Kaitlyn Coogan
Equinox Staff
Besides worrying about class, homework, and having a social life, students have to worry about their tuition expenses. If there was any chance students could get benefits and sales from websites, most would jump at the possibility. Unfortunately, Keene State College students’ emails are not recognized as a valid college email, and students cannot get the benefits other college students get.
“College students pay enough in tuition, and some are in debt for years after college. We need benefits to help us pay for other needs such as clothing and other supplies,” KSC freshman Rebecca Marsh said.
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Websites like College Budget, Amazon, and Intern Match help college students get benefits such as merchandise, free two-day shipping, and access to finding internships, but unfortunately KSC students cannot get these benefits because not only does their email end in a .com instead of an .edu but it also says ksc.mailcruiser instead of just ksc. MailCruiser is unrecognized by these websites as a college email server.
“I’m really frustrated because it misrepresents us as students. We miss out on certain opportunities because the .com at the end is unrecognized by many other institutions,” KSC sophomore John Ayer said.
MailCruiser offers the MyKSC page that provides options for students other than just a simple email such as signing up for classes, checking their GPA, a help desk, and much more. MailCruiser is a part of the overall Campus Cruiser layout that KSC got about 10 years ago. However, the options MyKSC offers may not be enough to balance the benefits students are missing out on. Chief Information Officer Laura Seraichick is well aware of the issues students are having and is working to change things.
“At the time, having MyKSC was sort of what they use as the address for recognizing that that was a Keene State email and so that was the decision that was made and we just went with it. A couple years ago, students started asking about it. I think as more venders out there said, ‘Well we’ll give you a discount if you have this or that’ then students started asking how come it wouldn’t say keene.edu. Last year the paper wrote about it which prompted us to do a study this year which is getting kicked off in March to study a couple things around MyKSC. One is how can we have it say keene.edu. We will also look at how to forward a student’s email to a different account, and then to look at some broadcast policies and use of the survey tool within MyKSC,” she said.
The meeting in March will include some students, some faculty, and some staff. If students are interested in this meeting they should contact Seraichick at lseraich@keene.edu. Seraichick also recommends students to contact her if they find other websites that restrict the use of their email address because of its lack of an .edu address.
Another question some students had was why faculty members had a keene.edu account while students do not. The answer is because it was a configuration choice that was made when the service was implemented. Faculty and staff use a different service for email but keene.edu is a configuration choice that can be implemented in either service.
“It does seem like it is a little complicated and it would be much easier for students and for people who are trying to email them if it had a more direct, simplified version of an email address,” Vice President of Student Affairs, Andy Robinson, said.
Robinson encourages student representation at the meeting in March because they need to hear how it impacts students, and students are the ones that know that best.
College Budget gives students coupons and gift cards for everything from a haircut to clothing to online language courses. They have saved students $1,817,789.10 so far. Seraichick did not even know about this website, but now that she knows she is working on getting them to allow KSC students access.
“I did contact College Budget Deals and requested that their verification process allow for KSC student email address format @ksc.mailcruiser.com to qualify for ‘deals.’ They were quick to respond that they are currently working on fixing this for us as well as other colleges,” she said.
In the meantime, College Budget recommends students to sign up through the Facebook option which does work. Now those emails from College Budget can actually be used.
Amazon offers Amazon Student with college students that have an .edu email address. With this Amazon Student membership, students are eligible for Free Prime which is free two-day shipping for college students. Internmatch.com provides students with intern opportunities, but, again, an .edu email address is needed.
“College is expensive as it is and if we have the opportunities to get benefits then we have the right to get them,” KSC freshman Emily Jones said, and it looks like students are not far away from getting this right.
Kaitlyn Coogan can be contacted at kcoogan@ksc.mailcruiser.com.