Students will soon have the option to set a preferred email account at UAOnline, allowing them to choose what email account they receive university correspondence from instead of having to use the assigned email account from the university.

All university correspondence previously went through the university generated email accounts. This system ensured that the student was receiving all emails securely, but many students were not checking their university email accounts. In many cases students already had an established email, and the university email address was more a burden than a benefit. As a result, many important messages from the university to the student were not being received.

This policy allows students to go to UAOnline and choose which email address they prefer for university correspondence. This new system will take time since it involves a variety of processes and forms, many which have to be manually adjusted. In the interim, students can forward their university email address.

The first system to use the new preferred email accounts is the wait listing system. A student signs up for wait listing when a class is full, but they still want to take the course. If the course opens, an email will be sent to the first student on the wait list about enrollment.

Eventually, all university communications will be directed toward preferred email accounts, no later than Dec. 2012. An awareness campaign about the preferred email accounts will be launched later this fall as additional email communications and process are ready to move to the new preferred address.