Google: Accounts for People Who Leave U-M

Overview

U-M Google accounts are available to all faculty, staff, students, sponsored affiliates, alumni, and retirees on the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. Individuals with multiple affiliations retain access as long as one eligible role remains. Your offboarding process will begin after your affiliation at the university changes (i.e., after graduation, after the last day of employment, etc.). This document explains what steps to take in U-M Google before you leave the university.

Important: Individuals who leave (without retaining an alum, retiree, or emeritus status) and are no longer affiliated with the university lose access to their U-M Google accounts immediately after their affiliation at the university changes. Their accounts are deleted 90 days after affiliation loss.

It is important to understand the affiliations you have at the university to determine when access to certain U-M computing services will end and how to prepare accordingly. For detailed information on what happens when an individual leaves U-M, refer to Leaving U-M.

Before You Leave U-M

Faculty and staff

End of employment (no retirement)

Faculty and staff whose employment with U-M ends and who no longer have an active affiliation with the university will immediately lose access to their U-M Google account upon loss of affiliation. Faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to take action to download, transfer, or export any emails and files they do not wish to lose BEFORE their last day.

Departments/units should work with the individual as part of their offboarding procedures to have ownership of university business-related files/folders transferred to another individual at U-M or, preferably, a Google shared drive owned by the unit.

End of employment (retirees)

Faculty and staff who retire from the university will retain access to U-M Google as retirees. However, their storage limit will change from 250GB to 15GB when their affiliation changes. If they are over their 15GB limit on the day their affiliation changes, their account will be suspended and scheduled for deletion. They will have 90 days to reactivate their account and up to 90 days to reduce their storage before the account is permanently deleted.

Retiring individuals are encouraged to take action to download, transfer, or export any emails and files before retiring, especially if they are over the 15GB storage limit. Retiring individuals must reduce their storage below 15GB before their last day to ensure their account is not suspended upon affiliation change and scheduled for deletion 90 days later.

Departments/units should work with the individual as part of their offboarding procedures to have ownership of university business-related files/folders transferred to another individual at U-M or, preferably, a Google shared drive owned by the unit.

Note: U-M Google storage limits will remain at 250GB for emeriti faculty who retain all standard computing services.

Sponsored affiliates immediately lose access to U-M Google when their sponsorship ends. If a sponsoring department wishes to extend a sponsorship, it must do so before the sponsorship ends. If the sponsored person has another eligible affiliation with the university when the sponsorship ends, their access to U-M Google will continue based on that other affiliation. Sponsored accounts that lose all university roles will be considered non-affiliated, and their account will be deleted 90 days after affiliation loss.

Sponsored affiliates are encouraged to take action to download, transfer, or export any emails and files before leaving U-M.

Departments/units should work with the individual as part of their offboarding procedures to have ownership of university business-related files/folders transferred to another individual at U-M or, preferably, a Google shared drive owned by the unit.

Visiting faculty

When a visiting faculty has an HR appointment and has no other affiliation with the university, they will immediately lose access to U-M Google at the end of the HR appointment, and their affiliation changes. All data associated with the account is deleted and is not recoverable.

Students

End of education (graduating students / new alumni)

Students who graduate from the university will retain access to U-M Google as alumni. However, their storage limit will change from 250GB to 15GB upon graduation. The exact date it changes depends on the term they graduate: 

  • Winter Term: May 15
  • Spring, Spring/Summer, and Summer Terms: September 1
  • Fall Term: January 1

If they are over 15GB the day their limit changes, their account will be suspended and scheduled for deletion 90 days later.

After 90 days, if they remain over 15GB, their U-M Google account will be considered abandoned and permanently deleted. The date this occurs also depends on the term they graduate:

  • Winter Term: August 15
  • Spring, Spring/Summer, and Summer Terms: December 1
  • Fall Term: April 1

Graduating students should check their current storage and clean up their U-M Google account if necessary to avoid having their account deleted. Additionally, they should find the files/folders they own and have shared with others and transfer ownership of files/folders containing university data, including academic, business, or research data, to the appropriate individual or group at the university. If the student would like to retain copies of their data, they should either use Google Takeout to export an archive of all account data or Google Takeout Transfer to copy all their emails in Gmail and files they own in Drive to a personal (non-UM) Google account.

  • For academic data: Speak to the faculty member with whom you worked (e.g., as a GSI or TA) to determine whether they'd like you to transfer ownership of any files and where best to store that data.
  • For research data: Speak with your research team to determine to whom ownership should be transferred and where best to store that data.
  • For business data: Speak with your supervisor/manager to determine whether they'd like you to transfer ownership of any files and where best to store that data.
  • For shared drives you manage: Make sure to add at least one additional eligible Manager (i.e., faculty, regular staff, or another student) to manage the drive to avoid loss of university data after you graduate. (Shared drives with no eligible Managers are deleted 90 days after eligibility loss.)

End of education (no graduation)

Students who leave without completing at least one term lose their affiliation with the university when they are no longer listed by their department as "Active in Program." These students will lose access to their U-M Google account immediately after loss of affiliation. Departing students are strongly encouraged to take action to download, transfer, or export any emails and files before leaving U-M.

Alumni and end of employment

For alumni who are employed at the university and leave their job, departments/units should work with the individual as part of their offboarding procedures to have ownership of university business-related files/folders transferred to another individual at U-M or, preferably, a Google shared drive owned by the unit. Refer to Find Google Files You’ve Shared With Others to help the departing employee find everything they own and have shared in Google Drive. Refer to Transfer Ownership of Files in Google Drive for instructions. If the unit needs to retain access to the departing individual's business emails, they should use a U-M Google Shared Account and request a mail transfer to that account.

Because they retain their alumni affiliation, they can continue to use U-M Google. However, their storage limit will change from 250GB to 15GB once their employment ends. Alumni whose employment ends must reduce their storage below 15GB before their last day to ensure their account is not suspended upon affiliation change and scheduled for deletion 90 days later.

Alumni prior to U-M Google

Some alumni who graduated prior to December 2011 have not received access to U-M Google. However, if a pre-December 2011 alum a) receives services based on employment at the university and then leaves that job or b) requests to enable their Google services, the alum retains these services. Their storage limit is also 15GB.

Uncooperative Departures

An uncooperative departure is when the affected U-M person cannot be relied on to assist with their departure.

If the departure involves an uncooperative employee, the best practice is to involve User Advocate as soon as possible. Email [email protected] or call 734-764-4357 to contact User Advocate.

With User Advocate involvement, Google Administrators can assist in:

  • Preserving the contents of a mailbox
  • Changing ownership of Google Docs from one account to another
  • Suspending Google account access before the 30-day driver logic timeline
Last Updated
Thursday, May 23, 2024