Requirements and procedures are in support of governing CU Policies and CUIMC Information Security Procedures.
When an employee changes their department/division or their employment for CUIMC ends, proper notification must be given to allow for change, restriction and/or disabling of any login accounts and access to data. This must be done to help safeguard information, ensure that only authorized individuals are using the logins, and that the owning department or division is aware of active user accounts – some of which incur annual or quota based charges.
Requirements
- All University account and password requirements apply
Account requirements include making sure that unused accounts are disabled, and not sharing or transferring existing accounts to others.
- UNI Accounts
- UNI account termination must be initiated through Human Resources, please contact your department's HR Client Manager.
- For urgent account terminations, please make sure that you are able to speak to someone in HR directly and that they are aware of the nature of the urgency.
- Electronic Data and Equipment Disposal
Any equipment that will be transferred or removed must be properly treated as outlined in the Electronic Data and Equipment Disposal procedures.
- Access to a Former Employee’s Data
If the former employee has any data - including emails or files or folders on a network drive that need to be accessed by others (that do not already have access) - the department must contact Columbia's Office of the General Council for approval. For legal reasons it is not possible to grant anyone access to another employee's data without this approval.
- Access to accounts and data that are managed by CUIMC IT cannot be given until the requester is able to provide CUIMC IT with written approval from the Office of the General Counsel.
- Access will be arranged for 7 days only; the department will be responsible for copying or moving all necessary data.
- Access to email is for account data only (i.e. messages, attachments, calendar data), typically by exporting and importing a ".pst" (Outlook data) file. The account cannot be made "active" again to send/receive messages etc.
- CUIMC IT Managed Accounts – MC Domain and Exchange/CUIMC Email
Please use the Procedure below to notify us when an employee with an MC Domain and/or CUIMC (Exchange) email account leaves or moves to another department/division.
Procedure
To notify CUIMC IT of Domain or CUIMC email accounts for separations other than retiring, please submit the Disable User's Account form linked under Submit a Request. This should be done as far in advance as possible; there is a field on the form to include the final date of employment.
For CUIMC email account holders:
- Be sure to verify with the employee whether any shared mailboxes/calendars were created under the account. When the individual's email account is removed, any shared mailboxes created under the account will automatically be removed as well. To change the owner please submit the Modify or Disable CUIMC Shared Mailbox form.
- To send an automatic response when the former employee's account is emailed to notify the sender, please email 5help@cumc.columbia.edu to request that a temporary auto-response message be set. This can include information about alternate contacts if desired.
The Provisioning and Deprovisioning (PDF) document has additional procedural information for employee Exchange accounts including long leaves of absence.
For Retiring Employees:
DO NOT submit the Disable User's Account form. When the employee's DA or other qualified person in the department notifies HR of the retirement via their advanced access to myColumbia, they are added to a "feed", setting an automated procedure in motion. The month after it is submitted by the department to HR, the retiree will receive a LionMail account (to be used with their @columbia.edu address) and 3 notification messages to their @cumc.columbia.edu email address before it is closed. The messages will explain the process, including the expiration of their CUIMC email account and how to download and save its and messages before expiration.
Please DO verify that the retiring employee is not the owner of a shared mailbox/calendar; if so submit the Modify CUIMC or Disable Shared Mailbox Access form to change ownership. If you do not, the shared mailbox will automatically be removed when the owner's CUIMC account is expired.
Additional Help
CUIMC IT does not oversee accounts not specifically mentioned on this page. Refer to the list of common CUIMC Applications and Access for information on other accounts and their managing group.
General administrative policies regarding employee separations and termination can be found at the Columbia Human Resources website, select the HR Manager Toolkit - Workplace Management - Layoffs and Termination links.