Changes to email and calendar services are underway
As part of our ongoing commitment to safeguarding your data across our campus, we are transitioning from Gmail to Outlook for all email communications. This change is prompted by the growing security risks and Google's recent modifications to its G Suite model for higher education.
Why the change?
Managing increasing security protocols and cost
This transition allows us to consolidate our resources under a single platform, providing a more secure and integrated experience. By moving to Outlook, we can better protect against cyber threats while also optimizing our budget and toolset.
Meeting the District's needs in a changing digital landscape
Our ultimate goal is to ensure that we provide the right balance of services to meet the needs of the Hartnell College community. These decisions were not made lightly, and we recognize they will create challenges. We are committed to supporting everyone through these changes.
Changes for each user group are outlined below. Please see the timeline of changes for important dates.
Students
- Email: Student email will move to Outlook. New students will begin using Outlook April 2025 and all students will be using Outlook by June 2025.
- Drive storage: Starting June 2025, storage space for existing students will be limited in Google Drive. By March 2026, Google Drive will be turned on to "Read Only" and in June 2027, Google Suite will be ended for all students.
- Microsoft 365: students receive access to Microsoft 365 Online services.
Refer to the student information page for more details
Employees
- Email: All employees will be using Outlook for email and calendars. New employees will begin using Outlook February 2026 and all employees will be using Outlook by December 2026.
- Drive storage: All employees will have continued access to their Google Drive. By June 2027, Google Drive will be turned on to "Read Only" for all employees.
- Document storage: all employees have access to Box Cloud Storage with unlimited space. Employees are encouraged to start migrating documents from Google Drive to Box.
Refer to the employee information page for more details.
Be aware of the timeline for Google storage changes and email migrations. Employees are also encouraged to start migrating their documents from Google Drive to Box Cloud Storage.
Review changes for your user group. We have created guides for each user group with specific changes. Please review the guide that applies to you:
- Employees
- Students
Support is available to assist the Hartnell community during this implementation. Many guides and how-to articles are available on this website and through the Panther Portal Knowledge Base.
Please also look for training by the Learning & Innovation Center on Microsoft products
For more information on Hartnell's Google and Microsoft service changes, and how they might impact you, please visit our user information pages, or the FAQs.kj