Dear Cornell Students, Alumni, Parents, and Friends:

Cornell University recently announced that unlimited storage for Cornell Gmail ("Cmail") and Google accounts is ending due to Google's decision to no longer provide this service to universities for free. They will be capping all accounts at 5GB total, inclusive of Gmail, Drive, Photos, and Docs/Sheets/Slides. There is currently no option for users to pay for added storage. In reality, a 5GB total limit means it will no longer be feasible for Cornellians to use these as their primary accounts. This will force Cornell Gmail users to migrate away from Cornell accounts, creating a significant time and logistical burden for tens of thousands of Cornellians, and simultaneously hindering the University's alumni engagement, brand awareness, and fundraising capabilities.

We would like your help to call on the University and on Google to negotiate a path to supporting Cornell Gmail accounts in a useful manner. Please sign our petition!

Eight reasons why Cornell and Google should negotiate to support Cornell Gmail & Google Accounts: 

1) Scale: Many tens of thousands of Cornellians use their Cornell Gmail account as their primary personal e-mail address and Google account. While we have not yet ascertained the exact number of active users, it is likely in the 100,000+ range based on the data we do have.

2) University Connectedness: Many tens of thousands of Cornellians are able to stay connected to the University as a result of these accounts, and many feel that this is a way in which the University continues to consider us as part of the Cornell family. It engenders a strong sense of community and belonging.

3) University Pride: We take pride in the fact that Cornell allows us to keep these email accounts. Many of us receive email replies every year from alums of other Ivies stating how much they wished they could keep their school e-mail addresses, and complementing Cornell for admirably allowing alumni to do so. The current policy reflects very well on Cornell in the broader community.

4) Current Path Not Realistically Feasible: Reducing the storage cap to 5GB may sound like it enables Cornellians to maintain these accounts. In reality, however, this miniscule storage cap (which is three times less than the 15GB Google provides to all Gmail users for free) means alums will be forced to migrate away from Cornell Mail. There is no realistic scenario in which 5GB of total storage is sufficient for a primary e-mail account.

5) Detrimental to University Fundraising and Engagement: The use of Cmail as primary email accounts comes with significant topline benefit for the University. First, utilizing these accounts as primary email addresses keeps Cornell top of mind for thousands of alumni multiple times every day. Second, use of these accounts by alumni also provides Cornell with a very strong method of contacting the alumni base to keep them engaged in University matters, updated on University news, and to solicit support and donations. Tens of thousands of individual annual donations are made as a direct response to fundraising emails received via Cmail accounts. Eliminating these accounts likely costs the University much more than it saves.

6) Undervalues Cornellians' Time: This decision essentially forces all Cornellians who use these accounts to spend many hours migrating to a new service (a process which entails creating a new email address, saving and transferring prior email and Google content, setting up email forwarding, updating contact information for 100s of online accounts with a new email address). This values Cornellians' time at an abysmally low per hour rate. Our analysis shows that Cornell is implicitly valuing the time of Cornellians in the range of 5¢ to 43¢ per hour (1). We do not believe this is a reasonable valuation of Cornellian time and, as a general point of comparison, is 17 to 300 times less than minimum wage in the USA (2).

7) Valuable Marketing Reach: Cornellians are sending millions of emails every day from @cornell.edu email addresses. This creates extremely valuable and well-targeted marketing impressions. In all conceivable scenarios, it would be significantly more expensive for Cornell to run a marketing campaign of similar reach (not to mention quality) vs. maintaining these accounts. Our analysis indicates a marketing campaign generating a similar number of daily impressions would be ~19x more expensive than maintaining Cornell Gmail accounts (3).  

8) Many Better Options Available: Even if the university is not willing/able to provide this service to alumni free of charge, there are many better options available, including:

1. A significant portion of Cornell Gmail users would be willing to pay the standard Google storage fees to avoid having to migrate. Google currently offers expanded storage to the general public at the following rates: $1.99/month for 100GB of storage; $2.99/month for 200GB of storage; $9.99/month for 2TB of storage, etc (4). Yet this option is not being made available to Cornell Gmail users.
2. If paying subscription fees to Google directly is not an option, a significant portion of Cornell Gmail users would happily donate to the University to cover this expense. This would have the added benefit of increasing alumni giving rates and bringing in net new donors on a regular cadence with high retention. Our small pilot survey suggested that these donations would not supplant other giving activities; they would be additive. 
3. While we recognize the University is potentially allowing the migration of elected accounts to Microsoft365 to gain a modest 45GB of additional storage, we believe strongly that Cornellians should have the freedom to make their own decisions and should have the option to keep using their Cornell Gmail accounts as-is. The process of migrating to Microsoft365 would still place a significant time burden on current Cornell Gmail users and is likely not a viable solution for many based on existing workflows.
4. A further option would be simply to raise the storage cap to a viable amount (e.g., 200GB). Based on precedent cases (e.g., the case of Boston University), it is very likely that a miniscule number of users (on the order of several hundred) account for 80%+ of all Cornell Google Account storage demand (5). 
5. Cornell is not the only university to have faced this issue. The following article details how Boston University (which has a similar undergraduate student population to that of Cornell) addressed this issue thoughtfully and productively for a mere 87¢/year/account (6): https://www.bu.edu/articles/2022/university-negotiates-discount-for-new-google-workspace-charges 

We recognize that this decision by the University is a result of recent changes to Google’s pricing structure: Google no longer offers free unlimited storage to universities. However, even viewed purely through the lens of return on investment, this is an important issue for the University. We believe, and the evidence strongly suggests, that the current path is extremely suboptimal. When the community-building and symbolic aspects of this decision are taken into account, the evidence is even more overwhelming.

It might seem like a small thing, but using @cornell.edu accounts as our primary email addresses constitutes an important part of our identities, and may be one of the most significant touch points keeping Cornell top of mind for thousands of alumni every single day.

We know there is a better path available. As committed, loyal, and supportive alumni, and for the long-term good of the University and the entire Cornell family, we implore the University to work with Google to negotiate a better solution.  

 

Footnotes: 

(1) Based on a cost of 87¢/year/account—which is in-line with the pricing Boston University recently paid for their analogous Google email & apps storage contract—and an individual time burden of 2-15 hours (annual) to migrate a primary email and Google Apps account to a new service. 

(2) Low- and high-end estimates based on lowest USA minimum wage of $7.25/hr (federal) and and highest USA minimum wage $16.10 (Washington DC)

(3) Assumes 7 emails sent per day from 150,000 @cornell.edu email addresses and a cost to maintain email accounts of 87¢/year/account as compared to a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) of $6.75 (which is in-line with the price of a LinkedIn marketing campaign).  

(4) Source for Google consumer storage pricing: https://one.google.com/about/plans

(5) In a similar case at Boston University, just 345 users accounted for 84% of storage usage. The distribution of storage usage among Cornell users is likely to be similarly uneven. 

(6) Based on BU's reported total annual cost of $171k for 195,000 user accounts.