CMU has `@alumni.cmu.edu` and will allow forwarding (but not an actual account) to keep an address in place. As conservative as CMU is about legal stuff like this, I think it’s doable from a risk point of view. Like I said though, it’s *only* a forwarding address that CMU will provide, but that’s often enough. > On Aug 14, 2024, at 6:18 PM, David Farmer <farmer=40umn.edu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Warning: External Sender - do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. > > > > On Wed, Aug 14, 2024 at 3:38 PM Stephen Farrell <stephen.farrell@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 14/08/2024 21:28, Scott O. Bradner wrote: > > But the university values process over history (or at least the > > automaton that is doing this does) > > That's a shame. I wish people and organisations had a bit more > clue that supposed efficiency is not everything. You'd a > expect universities to be good at that;-) > > Bad job Harvard. > > Back in the day, many Universities had email for life. It was easy because the email systems were fully in-house operations, and the world was a different place from a cybersecurity perspective. > > However, in the late 2000s, most universities often outsourced their email to cloud services for low to no cost to focus on more strategic IT priorities. Fast-forward to today, those cloud services are no longer completely free. The email accounts remain free, but they charge for the storage necessary to support the hundreds of thousands of accounts involved. For a large university, that is tens of petabytes of email storage, large amounts of which are for old dormant and currently unused accounts. Then add to that the cyber security risk represented by all those dormant accounts. > > So, the prudent thing to do both fiscally and from a cyber security perspective is to close all those old accounts and change policies to close accounts for departing staff, students, and faculty after a reasonable grace period. Short-term extensions are allowed, and emeritus faculty are another exception. > > Unfortunately, when looked at from a Board of Regents or Trustees level, this is a no-brainer. It is all financial and cyber security risk with little to no real upside. > > So, the reality is that this is just Harvard and a bunch of other universities properly minding the store based on today's financial and cybersecurity realities. > > Thanks > > -- > =============================================== > David Farmer Email:farmer@xxxxxxx > Networking & Telecommunication Services > Office of Information Technology > University of Minnesota > 2218 University Ave SE Phone: 612-626-0815 > Minneapolis, MN 55414-3029 Cell: 612-812-9952 > ===============================================
