This guide acts as a resource and guide for retired faculty/staff and emeritus faculty and to learn about what happens to your access to UW tools, services and other technology when you retire and how to store information before it gets deleted. Please note that access to certain tools/services differ based on your affiliation with the UW. For any questions related that may not be answered in this guide, please email help@uw.edu.
- Accessing UW Systems and Services
- Your files, data, and stored information
- Software
- Voicemail & Phones
- UW Libraries
- Timeline
Accessing UW Systems and Services
Overall, when accessing UW systems and services, your personal UW NetID does not expire and you can still continue to sign into it. However, levels of access may differ depending on your affiliation with the UW.
UW NetID
Your personal UW NetID will continue to be yours after you retire and will not be deactivated.
However, there are a few caveats:
- Services, tools, and systems that use UW NetIDs for authentication may not be accessible through your UW NetID just because it is active. Please refer to the relevant section within this guide to learn more.
- A year of inactivity can require you to reset your password before accessing services again. If you ever need assistance from UW-IT post-retirement, make sure to keep track of your NetID AND Employee Identification Number (EID) for verification purposes.
For more information, reference About UW NetIDs.
You can continue to sign into your UW NetID and are eligible for some IT Services.
Related Information
Accessing email
UW Google
Refer to main UW Google access section.
UW Office 365
Refer to main UW Office 365 access section.
Wi-Fi Access
When you retire, you will no longer have access to Wi-Fi and eduroam.
After you retire, you can take advantage of using ANYROAM, a complementary service to eduroam that provides login credentials for those not associated with an existing eduroam institution. For support on ANYROAM, refer to their contact page here.
You will continue to have access to Wi-Fi and eduroam.
UW Groups
If you are the sole administrator of a UW Group and that UW Group needs to remain after your separation, add or promote a member to that role. Any groups you’ve created will continue to function and you may continue to have access/permissions to Groups you’re a member of depending on the Group’s purpose. Refer to UW Groups for more information.
Your files, data, and stored information
Your level and timeline of access is dependent on the type of platform. Refer to the various platforms below to learn more about retiree access and data retention.
Productivity platforms
UW Google
UW Google, formerly known as G Suite and Google Apps, provides Google products such as Calendar, Google Drive and Docs, Gmail, and more.
Your UW Google account will be suspended and inaccessible 28 days after your last day at UW. Fourteen days after your last day, you will receive an email reminder that computing services will expire in 14 days.
- Day 0: Last day at UW.
- Day 14: Email notification is sent stating that computing services expire in 14 days.
- Day 28: UW Google account is suspended and no longer accessible.
- Day 56: UW Google account is deleted.
- Day 76: UW Google account is permanently deleted and no longer recoverable.
UW Google services do not expire.
Shared Documents
You continue to have access to documents that you have shared with others in your Google Drive after you retire, until your UW Google account is deleted per the timeline listed above. However, if someone else has shared a document with you that they own and they separate from the UW, you (and anyone else with whom the document has been shared) will lose access to that document.
Shared Drives
If you are a manager of a UW Google Shared Drive, you must transfer management to another UW employee before you retire. Learn more about management of UW Google Shared Drives, including how to make someone else a manager. Learn more about deletion of Shared Drives.
UW Office 365
UW Office 365 provides faculty and staff access to Microsoft services such as Exchange Online, Office Online, OneDrive, and SharePoint, Teams.
Your UW Office 365 account will be suspended and inaccessible 28 days after your last day at UW. Fourteen days after your last day, you will receive an email reminder that computing services will expire in 14 days.
- Day 0: Last day at UW.
- Day 14: Email notification is sent stating that computing services expire in 14 days.
- Day 28: UW Office 365 account is suspended and no longer accessible.
- Day 58: UW Office 365 account is permanently deleted.
UW Office 365 services do not expire.
You should be able to continue having the ability to forward your UW email to a personal email post retirement, but it’s important to note that email forwarding may not persist in the future. You can also migrate your UW emails to your personal email after configuring forwarding and leave an automatic reply on your UW email stating you have left the UW. Consider leaving an automatic reply saying you’ve left the UW to let others know your UW email is no longer active.
Email forwarding advisory: Only email sent directly from a UW email address (@uw.edu) can be reliably delivered to the email forwarding address you select on the manage email forwarding page. For more information, please review our email forwarding information page.
Email Forwarding
Use the UW email forwarding tool to forward new mail to a personal email before beginning the email migration process.
You will lose access to UW Google and UW Office 365 and should forward to a personal email account.
You will retain access to UW Google and UW Office 365 and can choose to forward to a personal email account.
Migrating Your UW Email Content
UW Google
- Make sure to change your UW email forwarding to your personal Gmail email address with the UW email forwarding tool.
- Use the following tools from Google to migrate your UW emails:
- Use Google Takeout Transfer to copy UW Gmail email and Google Drive files to your personal Gmail account.
- Refer to the Google Support page and follow the instructions to migrate UW Google contacts to a personal Google account.
- Make sure to change your UW email forwarding to your personal Outlook email address with the UW email forwarding tool.
- Follow the instructions on how to add an email account to Outlook on Microsoft Support and enter your UW email address on Outlook by using @gamail.uw.edu (this is not a typo) for your UW Google email address (i.e., your UWNetID@gamail.uw.edu).
- Optional: Download Office 365 ProPlus to use the Outlook desktop app
UW Office 365
Before migrating email, please review the UW Appropriate Use page and note that while UW Office 365 is HIPAA- and FERPA-compatible, personal email accounts are not.
- Make sure to change your UW email forwarding to your personal email address with the UW email forwarding tool.
- Follow the instructions on how to add an email account to Outlook on Microsoft Support
- Optional: Download Office 365 ProPlus to use the Outlook desktop app
Mailman Lists
You can still subscribe to Mailman lists. However, you can no longer own Mailman lists. Lists without an active owner will be deleted.
To preserve a list, please transfer the ownership by following the instructions for the current version of Mailman. The new version of Mailman will tentatively roll out in Summer 2023, in which you may follow the instructions for the new version of Mailman.
Other
Trumba calendars
All items that you created will remain on Trumba servers until automatic deletion rules apply. They do not get automatically deleted upon your retirement.
After a year of inactivity, you lose the editor access. To regain access, retirees can request that a colleague add them to the relevant UW Group (valid UW NetID required).
Canvas
If there are Canvas course files and/or Panopto recordings that you would like to save, please contact the department in which you were employed and request the course materials before your effective retirement date. Refer to the Canvas Data Retention Policy and/or the Panopto Data Retention Policy for more information.
You lose access to Canvas four weeks after the effective date of your retirement, per the UW’s standard procedure regarding computing services. You will receive an email on day 14 stating that computing services and access to Canvas expire in 14 days.
If you have had the role of teacher, TA, course designer, guest teacher, or librarian in a course, you will have a 90-day period after your retirement date to sign in and access content from that specific Canvas course.
You lose access to Canvas four weeks after the effective date of your retirement unless you have an active appointment at the UW. Learn more about access to Canvas as a retired faculty member.
Departments can grant access to Canvas to retired faculty using the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT). Access granted through the PRT needs to be renewed annually by a current UW employee. 90 days before expiration, you will be sent renewal notices at 90 days, 30 days, 7 days, and 1 day before expiration.
You will continue to be able to sign in to access materials in Canvas.
Panopto
Your access to Panopto follows that of Canvas. See the Canvas section for details.
Your recordings are removed from Panopto following the timelines of the Panopto Retention Policy.
UW Sites
When you retire, you will no longer have access to UW Sites and content you’ve created. If you want to keep any content from UW Sites made with your personal UW NetID, you can export content using WordPress export tools.
Software
The University of Washington provides a number of software programs (UWare), and their access to you once you retire varies. Generally, you will not retain software services unless you are emeritus faculty, and if you are doing additional work for UW and need continued access to certain services, a full-time Faculty/Staff member can provision you using the Provision Request Tool.
Zoom
Your Zoom account is deleted and login is revoked within 30 days after separation from the UW. However, you can obtain access to a UW Zoom Basic account. To do so, request a current UW employee to provide access by provisioning your UW NetID via the Provisioning Request Tool (PRT). Provisioned access lasts for 365 days and must be renewed annually by the UW employee who provisioned the UW NetID and/or no renewal of PRT.
Your Zoom account does not expire and retains a current faculty status with the UW. However, 120 days of inactivity downgrades the account to Basic. You can restore your full account by logging in to UW Zoom.
Voicemail & Phones
Your voicemail and phone service remain active and continues billing until:
- UW-IT receives a disconnect request and all associated leased equipment are retrieved,
-or- - Until a Service Audit deems the number has been unused for a sufficient amount of time, at which time UW-IT may elect to disconnect the service.
How long your phone and voicemail remains active after retirement is up to your supervisor and/or department’s policies and procedures, and should be discussed ahead of your departure if you have special circumstances.
Changing your voicemail
It is recommended that you change your voicemail greeting to inform callers of your retirement from the UW. To learn how to change your voicemail, please refer to the Changing Voicemail Options. This will only remain active until your phone and voicemail service is shut off.
UW Libraries
Library Computer Labs & Technology Access
Your online library services will continue indefinitely after retirement. To learn more about retiree library technology access, please refer the UW Libraries website:
- UW Faculty / UW Retired Faculty / UW Emeritus Faculty – Accounts and Privileges
- UW Staff / UW Retirees / UW Researchers – Accounts and Privileges
Timeline
| Timeframe | Access Checklist |
| 3 months out | 3 months before you retire, you should start to consider saving any significant documents from any cloud-based drives, Canvas courses, Panopto recordings, and needed content from any UW Sites you owned/were a member of. |
| 2 months out | 2 months before you retire, you should start thinking about finding new owners for services such as UW Groups, UW Shared NetIDs, and Mailman lists. |
| 1 week out | 1 week before you retire, you should start following the email migrating process. |
| Last day of work | On your last day of work, you should set up email forwarding and a voicemail indicating your retirement from the UW. |
| Day of retirement (Day 0) | You will continue to have access to:
You will lose access to: |
| 2 weeks after (Day 14) | You will receive notifications about loss of access to: |
| 4 weeks after (Day 28) | You will lose access to: |
| 30 days after (Day 30) | You will lose access to: |