The world's most powerful learning environment is going global with its e-mail addresses.

In addition to officially shifting the second half of the handle from @cwru.edu to @case.edu to come in line with the university's new branding initiative, Case Western Reserve University is aligning itself with the world by transforming the opening of online monikers from a person's initials and number (abc123) to firstname.lastname.

"Case Western Reserve University already is a world leader in information technology services with its switched gigabit ethernet and wireless connectivity throughout University Circle," said Lev Gonick, vice president for information technology and chief information officer. "Now we are adopting an e-mail convention that not only supports the branding effort but also is consistent throughout the university and easily understood around the globe."

Effective January 1 the default convention for university e-mail addresses officially will become firstname.lastname@case.edu. Legacy e-mail addresses will continue to function.

"Although original e-mail conventions will continue to work, I encourage all faculty, staff and students to shift to the new standard to ensure full functionality and convenience," Gonick said.

With the updated handles comes a new online directory system. Through Eudora or Outlook, faculty, staff and students can type in colleagues' or classmates' names to find their new usernames, alternate e-mail addresses and any aliases. For directions on how to set up directory services, go to http://www.case.edu/support/guide/help/email/ldap.html.

An individual can find his or her own firstname.lastname address by visiting https://cnswww.cns.case.edu/net/netinfo/lookupmailinfo.html. Individuals also can visit http://mail.cwru.edu, log in and click on the "options" button on the command bar at the top of the page to identify his or her new campus e-mail.

Return to the online edition of the 11-20-03 Campus News.