This article gives advice for what to do with technology, accounts and email when employees (faculty or staff) leave employment at the university or change departments.

Background

This article gives advice for what to do with technology, accounts and email when employees (faculty or staff) leave or change employment at the university.  The first section is geared for employees, the second for supervisors, and the third adds additional information for situations where an employee is not leaving but is changing to another role.

Advice for Employees

Ticket

When an employee with a university-issued computer leaves employment at the university, the following should happen:

1. The supervisor should ensure that the employee's computer is returned to the Hillsboro or Forest Grove Helpdesk locations.  If assistance is needed detaching a desktop computer from its peripherals, call the Helpdesk for assistance.  Please be sure to return the power supply and any adapters that were provided with the computer.
2. The supervisor should create a help ticket for the return of the computer workstation return, upon receipt of the computer, the Technology Helpdesk will create a voucher ticket for the return.  A confirmation of the return of the computer will be sent to the person who coordinates computer purchases and deployments for that department (typically an office manager or executive assistant).  Along with this confirmation will be a voucher for the deployment of a computer (of the same age or newer) to the person who gets hired as a replacement for this position.
3. After a brief period the computer is wiped and reimaged with a fresh software image.  Before the image is wiped, the Helpdesk are able to assist with requests to retrieve files from the computer.
4. When the position is re-hired for, the person in receipt of the voucher sends a request to UIS to prepare a computer for that new employee (notice of two weeks or greater is ideal).  The requester sends along the unique number for that computer voucher (which is also the same as the ticket number for the ticket created).

Box

After you leave the university, any Box files you are the owner of will go away, no matter who has access to them. For any Box folder where you are listed as an Owner (in the sharing section in the upper right) you should either move this folder into a Departmental folder (any folder where the owner is "Pacific University Box Administrator") or transfer ownership by adding a collaborator and changing their access level to Owner.

Out of Office Message

Set an Out of Office message in Gmail, telling people you are no longer at Pacific University and directing them to contact someone else with their inquiries. This will prevent emails from going un-responded to. The Out of Office message is available under the vacation responder. Open Gmail, click on the settings gear icon and click on see all settings. Go to the General tab and scroll down to the vacation responder. Click on the vacation responder on, put in a date for first day to start and insert a message. Make sure to save changes at the bottom.

Sample text: "I am no longer with Pacific University as of [date]. Please direct your emails to [name] at [email] or call [phone number]."

Voicemail

Set your outgoing voicemail to say that you are no longer at the university and asking people to call another number. You can also forward calls from your phone to another number (see our KB article on forwarding) but keep in mind that unanswered calls will still go to your voicemail.

Your Password

Do not give your PUNet password to your supervisor or any other employee. This is a violation of the university's Appropriate Use Policy.

Alumni and Former Students

If you are an Alum (graduated form Pacific with a degree) from 1992 or afterwards, you will likely be eligible for continued access to email through BoxerMail, access to educational records through BoxerOnline and access to manage your account through myAccount. Watch your email for a notification about when and how your email delivery will be transitioned to BoxerMail. Note that mail in your employee mailbox will not be automatically transitioned and anything you want to keep must be moved manually.

If you have taken classes at Pacific after 1992 but did not graduate with a degree, you will have Former Student status and will be able to log in to access to educational records through BoxerOnline and manage your account through myAccount, Colleague Self Service and TouchNet.

In either case, you must continue to do your yearly password change to keep retain continued access to your account.

Personal Emails

UIS does not encourage use of your Pacific employee mailbox for personal correspondence. If you do have personal correspondence in your mailbox that you'd like to save, forward it on to a non-Pacific email address. In Outlook you can click-and-drag multiple messages to a message you are composing to send them as attachments, which can be faster than forwarding messages one-at-a-time.

Personal Files

UIS does not encourage use of your Pacific University-owned computer for storage of personal files. If you do have personal files, these can be uploaded to a personally-owned cloud account or put onto a thumb drive or portable hard drive. Please note that removing any work-related files by these means may be a violation of the law. If you are on a clinic workstation, you may not be able to utilize these means to save files. In that case, please contact the Helpdesk.

Making Emails Available

If you have emails that you want to make available to your supervisor or the next person to take your position, place these in an Outlook PST file (Windows) or in Offline Folders (Macs). Consult with the Helpdesk for assistance doing this.

Making Files Available

If you have files that you want to make available to your supervisor or the next person to take your position, place them in Box in a departmental folder that the appropriate people have access to.

Your Computer

If you have a university-issued laptop, return it (and all accessories) to the Technology Helpdesk in Forest Grove or Hillsboro or, where it is not practical to do so, give these items to your supervisor to return to the Helpdesk. If you hav a university-issued desktop, leave it in your office and let the Helpdesk know (via a phone call to x1500 or email to help@pacificu.edu) that you have left your computer there.

Emeritus and Honored Retiree Status

If you are retiring after a long period of university service you may be eligible to keep your university email, and some other services, if the President's Cabinet approves you for Emeritus Faculty or Honored Retiree status. Ask your department to nominate you for this status. This status is not granted automatically and can only be granted by the President's Cabinet. For more information, staff should see the Staff Handbook or and faculty should consult with their dean or director.

Advice for Supervisors

Out of Office Message

Request that your outgoing employee set an Out of Office message as described in the Advice for Employees section above.

Box Folder Ownership

Check for Box folders shared with you that your employee is the Owner of, and ask them to move them into a departmental folder, as described above. Supervisors can request a list of files and folders owned by a user via this form.

Box Folder Access

Remove the employee's access to folders in Box that you own or manage. Ask managers of other Box folder to remove the person's access. Note that even if an employee's access has been cut off (see Grace Period, below) that employee may still have access to Box for a limited period on the Box app on mobile devices, so it is especially important to remove access to anything a former employee should not have access to. Supervisors can request a list of files and folders shared with a user via this form.

Special Records Access

Put in a help request by emailing help@pacificu.edu if the employee has any special access to records through Colleague, ODS, myAccount, health record systems, EMS, CRM Recruit, Master Calendar, etc. Let us know the employee's last day of work, so we can be sure to end this access immediately upon their departure.

HR Notification

Let HR know when the employee will be leaving. The end date HR enters will set the date that the person's account transitions from an employee account to a former employee, former student or alumni account.

Grace Period

When accounts transition from employee accounts, there is typically a grace period where the employee still has access to his or her standard services (including email, wireless, Box, etc.). If you as the supervisor do not feel it is appropriate for the employee to continue to have this access during this grace period, please submit a help request to help@pacificu.edu asking that all of the employee's access be cut off upon his or her end date and time. This grace period doesn't include access to access that should be removed immediately as discussed in the Special Records Access section above.

Work Files

If you believe there are work files the employee had on his or her university issued computer that you need access to, email help@pacificu.edu with as much detail as possible about the file or files you are looking for.

Work Emails

If you believe there are work emails the employee has in his or her mailbox that you need access to, let us know as soon as possible by emailing help@pacificu.edu. Include as much detail as possible about the emails you are looking for (date ranges, who it was from, and keywords that may be found in the emails). Please note that the Privacy section of the Appropriate Use Policy dictates how and in what circumstances employee emails will be made available to supervisors.

Sponsored Accounts

If you believe there are user or organizational accounts that are sponsored by the employee leaving, make sure that the sponsorship is changed to a current employee. Please submit a help request to help@pacificu.edu asking that all of the employee's sponsored accounts be transferred to a new sponsor. If possible, please list all known accounts sponsored by the former employee in the help request and note any sponsored accounts that are no longer needed so those may be deleted. It is also recommended that organizational accounts be sponsored by more than one person in order to prevent them from being deleted when an employee leaves the university.

Potential Legal Issues

If you believe there may be any future legal issues concerning the employee's termination from the university, let Human Resources and the Office of Legal Affairs know as soon as possible. They may ask UIS to capture an image of the employee's computer for future investigation or discovery purposes.

Wiping Computer

If the employee's computer was left in your care, make sure the Helpdesk gets access to wipe and reimage the computer well before the replacement employee starts. The Helpdesk tries to wipe and reimage all computers after an employee leaves, both to ensure the privacy of the former employee and to give the new employee the most stable and secure computer that we can.  For more, see our article on Computer Return After Employee Departure. 

Keys

Be sure to also collect their physical keys for return to Facilities.

Moves Within the University

When an employee is not leaving the university, but is moving to another desk or another department, the following should be considered:

• The computer generally stays with the position, meaning the employee will give up one computer and receive a new one. Old computers can be left with the manager or the Helpdesk as described above.
• Personal files should be moved off of the old computer, while work files that an employee's replacement in the previous position may need can be made available for the new employee as described above.
• Generally, moving to a new position means getting a new phone line and new voicemail. An employee should leave an out of office message on his or her old phone line, and can give the voicemail PIN to his or her supervisor to be able to check messages until a new person takes over that line.
• Box folders an employee owns that are tied to his or her current position should be transferred to departmental ownership.
• Managers should insure that any Box folders, shared Outlook mailboxes and calendars, access to electronic health records systems and special permissions in Colleague or other systems that are no longer needed or appropriate be removed for an employee who has changed positions.
• Employees who move should remember to update their office location and phone number in myAccount.

Questions? Comments?

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