Last year we announced an initiative to convert to a more common format of email address.

Currently, official email addresses use an underscore (_) to separate first and last names.  Our new format of official email address will employ a dot (.) as a separator.

Why are we changing the email format?

Introducing this new email format will provide the Carleton community with more modern and industry standard email address.

Today, when email addresses are included in email messages and on webpages, they are displayed as hyperlinks and the underscore (_) is not distinguishable.   The dot will eliminate this issue.

When is this change happening?

Changes to the email format will be rolled out alphabetically over the coming weeks.

Once the change has been made:

  • Both firstname_lastname@carleton.ca and firstname.lastname@carleton.ca will be accepted for existing members of the community.
  • Outgoing messages sent from ITS email systems will come from the “dotted” email address.

Going forward, official email addresses for new members of the community will only have the “dotted” format.

What action is required from the Carleton community?

None.  Emails will continue to be delivered to the underscore address, so there is no need to alter any printed material to reflect the change (ie: business cards and publicized email addresses).

If you are having new business cards printed, or are publicizing your email address, you use the new dotted format.