Over the summer Network Services moved all student email hosting to Google Mail. What this means is simply, email is hosted at Google, but student addresses and overall functionality stay the same. Why do this? Students get over 6gb of storage as compared to 20mb and an interface similar to gmail that is used by millions. Google also provides document storage and calendar for students, so its a big win for the students and a win for the university in offering a better product at a lower cost. Google offers educational instititutions free email hosting without advertisement for hundreds of schools around the world, Notable institutions such as University of Arizona and Northwestern University use Google for email hosting.
If you would like to learn more about the move to Google email hosting go to the FAQ page.