Mike Wellman, director of special projects at the Alumni Association. "I've talked to a lot of young people who think it is really cool."
Other universities such as Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., Northern Illinois University in De Kalb, Ill., and Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., have recently launched similar services for alumni.