Neither rain, nor sleet nor dead of night will keep the postman from his route. That is, unless your postman is the College's e-mail system, because about now, the United States Postal Service is starting to look like a good alternative. The service upon which thousands of people rely has proven to be unreliable yet again this week.
And it could not have come at a worse time, with students in the midst of midterms, class projects and job interviews.
Such inconsistency in service is unacceptable.
Students should have a reasonable expectation that when they log on to check their official University e-mail account that it will work. Since August, that expectation has not been met four times.
In the most recent case, technicians cite a failure in a "redundant" server. Obviously, redundancy is lacking in this system.
At this point, switching to some other e-mail services seems attractive. At least a company like Google, who offers the free Web-based e-mail service Gmail, takes care to monitor that its service is always up and running. But for many, having the upenn.edu domain attached to their communications lends due credibility and professionalism.
The College's IT department owes it to everyone who uses its services to keep things running smoothly as if everything were "mission critical." For the most part, that obligation is met. But when it is not, the adverse effects are enormous.
The existing system has a track record of lapses in reliability. If such problems continue, it may become time for the College to look into alternatives, such as Wharton's Microsoft Exchange-based system.
Otherwise, a thick book of stamps might be a good choice.
