It is a rare and invaluable occurrence on campus when student advocacy leads to far-reaching changes and benefits for students. Even rarer is when substantial policy change is enacted that serves not only current students, but also alumni. After two years of engaging our campus administration, current ASSU President David Gobaud’s collaborations with University leaders led to an announcement that students and alumni would be allowed to retain their @stanford.edu e-mail addresses for life.

This announcement was made in the fall, and by the time the winter quarter arrived there was serious doubt regarding the permanence of the change. The ASSU once again reached out to the University, hoping that IT Services and the administration would be able to ensure that the plan was carried out. This time around, unfortunately, the plan was deemed unfeasible and last week upon leaving a meeting regarding the policy President Gobaud was made aware that the graduating class of 2009 would soon lose their @stanford.edu e-mail addresses.

In rescinding their decision to forward Stanford e-mail addresses for life, the University cited administrative errors and significant complications that would arise from maintaining the privilege. Since the policy has been retracted, countless students are struck by the swift reversal of a program that would make all students transitions from Stanford much more seamless.

Undaunted by the University’s sudden reversal, Gobaud is working to see the plan reinstated before the end of his term in the executive. He has employed his thorough knowledge of the University to engage undergraduate and graduate student leaders across the University. He has also garnered countless student leader signatures on a letter in which his concerns are succinctly expressed.

In the meantime, the Editorial Board hopes that the administration will recognize the need and desire for lifelong @stanford.edu e-mail addresses and reinstate their original offer. There are relevant concerns regarding forwarding @stanford.edu e-mails for life, but all can be addressed. Worries of not being able to reuse e-mail addresses or exhausting potential new SUNetIDs ring hollow, as SUNetIDs are already reserved for perpetuity.  An auto-reply that would be sent to those who e-mail alumni would make it impossible for anyone to pretend they are a current student. Also, the immeasurable benefits of e-mail forwarding and the commoditization of e-mail outweigh the cost of increasing forwarding obligations.

If allowed to retain our @stanford.edu for life, the access to accounts and resources tied to our e-mail addresses will be more readily accessible, freeing newly-graduated students one more burden to consider in their transition to the real world. We encourage President Hennessy and Provost Etchemendy to push for the implementation of the plan as it originally stood prior to the retraction. Though not without small concerns and challenges, preserving student e-mail accounts for life would go a long way towards helping the administration match their rhetoric of concern for student input and preference.