Google Workspace for Western

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite) accounts are optional tools, offered for academic use, in addition to Office 365, enabling access to Google Drive, Docs, and other applications. Your Google Workspace account does not replace Outlook email, contacts, calendaring or OneDrive, but instead provides additional tools that may be helpful for personal productivity and instruction.

  • Please note that while ATUS will make our best effort to provide support, we have no enterprise support agreement with Google.
  • Google Workspace is not recommended for files that have HIPAA, FERPA, or Personally Identifiable Information (PII) because the university does not have an agreement in place with Google regarding sensitive data. Storage of such files would be in violation of the University's compliance with these standards.
  • Not recommended for storing files that belong to a department or group. Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Groups, and SharePoint are the fully supported shared storage locations in the cloud.

Note: Many students, faculty and staff are already using a consumer version of Google Workspace in support of Western activities. If you have a personal Google account tied to your @wwu.edu address, you will go through a process of renaming that account in order to use WWU's Google Workspace instance.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who will have access to Google Workspace?

All WWU students, faculty, and staff who had accessed their Google Workspace accounts prior to February 2022 have access. If you believe you had access before this date but can no longer login, contact the Help Desk. Western ran into a user capacity limitation in Google Workspace and some unused accounts were deactivated. We also halted automatic provisioning of licenses so that we would be able to give licenses to those who needed them without issue.

I have a personal Google account that I sign-into using my firstname.lastname@wwu.edu address. What happens to this account?

Google logins using the firstname.lastname@wwu.edu address will not change from being a personal account. These accounts will remain separate personal accounts with a limited and separate storage drive. If you decide to keep this separate account, you may wish to use both by Switching between multiple Google accounts.

What about Gmail, Contacts, or Calendar?

Office 365 will continue to be the primary portal to WWU email, contacts, and calendaring. There are no plans to include Gmail, Contacts, or Calendar.

Can my department request a shared Google Workspace account?

Google Workspace apps are offered as an option for faculty, staff, and students to use as individuals. If your group would like a virtual space for collaboration, create an Office 365 Group or a Microsoft Team.

I have multiple Google accounts. How do I switch between them?

Please see "Switching between multiple Google accounts."

What is Google Workspace's Accessibility?

Google Workspace accessibility considerations, information for content creators, information for content consumers, alternatives/workarounds, and more can be found on the Google Apps Accessibility page.

What are the disadvantages of using Google Workspace?

For limitations and disadvantages for academic use, see File Storage, File Sharing, and Backups.

How much does it cost?

There is no direct cost for Google Workspace access for WWU students, faculty, and staff.

Who do I contact for support?

Contact the ATUS Help Desk for questions regarding Google Workspace applications:

In addition, if you have questions regarding how to use Google Apps please refer to the Helpful Links below

Helpful links

 

 

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