NSIT Account Closure Policies and Procedures
NSIT provides account services to current faculty, students, and staff (identified by the Provost's Office, Registrar's Office, and UHRM). In addition to the services that NSIT provides, the CNetID and password serve as authentication to a number of non-NSIT services. Eligibility for these services is determined by the service provider. Access to all services that use the CNetID and password for authentication will close when the CNetID and password close. For those people who maintain their CNetIDs and passwords beyond account closure (alumni and former students), access to non-NSIT systems beyond NSIT account closure will be determined by the service provider.
Once a faculty, OAP (Other Academic Personnel), Postdoctoral Researcher, or staff member no longer holds an "active" affiliation with the University, his or her account services provided by NSIT, and those that use the CNetID and password for authentication, will begin to close.
Students retain eligibility for account services for a grace period of two quarters after their last quarter of eligibility, after which their account services will begin to close.
NSIT's account closure system involves a series of steps over a 45-day period designed to provide sufficient notification for any account holder who is no longer an "active" member of the University of Chicago but who may still be using email, have files in Webshare, or be using other services that require attention before the account closes.
This process will stop immediately if the individual returns to an eligible status. Below is a synopsis of the procedure. Additional information, including what to do if you believe there has been an error, can be found on our Support Site.
Day 1: Individual falls out of eligibility - NSIT notices and marks the account for closure.
Day 3: First notice of impending closure is sent to the account holder. In order to ensure that account holders become aware of their imminent loss of service, and to not rely solely on email notification, some services are closed early in the process. These include: wireless and VPN access; University proxy service for off-campus access to licensed Library resources; technical support through the NSIT Support Line except for matters relating to this closure process; and access to class resources via Chalk. These services will close one week after the first notice. Account holders are also notified that their remaining account services, including: email storage; Webshare access; and all computing on NSIT computers (harper, computing labs, computing classrooms, web kiosks, etc...) will close 42 days after the first notice.
Day 10: Above-mentioned first group of services close.
Days 10-38: During this time, NSIT will send weekly notices about the impending closure to all accountholders.
Days 38-44: During this time, NSIT will send out daily notices about the impending closure to all accountholders.
Day 45: The second group of services (mentioned above) are closed.
Day 45 - 365: During this period, the user at any time can re-enable his or her access for a one-time 7-day "Amnesty" period. This is a safety measure to ensure that all account holders have had adequate time to retrieve any files or email they may have forgotten to get before accounts were locked.
Day 365 or 7 Days after the election of Amnesty: Either one year later or end of the Amnesty period, whichever comes first, accounts and all data will be permanently and irreversibly purged from our systems. If an individual returns to active status at the University after this time, he or she will reclaim the same CNetID, but all files and email will have been removed.
Last updated: 7/18/08