Pacesetters

Law students first at USC to adopt Google Apps

-By Rizza Barnes

USC Law is the first school in the university and one of the first law schools in the nation to implement Google Apps for Education, an online suite of communication and collaboration tools including Gmail (e-mail with 2 GB of storage per account), integrated chat, and applications for calendaring and document and spreadsheet production.

According to a recent USC News Service article, law students readily adopted the Gmail option for their university e-mail. The USC-branded Gmail accounts were offered at the start of the semester; adoption rate shot to almost 90 percent within a few weeks.

Here’s what some USC Law students are saying:

1L Grace Tse: “I was extremely excited to learn that USC Law adopted Google Apps, so I could just stick to the Gmail interface I was used to. I’ve started to use the Google Calendar function as well, which has really helped me stay organized since it will e-mail me reminders. I think most of us check our e-mail more than our planners during a typical day.”

1L Roye Zur: “I think that it’s by far the most comprehensive and user friendly web-based e-mail client I have ever used. In terms of school e-mail systems, there is absolutely no comparison between Gmail and other clients. Gmail is in a league of its own. As a 1L, I get about 5 to10 e-mails a day, of which I delete only one. After a month of being in school, I have used 6 out of 2,048 MB. In other words, I don’t ever have to worry about running out of space on this thing. I just love it – it’s genius. What I love most is that USC Law has been smart enough to get it.”

3L Jamie Jung: “I think the webmaster’s adoption of all the Google Apps is awesome. I’ve had a personal Gmail account for a while, and I’m so glad USC made the switch. I like the layout a lot, and I love the fact that no e-mails will get automatically deleted. I haven’t really used the other apps, but I like that they’re available to us so that I have the option if I need them. I didn't know that we were one of the first law schools to do this, but I hope other schools make the switch soon. We’re blazing trails into the future!”