As of fall this year, UC Berkeley students will be able to continue to use their UC Berkeley-given email addresses even after they graduate.

Since 2006, alumni have been able to keep their Berkeley domain emails as forwarding accounts, which can receive messages but cannot send them. Starting in November, alumni will be able to both send and receive emails with their updated campus domain accounts.

“We determined the cost for retaining the email forwarding service was going to be significantly higher than allowing new alums to retain their existing Google accounts,” said Christina Sponselli, campus director of social media in an email. “The bConnected Team and University Development and Alumni Relations decided this was an opportunity to offer alumni full Google accounts.”

Sponselli added in the email that CalNet has traditionally had a grace period of nine months during which allowed alumni access to campus domain emails.

Campus freshman Jack Zhang said he uses his UC Berkeley email for networking or professional matters and that this change will definitely come in handy.

Zhang said he thinks that the UC Berkeley email shows his professional side, adding that it will be easier to keep contact with people already in his college network.

“(It’s) so much better for professional use,” said campus freshman Angel Bravo. “Just having that ‘Berkeley’ on it it has more meaning on it so it looks more professional than yahoo.”

William Prabowo, who graduated UC Berkeley in 2015, also said he plans on using his Berkeley domain email in the future in order to keep in contact with former classmates and professors in a more professional setting.

“I think it (adds to) credibility because looking at the berkeley.edu people will recognize that it’s an official email instead of a personal email,” Prabowo said.

Contact Sakura Cannestra at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @SakuCannestra.