Cardinal Mail FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Cardinal Mail?
Why did the university move student e-mail to Google Apps Education Edition?
Do any other universities use hosted e-mail for student and alumni?
How do I access my Cardinal Mail account?
What services are included with my Cardinal Mail account?
Is there a cost associated with my Cardinal Mail account?
Will I see Google advertisements in Cardinal Mail?
Why is my address changing to @cardinalmail.cua.edu? And why do I have yet another password to remember?
Is the username part of my address staying the same?
I use a nickname. Can I change my Cardinal Mail e-mail display name?
What will happen to the mail stored in my old cua.edu mailbox?
How do I change my Cardinal Mail password?
How do I get a new Cardinal Mail password if I forgot it and can’t log on?
How long will I have access to my Cardinal Mail account?
You are encouraged to use your Cardinal Mail account to stay connected to the University community.
Will alumni who use the @alumni.cua.edu forwarding service have a Cardinal Mail account?
Are Cardinal Mail accounts available to faculty and staff?
I am a faculty or staff employee who is also a student. Do I get a Cardinal Mail account?
How can I as a faculty member share documents and otherwise collaborate with my students?
Can I use other e-mail programs to access my Cardinal Mail e-mail?
How do I set up my Cardinal Mail account to forward to another e-mail address?
What number do I call if I have problems setting up my Cardinal Mail account?
I accidentally deleted my Cardinal Mail e-mail. Can I get it back?
Can I archive/backup my e-mail locally if I am using Google Apps Education Edition?
What happens with online services such as Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., and other organizations that still use my @cua.edu address?
What happens to my Internet mailing list memberships now that I have a new e-mail address?
What is the Cardinal Mail quota for storage?
What are the limitations on message sizes for my Cardinal Mail e-mail account?
Are there other limitations on file sizes within the Cardinal Mail services?
How do I Chat using my Cardinal Mail account?
How do I find addresses of other people who use Cardinal Mail?
Where is my Cardinal Mail data stored?
What about the privacy and security of my Cardinal Mail data?
Why are there no folders in Cardinal Mail?
When will new features be added to Cardinal Mail?
What if I already have a personal Google Gmail account?
What if I want to use a Google application that is not offered through Cardinal Mail?
Are Cardinal Mail accounts accessible for students with disabilities?
Can I access the Cardinal Mail service from my mobile device/smart phone?

Cardinal Mail is The Catholic University of America's implementation of Google Apps Education Edition for students.

Google Apps Education Edition is a free suite of communication and collaboration applications designed for schools and universities, hosted by Google. Google describes Google Apps as providing "access to products powered by Google but administered by an organization," CUA in this case.

Many students asked that the university provide Google-based e-mail because they like the Gmail web mail interface and because Google offers a lot more storage space. Using hosted e-mail enables students to keep their CUA e-mail account after they graduate, a feature that the university would not have the resources to provide. Google provides extensive, distributed network and computing hardware and software features that make Google Apps fast and very reliable.

Yes. A growing list of institutions are using hosted e-mail service providers—including American University, George Washington University, University of Virginia, and University of Pennsylvania.

Cardinal Mail may be accessed by browsing to http://mail.google.com/a/cardinalmail.cua.edu. Because this URL is rather long, you will want to bookmark it in your browser for quick reference.

To find your Cardinal Mail logon user name, and your first time, temporary password, please log onto Cardinal Station, and navigate as follows: Cardinal Students > Self Service > Campus Personal Information > CUA Logon Accounts.

Your Cardinal Mail account includes e-mail, IM/Google Talk, calendaring, and document, spreadsheet, and presentation applications. CUA may add other services in the future as they become available from Google and are appropriate.

There is no cost for using a Cardinal Mail account. This upgraded e-mail service is being provided to enhance messaging for CUA students.

Google Apps Education Edition is free. Google was founded by a research project at Stanford University, and Google has stated that Google Apps Education Edition is one way they give back to the educational community.

Currently-enrolled students will not see advertisements in Cardinal Mail.

Alumni may see advertisements in Cardinal Mail; these will be similar to the type of advertisements in Google Gmail accounts.

The Mail application within Cardinal Mail displays RSS feed web clips at the top of your inbox. You can configure this feature in your Settings.

By having a different address, messages sent to your Cardinal Mail account can go there directly, without first having to come to CUA and then be forwarded. By having a separate password for Cardinal Mail, you can log onto Cardinal Mail without Google having to check with CUA's servers to make sure your password is correct. Both of these together allow you to log on and use your Cardinal Mail account even if CUA's network happens to be down.

Yes. If your e-mail address was 00SMITH@cua.edu, your Cardinal Mail address will be 00SMITH@cardinalmail.cua.edu.

CPIT hopes to allow students to select a more user-friendly name in the future. (Once a timeframe for this feature is determined, it will be published here.)

Yes. CUA sets your Cardinal Mail display name to your legal name as listed in Cardinal Station, normally first name followed by last name, possibly including middle name or middle initial.

Because your Cardinal Mail account is used to communicate with faculty teaching your classes, staff in CUA administrative offices, and other professionals such as potential employers, you are strongly encouraged to leave your display name set to your first and last name.

Cardinal Mail allows you to change the display name. For example, if Cardinal Mail display name is "Abraham Lincoln," but everyone knows you as "Abe," you can set your display name to be "Abe Lincoln."

Setting your display name to something inappropriate may result in your Cardinal Mail account being disabled.

Cardinal Mail was implemented in three phases. In the third and final phase that occurred early in the week of October 19, 2009, student cua.edu mailboxes were permanently removed.

How do I change my Cardinal Mail password?

When you are logged onto Cardinal Mail, click the Settings link on the top right side of the page, select the Accounts tab, and click the Change Password link.

Cardinal Mail passwords must be at least eight characters in length. Be sure to select a strong password that includes a mix of letters, numbers and symbols.

You can use the Cardinal Mail Password Reset page to change your password. You will need to identify yourself as a member of the CUA community as part of this process. When you log onto Cardinal Mail with the new password, you will need to type the new password a second time, as well as identify the text in an image.

Once you have successfully logged on with your new Cardinal Mail password, you can either opt to keep using it, or you can change it to something else by clicking Settings and proceeding as described in the previous answer.

Please note that Google will not reset Cardinal Mail passwords; you must use the CUA Cardinal Mail Password Reset web site to do this. This is because Cardinal Mail accounts belong to CUA, not to Google.

If you run into difficulties, please contact the CUA computing Information Center.

As long as you have are affiliated with CUA as a student or alumni, your Cardinal Mail account will remain available to you.

Your Cardinal Mail account is a university computer account, and is covered under the university's "Computer Ethics" policy, as well as the Google Apps Education Edition Terms of Service. CUA reserves the right to suspend computing rights, including Cardinal Mail access.

Starting after graduation 2009, Cardinal Mail will be your primary e-mail account for all official correspondence from the University to you as a student.

Will alumni who use the @alumni.cua.edu forwarding service have a Cardinal Mail account?

Not necessarily. Only students in the class of 2008 and later have a Cardinal Mail account.

CUA alumni are able to take advantage of the university's free @alumni.cua.edu "E-mail for Life" forwarding service. Using this service, alumni may obtain a CUA alumni forwarding address that can be directed to any Internet service provider e-mail account, including a Cardinal Mail account. The @alumni.cua.edu e-mail address is very convenient for use in resumes and other job-related correspondence. For more information and to sign up for this free service, please visit the alumni CUATODAY Alumni web site.

All alumni who want to take advantage of the @alumni.cua.edu "E-mail for Life" service may use a free e-mail account available from various Internet providers, including Google, Hotmail and Yahoo!, to receive the forwarded e-mail. Alumni in the class of 2008 and later similarly may use their Cardinal Mail account in conjunction with the @alumni.cua.edu "E-mail for Life" service.

All alumni are encouraged to get an @alumni.cua.edu "E-mail for Life" account!

The e-mail service for faculty and staff continues to be Microsoft Exchange. Your faculty/staff e-mail address remains username@cua.edu. Cardinal Mail is not available to faculty and staff, except for CPIT staff providing technical support for Cardinal Mail to students and alumni.

Faculty and staff are reminded that under the university "Information Assurance" policy, you are responsible for knowing and following information assurance procedures and guidelines when working with covered data. Under the "Employee Electronic Communication Guidelines" associated with the university "Employee Electronic Communication and Resources" policy, employees are cautioned against accessing their office e-mail via external providers if the messages might contain covered data.

Yes, a Cardinal Mail account is available to you as a student. But please note that as CUA faculty or staff, your primary e-mail service with the university will continue to be Microsoft Exchange. Your Cardinal Mail account should be used only for your student work; your Microsoft Exchange @cua.edu account should be used for any work done as an employee.

Both of the learning management systems in use at CUA, Blackboard and Sakai, offer numerous collaboration tools. Blackboard and Sakai are the recommended means of collaborating with your students. CPIT offers support and one-on-one training for faculty for both of these systems.

Yes. You can access your Cardinal Mail account using POP, IMAP, and mobile e-mail programs. Please refer to the "Access Choices" section of the Google Help Gmail Help page. When configuring your e-mail program, specify your username in the following format: username@cardinalmail.cua.edu and use your Cardinal Mail password.

Information about forwarding your Cardinal Mail messages to another account automatically is available on the Google Help Center.

Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that the address to which you are forwarding works. CUA sends official communications only to your Cardinal Mail address. If you have specified a forwarding address and it stops working, you will not receive these important communications.

The best resource for help using Cardinal Mail features is the extensive Google Help Center. To visit the Help Center simply click the "Help" link in the upper right hand corner of the screen when you are logged onto Cardinal Mail.

You can contact the CUA computer Information Center at (202) 319-4357 (-HELP) Monday-Friday 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. (Friday 5:00 p.m. in the summer) U.S. Eastern time.

When you delete a message from Cardinal Mail, it will remain in the Trash for 30 days. However, after 30 days, or once you manually delete messages from the Trash ("Delete forever"), the messages are permanently deleted. Messages that are permanently deleted, manually or automatically, cannot be recovered.

Can I archive/backup my e-mail locally if I am using Google Apps Education Edition?

Yes! Google Apps provides POP access, which can be used to download your Cardinal Mail messages to your local machine. Please refer to the "Backing up your mail with POP" areticle in the Google Help Center for more information.

Please note that Google does not make backups of your e-mail and it is not possible to recover an e-mail message once it has been permanently deleted. You are responsible for making your own backup of your Cardinal Mail messages.

You will need to update your e-mail address with any services that use your old @cua.edu address to use your @cardinalmail.cua.edu address instead.

You will need to use your new Cardinal Mail address to re-subscribe to any mailing lists of which you are a member.

Each user has 7 GB of storage.

The article "Your storage limit" in the Google Help Center describes techniques for clearing space if you hit the limit.

You can send and receive e-mail messages up to 20 MB in size, including attachments. Note, however, that the recipient's e-mail system may not allow messages of this size.

Google Apps size limits are documented in the Google Help Center. Please be sure to read about these limits, especially if you work with larger files.

Microsoft Windows users can download the Google Talk client. Apple Mac OS X and Linux users can use one of several third party IM clients, including iChat, Adium and Pidgin.

Cardinal Mail does not provide a way to search for other people who use Cardinal Mail. This feature is not offered is because Google does not allow CUA to exclude people who have opted out of being listed.

To find the address of a member of the CUA community, including students who use Cardinal Mail, please browse to home.cua.edu and use the "Search/Directory" feature to search by name.

You can use the cut and paste commands in your browser to easily create a Contact entry for this person in Cardinal Mail so that the address will be permanently available in your personal list of Contacts.

As Google describes it in the Google Help Center, "Your data will be stored using Google's advanced worldwide data centers. There is no guarantee which data center will house the data. Google does this to ensure that we can best handle security, scalability, usage spikes, and redundancy."

Google has a Security and Privacy FAQ that answers many questions about this.

Google also has a Google Apps security whitepaper (PDF format) explaining the security features in more detail.

Cardinal Mail uses a secure connection (HTTPS) between your browser and Google's servers.

Cardinal Mail uses Google's labeling system instead of folders. For a detailed explanation please see Google's description on the Google Help Center.

Google updates their applications on a regular basis and does so without notification, so CPIT may not be able to let you know about them beforehand. The applications in Cardinal Mail are provided by Google. Any Google Apps feature requests should be directed to Google and not CUA. Some available features may not be appropriate for Cardinal Mail and will not be added.

Your Cardinal Mail account is a CUA logon account hosted by Google, and is totally separate from your personal Google Gmail gmail.com account. Nothing changes about your personal Gmail account.

If you wish to use a Google application that is not included in Cardinal Mail, such as Google Groups, you can use your personal Gmail account.

As an alternative to its default style, Cardinal Mail e-mail is available in a basic HTML format. Please refer to the Google article "Accessibility information for Gmail's basic HTML view" for detailed information. You can also use the mobile format to provide a simplified browser interfnace in a standard browser.

The best way for students with disabilities to access other Google Apps Education Edition features is to synchronize with an accessible client program such as Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird or Apple iCal.

Yes. Cardinal Mail services can be accessed from many types of mobile devices, including Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile and Blackberry. Detailed information on using these devices is available on the Google Help Center.