One of America’s oldest universities is going to turn to Google for a lot of new software, according to a new report.  Indeed, Yale is supposed to get the whole Google Apps for Education shebang, including email, Google Calendar, and Google Docs.

Google’s promoted Apps for Education as a cutting-edge and yet user-friendly solution for quite some time.  Yale’s utilization of it would be quite the PR win, considering how the school’s so well regarded.  A lot of other universities might accept Yale’s decision as a smart one and follow its lead.

Yale administrators wouldn’t just be trying to do Google a favor, though.  David Tidmarsh of the Yale Daily News talked to members of the Student Technology Collaborative, and confirmed that a switch to Google Apps would save the school a lot of computing resources (and/or money) compared to the current system.

So look for a rollout to take place in the slightly distant future.  Tidmarsh wrote, "The incoming class of 2014 will be the first to go directly to the new Google system, and current freshmen and sophomores will have to make the switch.  Upperclassmen will have the option of keeping Horde, but the University plans to phase out Horde by spring of next year . . ."

Other schools that use Google Apps include Leeds Metropolitan University, the University of Westminster, and Vanderbilt.