Account OffboardingTechnology Services

What is happening?

Gustavus is changing the way legacy accounts are handled. If your time as a student or employee comes to an end, you can expect that your account will be disabled on a predetermined schedule. These schedules are based on your role, and the nature of your departure. There are several relevant policies that provide more detail.

Why is this happening?

These changes stem from three key issues that are all somewhat related: security, support, and cost. Securing such a large number of accounts–many of which are unused or dormant–poses a variety of challenges. One compromised account could open us up to all sorts of attacks and misuse. Some accounts may contain sensitive information that could expose the account holder, or countless others. The resulting damage to affected individuals and the College is significant.

Providing support to tens of thousands of accounts, even if they are rarely used, takes some amount of staff time. When an account breach is suspected, this expenditure of time and resources can balloon exponentially. In today’s increasingly problematic cybersecurity environment, it’s easy to see how this situation could quickly spiral out of control. As technology professionals, we find this situation untenable. Insurance providers and vendors, such as Google, also understand these risks. They’re reluctant to allow institutions, like ours, to continue along such a dangerous path without some compensation. These changing contractual obligations will necessitate repeated investments to maintain the status quo, or a thorough reduction in the number of allocated accounts. With all of the risks inherent with the maintenance of these accounts, we have decided to follow the many examples set by our fellow institutions of higher learning, and pursue the latter option. Account reduction is the only solution that works in this scenario.

What has been done so far?

On January 25, 2023 more than 70,000 legacy accounts were disabled. A small number of extensions were granted, and those accounts will have until August 1, 2023 to prepare for closure. Additionally, new policies covering employees (staff and faculty), as well as students and alumni were created to ensure our account numbers stay within the limits set by Google (and other vendors). These policies took effect in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 academic years.

Preparing for Account Closure

If you are a current student or employee, we encourage you to prepare for account closure. Depending on how much you used your Gustavus account, you may need to do little to nothing, or you may need to transfer emails and documents to a new account and alert your contacts of the impending change. Review the relevant policies to determine how much time you will have to transition to a non-Gustavus account. Make sure your important emails, documents, and connected services (e.g. Google Photos) have all been accounted for. If you want to stay in touch with the College, make sure we have your updated contact information (including your non-Gustavus email address). More on these steps can be found below.

Staying in Touch

We encourage you to share your personal, non-Gustavus email address with us. We'll do our best to ensure that any communications you received in the past will continue into the future.

Update my email

Tips for Successful Email Transition

  • Choose a reliable and secure email provider. We can recommend Google Gmail, but Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo Mail are also very popular free options.
  • Create your new account using your chosen email provider.
  • Forward important messages to your new email address and download necessary documents.
  • Create a vacation message on your legacy account that directs people to your new address.
  • Email your important contacts to notify them of your new address.
  • Update any online accounts that use your old email address.

Creating a new account (Google Gmail)

  1. Go to gmail.com.
  2. Click Create account.
  3. Select Form myself.
  4. Enter your name.
  5. In the "Username" field, enter a username.
  6. Enter and confirm your password.
  7. Click Next.
  8. Optional: Enter a phone number and/or alternate email address (you should avoid using your Gustavus email address as your alternate).
  9. Enter your birthday and gender.
  10. Accept the Terms and Conditions.

Forwarding emails (Google Gmail)

This method will send selected messages as attachments in one new email:

  1. Open Gmail.
  2. Click Compose.
  3. Drag the messages that you want to attach to the new message window (maximum of 10 messages).
  4. Enter your new email address, subject, and any message text.
  5. Click Send.

This method will send selected messages to your new email as individual messages:

  1. Open Gmail.
  2. Open the message you want to forward to your new email.
  3. At the top, click More (three dots in the top right corner).
  4. Select Forward.
  5. Enter your new email address, subject, and any message text.
  6. Click Send.

Importing/Exporting contacts (Google Gmail)

Exporting from Gusmail (Gustavus Gmail) account:

  1. On your computer, go to Google Contacts - https://contacts.google.com
  2. At the left, click Export.
  3. Select which contacts to export.
  4. Select Google CSV.
  5. Click Export.
  6. Sign out.

Import to new Gmail account:

  1. Go to Google Contacts, and then sign in with your other Gmail account.
  2. At the left, click Import.
  3. Click Select File.
  4. Choose your file.
  5. Click Import.

Additional Help

We will be providing more information, with additional instructions, in future updates. In the meantime, if you have any general questions about this process or the relevant timelines, please feel to contact us at helpline@gustavus.edu. Thank you for helping us to provide a better, more secure environment for the next generation of Gusties.