Kelley Bradder, vice president of information services and chief information officer, visited a Student Government Association (SGA) meeting last Wednesday, Feb. 16 to discuss details of the much-anticipated new e-mail system.

While Bradder raised concerns about some details that still need to be worked out, she remains optimistic that all goals will eventually be met.

“These are all solvable issues,” Bradder said. “It’s not a slam dunk, but it’s all doable.”

According to Bradder and the information she provided SGA at the meeting, those concerns include whether or not Simpson will provide information back up with the new e-mail system.

Currently, Simpson is able to retrieve lost information for students from their e-mail accounts, but Simpson may not do that in the future.

Bradder said institutions such as Drake University and Luther College currently do not provide such a service for its students. She also said that Information Services has retrieved lost research papers and projects in the past for students. If Simpson chooses to continue to back up e-mail systems for students, it will also need to decide whether or not to have that hosted on campus or off campus.

All these issues need to be decided upon before Information Services or SGA can move forward with a new e-mail system.

Ryan Lane, sophomore and co-chair of SGA’s technology committee, said SGA still hopes to implement the new e-mailing system this year.

“The technology committee for SGA is responsible for everything electronic at Simpson,” Lane said. “We work to improve any technology we can on campus by either our own means or by encouraging other departments and offices on campus to make improvements themselves.”

SGA hopes that the new e-mailing system will eventually provide students with the ability to subscribe to certain group’s e-mails.

The idea for a “filtering system” originated because “students were complaining of receiving too many irrelevant e-mails,” Lane said.

SGA is always looking for suggestions from students on changes that they would like to see put into place, Lane said.

Mary Kaufmann, freshman senator and co-chair of SGA’s technology committee, said that with a new e-mail system, students will also be able to keep e-mail accounts afer graduation. According to Kaufmann, that would be “great for alumni.”

“We want to make sure that the program fits what the students want,” Kaufmann said. “(Information Services) is working to make a smooth transition. (The e-mailing system) will have to be shut down for a certain amount of time – hopefully for no more than a day.”