University officials said seniors will receive sufficient notification before their e-mail service is terminated after graduation.

Director of Alumni Benefits and Services Jason Miller said the University would like to give seniors “two or three months notice at least” before their current addresses become inactive.

“We would not make a decision to cut (seniors’) e-mails off in the middle of May,” Miller said.

Graduating seniors will receive “@alumni.gwu.edu” accounts when their current Webmail subscriptions expire. Seniors can either choose a new username or keep their current one, provided that another student does not take the name first. All e-mail names must contain at least six characters, not including the “@alumni.gwu.edu” portion.

The new addresses will act as forwarding accounts, which will bounce all incoming mail to alternate addresses. An outside company will manage the accounts.

“I think the e-mail forwarding service we’re marketing right now is a very, very valuable benefit … and we are committed to that in the long term,” Miller said.

Despite a common misconception that all alumni since the class of 1999 could have lifetime “@gwu.edu” account use, officials said the policy was not that clear-cut.

“It was never a policy that (alumni) would get e-mail forever,” Miller said. “We were very careful to say in our communications that they were welcome to use their accounts, (but) we never put a time frame on it.”

Guy Jones, chief technology officer, said, “there was nothing in writing” that specified a policy, and providing the free service was only a transitional move before the University could acquire a service like the one being implemented.

“We were providing services on a temporary basis to alumni just to provide the service … to hold it. It was like a Band-aid,” Jones said.

Jones said the current system was built to accommodate what was anticipated to be the faculty, staff and student load and that the alumni population is ever-growing.

“If you have a residence hall, you put the first five hundred people in it and it’s comfortable,” Jones said. “Try to put another five hundred people into it … it would get a little bit more crowded.”

Although ISS officials considered implementing a forwarding system from alumni’s “@gwu.edu” accounts, the forwarding system would also add to the strain on the e-mail system.

Several students said they are upset about the change, despite the University’s attempt to make the new system attractive.

“I would pay $5 a year, whatever, just to keep my GW e-mail account,” senior Allison Alvarez said.

Although Alvarez said she understood why the University made the change, she said she is frustrated with the lack of information coming out of the University about how the policy changes will affect current seniors.

“I just wish they’d tell us exactly what’s going on,” she said.

Some other students said they do not mind the policy.

“It’s certainly a little disappointing, but I’ll survive. I’ve used my Yahoo e-mail address for most things that really matter, anyway,” senior Kyle Wilkenson said.

Alumni office officials said they will encourage graduates to be involved with the University and continue donating after they leave.

Marsh said she hopes the change in policy will not affect alumni giving.

-T. Neil Sroka contributed to this report.