You’ve probably wondered why you were given five random letters for your student email which is also your username. Like many students at St. Thomas University, you probably even struggled to remember them.
The selection process for your student email actually goes through a complex algorithm that determines the five characters based on your student ID number.
The system was based on the University of New Brunswick’s emailing system. It’s been used at STU since email was implemented as a tool for students and professors.
Dan Hurley, director of interior technology service at STU said five characters are used to prevent a mix-up of student names with both email and student identity.
“It works fairly well because it ensures we have a unique username for everyone,” said Hurley. “It prevents name collisions, because if students were able to pick and choose their letters then two people with similar names might be confused with one another.”
Jeffrey Carleton, director of communications, said the algorithm behind the five-character selection process is designed to only use consonants.
“The reason for excluding vowels and numbers is that sometimes they can cause confusion like mixing up the capital letter O with 0. Also, by excluding vowels the email identifier will never be an actual word or name, which would complicate things,” said Carleton
Andrea Lopez, a third-year student who works in the IT department has had to address some of the confusion that first year students encounter with their emails and five characters.
“There’s a lot of first-year students who want to change their five characters, but we simply cannot do that,” said Lopez.
“We’ve had students that have been very persistent on the issue,” said Lopez, “but the letters are not just for your email, it’s what the staff at St. Thomas uses to track you with.”
Alura Depuis, a first-year student at STU, does not believe the email system to be overly confusing for other first-year students, but does think it can be frustrating.
“I find it hard to remember sometimes. I’m constantly checking my student ID,” said Depuis.
STU is not Depuis’ first experience with student identification and emails.
“We had a similar system at my high school, but the letters were a part of my name so it was easier to remember,” said Depuis.
Depuis did have one issue with her five characters involving her web advisor account.
“I couldn’t get on my web advisor for the longest time,” said Depuis. “I had to go to the computer lab and retype the characters three times, and that took about a half an hour.”
According to Carleton, some universities are now offering a “friendly” name for their emails. However they still have to develop rules to avoid name confusion.
“This has been discussed at STU occasionally, but has never made it to the top of the to-do list as an important item,” said Carleton.
