Former Student Eligibility Project

UW–‍Madison will no longer offer Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace services to students following their departure from the university. A plan is in place to change the deactivation process, which will phase out these service offerings to former students, and to communicate changes to stakeholders and IT partners.

Former student accounts pose a major security risk to the university. Approximately 99% of compromised email accounts belong to former students. These compromised accounts can gain access to valuable university data and research. Former student accounts also consume a significant amount of storage in Microsoft and Google Workspace products. If not addressed, this will result in annually increasing costs to the university for storage that is largely abandoned.

Population #1 (approximately 55,000 accounts)

Students in this population meet all 3 criteria outlined below:

• Accounts with only affiliation as “former student” (left UW–‍Madison prior to May 2023)
• Accounts do not have an email forward setup
• Accounts have not been accessed for more than 180 days

Population #2 (approximately 45,000 accounts)

Students in this population meet the criteria outlined below:

• Accounts with only affiliation as “former student” (left UW–‍Madison prior to May 2023)
• Accounts may have an email forward setup
• Accounts may have been accessed in the past 180 days (may be active/in use)

Population #3 (approximately 10,000 accounts)

Students in this population meet the criteria outlined below:

• Accounts with only affiliation as “Former Student” as of May 2023
• Accounts may have an email forward setup
• Accounts may have been accessed in the past 180 days (may be active/in use)

• June 15, 2023: population #1 will enter the deactivation process
• August 1, 2023: population #2 will enter the deactivation process
• Population #3 will enter the deactivation process beginning with the Fall 2023 graduating class and will become status quo for future accounts which enter the “former student” status

There are 2 possible use cases in which this would be considered:

1. The user needs to retain temporary access beyond the initial 90 days of the deactivation period to complete a project or collaboration with a specific university department, which requires the user to retain eligibility for a temporary period.
   For assistance, the user should contact the DoIT Help Desk to have a case opened requesting an exemption from the deactivation process. The request will be escalated and reviewed for approval by DoIT Productivity and Collaborative Solutions (PCS). If the request is approved, it will be created with an expiration date. At the time of the expiration date, the account will enter the deactivation process again.
2. The user needs to retain access for an indefinite period beyond the 90-day deactivation period due to an ongoing collaboration with a specific university department.
   For assistance, the user should contact their departmental collaborator to request an official change to their university affiliation based on a need for continued collaboration with a specific department.

The Wisconsin Alumni Association is no longer offering new email address requests through uwalumni.com. This is mainly due to the same security issues stated above.