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Overview
This article provides a brief overview about what to expect regarding a UAH email account when a faculty or staff member separates from the university.
This article contains excerpts from UAH policies. To view these policies in full, visit www.uah.edu/policies.
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Involuntary Separation
If you need access immediately revoked for an employee who is being terminated, please make this very clear to the OIT Help Desk team so that we may take specific action.
Please refer to the below excerpt from UAH policy 06.01.05:
An employee who is terminated or a student who is expelled – Faculty, staff, or students who leave the university involuntarily will have all account privileges terminated immediately upon receipt of notification by Human Resources or the Dean of Students Office respectively.
In accordance with this policy, faculty and staff who separate from the university involuntarily will have all account privileges, including email access, terminated immediately upon receipt of notification by Human Resources.
Current, Recent, or Prospective Students
Please refer to the below excerpt from UAH policy 06.01.05:
Students – Students who leave the university may keep their email account for three terms from the last term in which they were registered. All other account privileges will be revoked at the time of separation from the university.
Prospective students who have been given email privileges – Students who have been admitted to the university, but fail to register for classes in the term of their admission, will have their account privileges terminated immediately after census date for that first term has passed.
In accordance with this policy, faculty and staff who are also current students, recent students, or prospective students may retain access to their UAH email if one of the following apply:
- They are enrolled in courses for a current or upcoming term.
- They were enrolled in courses within at least one of the three most recent terms.
- They have been admitted to the university for a current or upcoming term
Departing Faculty
Please refer to the below excerpt from UAH policy 06.01.05:
Faculty - For faculty who voluntarily separate from the university, access to email accounts will be removed 120 days after separation. Faculty with a legitimate email access business need that may affect University operations may request continued access for a specific time period. This request must be approved in advance by the Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs or their designee and may not be for a period of more than 6 months following the former faculty member’s separation from the university without approval from the UAH CIO or the CIO’s designee.
Departing Staff
Please refer to the below excerpt from UAH policy 06.01.05:
Staff -- For staff who voluntarily separate from the university, access to email accounts will be removed as soon as possible after separation.
Requests for Extended Access
Requests can be made to keep a departing employee's email account active after separation under certain conditions.
Employee Will Maintain Access to the Account
Per UAH policy 06.01.05, faculty with a legitimate email access business need that may affect University operations may request continued access for a specific time period. This request must be approved in advance by the Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs or their designee and may not be for a period of more than 6 months following the former faculty member’s separation from the university without approval from the UAH CIO or the CIO’s designee.
Someone Other Than the Employee Will Access the Account
Please refer to the below excerpt from UAH policy 06.01.06, Electronic Mail and Other Electronic Communications:
3.0 Privacy of Electronic Communications
E-mail shall not be provided to anyone other than the account holder without approval from the data owner. In cases where the account holder is not available, but still affiliated with UAH, approval may be obtained by an official request from a UAH Vice President, Dean, President, or the Office of Counsel. If the account holder is no longer affiliated with UAH, the Director or unit head over that position may approve access.
Under certain circumstances, it may be necessary for the OIT staff or other appropriate university officials to access e-mail files to investigate security or abuse incidents or to investigate violations of this or other university policies, including accessing e-mail accounts and files without the e-mail account holders’ knowledge or permission. Access to e-mail accounts will be granted on an as needed basis for these purposes and will follow pertinent law, policies, and regulations. Any e-mail accessed will only be disclosed to those individuals with a need to know, as determined in consultation with the Office of Counsel, or as required by law. E-mail account holders should have no expectation of privacy in connection with use of UAH E-mail systems and/or accounts.
E-mail is also subject to disclosure in response to regulatory investigations, court orders and lawfully issued subpoenas, and incident to the university's legal obligations to make certain information available to an opposing party during the legal process of discovery that precedes a trial. University employees must comply with university requests for copies of and/or access to e-mail records in their possession that pertain to the administrative business of the university or the disclosure of which is required to comply with applicable laws or other legal obligations of the university
Requests to extend the lifetime of a departing employee's UAH account and grant someone other than the account holder access to the account should be submitted to OIT in writing (email will suffice) from the departing employee's supervisor or the head of the departing employee's department. We will need to know the following information in particular:
- How long the account should remain active
- Who will be authorized to access the account
If the request is approved, we will change the password on the account and provide it to the requestor or the person they have designated as the liaison for the email. For employees that will soon be leaving but have not yet left, OIT will coordinate with Human Resources to be alerted when the Banner record is updated so that we can use the GracePeriod status at that time.
Supervisors and department heads should also consider the use of account delegation to manage the departing employee's email inbox. This is a built-in function of Google which allows users to grant people or groups (delegates) access to their Gmail account without needing to know the account password.
Please note that attempts should be made (such as setting an automatic reply on the account) to alert contacts that the prior employee’s address should no longer be used for UAH business communication.
Reasons OIT May Decline a Request
We may decline a request to keep a former employee's account open or grant another user access to it if the former employee will maintain access to the account. A prior employee may maintain access to their account if they are:
- A faculty member who separated from the university less than 120 days ago
- An active student
- A former student whose whose last term enrolled was less than one year ago
- A prospective student who has been admitted to the university for a current or upcoming term
If the former employee will maintain access to their account for at least the near future, the person requesting access will need to work directly with the user to get the needed files or messages. If the departing employee hasn’t left, yet, they could provide the department with login credentials, forward data as appropriate, or set up account delegation on their account.
In cases where the prior employee will maintain access to their account, department members might elect to revoke the former employee's access to internal Google Drive files. Learn how to unshare Drive files.
Still Need Help?
Learn more about student account expiration.
If you have additional questions about this topic, please contact the OIT Help Desk.