The University of Notre Dame alumni association began notifying alumni of the termination of their Google services on Friday.
John Prette, the alumni association’s director of information technology, explained that Google announced in 2021 that their free storage service would no longer include unlimited storage.
“While Google initially announced their intentions in 2021, they did not provide context or mechanisms by which we could comply until this year,” Prette wrote in an email.
Prette further explained that this change in services means the alumni association would no longer be able to offer Google services for users of accounts ending in “@alumni.nd.edu.”
“Our analysis showed the revised Google service did not allow us to meet the needs of our alumni. Our Google storage was more than 20x Google’s allowable limit and growing daily,” he said in the email.
To help the affected users understand the situation and what they needed to do, Prette said his team published information on the alumni association website, which he said he hoped would make the transition timeline more clear.
“We created the page on myNotreDame late last week in anticipation of the communications campaign that begins with an email which all impacted account holders are set to receive,” Prette wrote in an email. “The purpose of the page is to provide a single, definitive source of information for the transition as well as instructions and help for our alumni as we transition to personal accounts.”
The timeline for the shutdown of google services begins with the retirement of Google Drive and Photos Nov. 15, 2022. The shutdown of Gmail services will occur sometime mid 2023, the website says.
The website lists resources for updating contact information, transferring data and creating a new free email account.