The University’s Information Technology Services recently announced it will switch the University’s e-mail service provider from Outblaze to Google’s Gmail beginning this semester.ITS will send e-mails to students in alphabetical order beginning at the end of January to provide detailed instructions on the transition, said Sheri Thompson, IT communications and planning officer.Thompson said students’ new e-mail account will be [email protected], replacing the old PAWS e-mail user name. She said the University looked at multiple resources for e-mail and found Gmail was the most comfortable.”Gmail is a lot more user friendly,” said Rebecca Jopling, communication disorders graduate student .Thompson said the only cost of the service is the cost of paying personnel to make the transition from Outblaze. She said the University made the switch for multiple reasons  — one of which was to end student tech fees toward e-mail services.Thompson said new students starting in the spring semester will be the first to receive Gmail accounts. Returning students will receive notifications by e-mail a week before their account will switch, she said.”The transfer will be a group by group migration process, which we hope will run smoothly,” Thompson said.Thompson said the notification e-mail will contain instructions about setting up a Gmail account and how to transfer old mail to the new account.”It will be a faster service than what we have now because messages can completely bypass the LSU system and go straight to a person’s Gmail account,” Thompson said.—–Contact Steven Powell at [email protected].