Students can look forward to a variety of new communication tools over the Internet next semester, as Binghamton University will be changing their e-mail service to Gmail.

With recent budget cuts, the Academic Computing and Educational Technologies Committee formed a Hosted E-mail Committee to look into modern, cheaper e-mail services.

The committee, comprised of four faculty members, four Information Technology Services members and three undergraduate students, chose Gmail over Mirapoint on the basis of cost and features.

Mirapoint, an e-mail-only service, cost the University $40,000 each year for the software license and technical support, according to Frank Saraceno, associate director of IT services and committee chairman.

In a new agreement between the University and Google, their Gmail service will be provided for free during the next four years.

One new feature the service will provide is Google Docs, a Web-based word processor and spreadsheet program where documents can be shared online between multiple users.

“Google offers other applications that are above and beyond what we previously provided,” Saraceno said.

Other features include Gmail chat √É¢’ a built-in instant messaging system √É¢’ and Google Calendar, an online schedule and organizer similar to Microsoft Excel.

“The heightened level of collaboration and innovation that Google’s office suite brings to the educational environment is going to really increase our capability to reach and interact with faculty,” Joshua Berk, an undergraduate student on the committee, said. “I think that we’re really going to see a huge shift in the way we communicate here.”

An implementation team in charge of the transition currently has the new service becoming available in September.

“We’ll have time to alert everyone to how they can archive their data and switch it to Gmail,” Berk said.