MSU Information Technology started migrating new MSU undergraduate students in June to Office 365 email from MSU Legacy Email. Currently, more than 35,000 accounts have been migrated to Office 365.
Sophomores were migrated to Office 365 email in September, juniors were migrated in October, and seniors will be migrated by the end of November. Students’ email addresses did not change.
Once migrated to Office 365 email, undergraduate students can download Office Pro Plus at no cost, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher. Office for Mac is also available when students log into their Office 365 accounts.
This is available as part of a licensing agreement between MSU and Microsoft.
Background
MSU decided to migrate student email from our legacy email system to MSU Microsoft Office 365 (Spartan Mail) to provide more robust email features, an improved web interface, and better access from a range of devices.
In addition, MSU’s current legacy email system has reached its capacity and commercially available email services now reduce the need for the university to run its own system.
Office 365 email offers advantages for students over MSU’s Legacy Email like:
- A 25MB attachment size.
- Increased storage to 50GB.
- Seamless access on desktop, laptop, and mobile devices.
- An improved web interface.
Next steps
This month, seniors will be migrated to Office 365 email. In 2016, remaining graduate and lifelong education students will be migrated to Office 365 email.
Following those migrations, MSU will consider opening Office 365 email to interested academic and administrative units.
More information
- MSU Office 365 Email Migration Process
- Office 365 FAQs
- MSU Office 365 Student Support Article
- Tips for Creating Strong Passwords
