Baruch College is implementing a major email change in the middle of the academic year just weeks before the end of the semester, which is not a smart decision.
Stephen Giannotti, the vice president for information services and chief information officer at Baruch, sent out a campus-wide email on Feb. 11 informing students about upcoming changes to their current email accounts.
The email specified that over the 2026 spring break, all Baruch student email accounts would transition to CUNY email accounts, with students not needing to take action during the transitional period.
While the announcement briefly mentioned potential benefits, the timing and communication surrounding this decision are very poor.
Spring break does not signal a new beginning for students; it is a brief pause from a demanding semester and is not a time to implement major changes.
It is a confusing disruption that should take place over the summer — such as the 2024 Brightspace rollout did — before the start of the new academic year, as students and faculty can adjust without the pressure of active coursework. A summer rollout would give time to test the system, identify technical issues and resolve them before students must rely on it for an entire school year.
Since the announcement, there has been no follow-up communication clarifying how this will work in practice, leaving students to speculate on the next steps.
Baruch must further clarify how the transition will work, as one campus-wide email is not sufficient.
The email also mentioned the introduction of multiple associated email addresses, which, if meant to simplify communication, only seems to complexify matters.
Baruch did clarify that students will have access to their original school email inboxes “for an extended period,” without specifying the exact duration. The upside is the old inbox will be linked to the new CUNY inbox, ensuring communication will not be disrupted amid the transition.
With many seniors preparing to graduate, it does not make sense to force this change midyear. Baruch could have introduced the new system to incoming freshmen and transfer students first.
Baruch students deserve proactive communication and transparency about any change that affects their academic experience.
If Baruch were more open about the purpose of this change as well as its security implications, students would have an easier time understanding this decision.
Until then, the change will continue to be seen as the administration forcing an unnecessary change at an inconvenient time.
