Currently there is a limited courtesy email service scheme for long-serving staff (i.e. staff serving 10 years or more) who are leaving the University. The email addresses under this scheme assume the same format as those for alumni (i.e. [email protected], which might give rise to confusion and inconvenience). Over 150 former staff are now using this service.

There are lots of free email services nowadays available from the commercial sector, and this shows the value that is attached to a mailing list. To continue to provide free email service to the staff after they have left the University will be an effective means for the University to maintain relations with them. In view of this, the Committee on Information Services and Technology (CIST), at its meeting held on 28 October 2005, agreed to extend email service to long-serving staff members who had been employed on full-time, regular term service continuously for six years or more prior to leaving the University.

CIST has also decided to allow former staff to keep the same email address they had been using (i.e. [email protected]). In this way, the staff can continue to use their email without any change or service interruption. However, CIST does have some concerns that it may create operational difficulties for some departments if the email addresses of their existing staff are not differentiated from those of the former staff. CIST has thus decided to allow a department, if it so wishes, to choose an alternative email domain name, i.e. [email protected], for its eligible former staff.

It is hoped that this new service arrangement will bring more convenience for and stronger ties with our former staff.