Greetings!
I hope my note finds you well during this time. I write to inform you that Google has notified MICA of important changes that impact all mica.edu Google accounts.
Google has recently announced significant changes to the services they provide to colleges and universities. As you probably know, MICA uses Google’s platform — consisting of apps and services like GMail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Slides, Sheets etc — as one of its primary digital work and collaboration platforms.
Previously, Google provided institutions with unlimited pooled storage across the College for these services — imposing no limit on the amount of files / storage MICA could use. This will soon change as Google is ending unlimited storage for institutions.
How will this affect the College?
While more detailed information will be available on a soon-to-be launched website, the major effects on our community caused by this change will be:
Current students, faculty, staff, and department accounts will have a storage limit, projected to be about 15GB imposed on their accounts effective early-to-mid 2022*.
Alumni who currently have mica.edu accounts will transition from MICA’s Google services and mica.edu email address to a new alumni.mica.edu email forwarding service. Further information about this service will be provided shortly and will be available prior to the sunsetting of alumni mica.edu accounts — currently scheduled for December 2021*. Future alumni will transition to alumni.mica.edu email forwarding service accounts at graduation.
All of us will all have to change our overall mindset on file storage and be mindful of the amount of storage space we are using. Unlimited storage is ultimately unsustainable both economically and environmentally, making this transition, while inconvenient, one we all should ultimately embrace.
This change requires a rethinking and reallocation of storage across the board, which is why I felt it necessary to provide as much notice and support as possible. To this end we will be launching a website in the coming days that will provide additional information and resources to support the community through this transition
I will also be working collaboratively with all College areas including Alumni Relations, Academic Affairs, area Vice Presidents, and Student Affairs and providing additional support via campus information sessions and other channels. I encourage you to thoroughly review the information provided when the website is launched and to consider your storage usage prior to attending an information session.
*Dates may slightly shift as more product information becomes available. Alumni accounts consuming over 1TB may be retired prior to the December 2021 date due to security and sustainability concerns.*
Sincerely,
Alexa Kim
