Email and Network Account Expiration Policy
In keeping with the college’s responsibility to ensure policies and procedures are in place that will minimize the disclosure of private information or the unwanted release and distribution of sensitive data, these guidelines outline procedures on the termination of employee network accounts.
- Responsible office
- Information Technology Services
- Responsible party
- Vice president for information technology/Chief technology officer
- Last revision
- September 2025
- Approved by
- The Cabinet
- Approval date
- August 2013
- Effective date
- August 2013
- Last review
- August 2013
- Additional references
- None
Scope
All financial and administrative policies involving community members across campus, including volunteers are within the scope of this policy. If there is a variance between departmental expectations and the common approach described through college policy, the college will look to the campus community, including volunteers to support the spirit and the objectives of college policy. Unless specifically mentioned in a college policy, the college’s Board of Trustees are governed by their Bylaws.
Policy
Unused email and network accounts
Alumni and retiree email and network accounts that have not been directly accessed for six consecutive months will be expired and deleted. Alumni and retirees should log in through the CC website (the “Sign into CC” link) at least once every six months to prevent expiration.
Employee resignations (voluntary)
- Access to all college network resources including email, network drives, and databases will end at close of business on the last day of employment.
- Supervisors are responsible for communicating with the departing employee about the account termination policy and should work with the employee to transfer work-related information to the supervisor or applicable college employees.
Employee terminations (involuntary)
- Access to all college network resources including email, network drives, and databases will end immediately upon termination.
- The supervisor will be given access to the departing employee’s email account and network drives to retain relevant work information, and set an email auto-reply notifying email senders that the employee no longer works at the college.
Retiree status
- Retired employees (including faculty with emeriti status) may choose to retain their CC email accounts. Retiree accounts will be modified to note the retired status in the display name, but the email address and login information will remain the same. An email auto-reply announcing the retirement is recommended.
- Access to College data assets will end after 30 days.
HR and the data owner(s) must approve any exceptions to the above policy statements.
Alumni status
- Student OneDrives are deleted approximately 3 months after graduation.
- Alumni can keep their email accounts for as long as they wish, but inactive accounts will be expired and deleted (see “unused accounts” above).
Deletion
- After an account expires due to inactivity, it remains intact for 30-45 days before it is deleted (this includes employee OneDrives and H: drives).
- Once the account has been deleted, the mailbox is recoverable for 30 days. The account itself is recoverable for 180 days.
Procedures
None
Definitions
- Network drives: Local shared network drives (such as H: and I: drives) as well as OneDrive
- Expired account: Account that is still intact but no one can log into it