Miami University Network (MUnet) Account Policy

This policy governs the Miami University network (MUnet) and all computer operating systems or computer services which require the issuance of a unique identifier (UniqueID) and/or password (MUnet password). Access to the University computer resources will be granted through the process of being assigned accounts. Accounts on principal supported systems will be assigned to all faculties, staff and students’ dependant on an individual’s educational and employment requirements. Extended member of the community, meeting established criteria, will be provided access by way of a ‘Courtesy’ account at the discretion of IT Services, as outlined below.

Miami University faculty, staff and students are automatically assigned UniqueIDs and default MUnet passwords to access ‘university provided’ computing resources and services. These services include but are not limited to, electronic mail, printing services (print charging), file sharing, data sharing and the Career Planning Office (CPO). These services are provided for educational/academic pursuits and may not be used for commercial endeavors.

All faculty, staff and students are required to comply with Miami University’s “Responsible Use of Computing Resources at Miami University” policy. This policy applies to all clients of university computing resources, whether affiliated with the University or not, and to all uses of those resources, whether on campus or from remote locations. Additional policies may apply to specific computers, computer systems or networks provided or operated by specific units of the university.

Account Types

Faculty, staff, and student accounts will have full access to the Internet and University-supported software on the systems as long as the person assigned to the account remains a member of the university community. These accounts include but are not limited to e-mail, disk space, and administrative systems accounts.

Emeritus accounts will be extended to faculty or staff and their spouses, who have received official emeritus status from the Board of Trustee’s at Miami University. This account extension will automatically take place when IT Services receives notification that this status has been granted. A Dean or Department Chair person may request that a Courtesy account be created until the emeritus account request has been granted.

Courtesy accounts are created to provide network access, e-mail or other account privileges to non-Miami faculty, staff or students. Courtesy accounts may be requested for former students or Graduate Student completing course work, student studying abroad (on campuses other than Luxembourg), Instructors or Faculty working for Miami University but not employed by Miami University, or consultants not employed by Miami University but engaged in active work. To be considered, the request for a courtesy account must be submitted to the online request form located at http://www.muohio.edu/accounts. The request should include:

• Information about the requester/responsible party, Name, title, UniqueID and e-mail address. (This must be a Department Chair, Dean or designee)
  
  
• Information about the account hold including name, title, position, current address, phone number Social Security number and birth date.
  
  
• Rationale for request.
  
  
• Timeframe for account existence

Student organizations may request accounts for communicating with students, faculty and staff as well as other organizations at Miami University. For these organizations to obtain computer resources they must meet the following criteria:

• A University staff or faculty person must assume the role of ‘Organization Advisor’.
  
  
• An Organization account request must be initiated by completing a request form including the signature of the Advisor. The form will include the information that the Advisor supports the request and names the office and officer who will be the responsible person for the account.
  
  
• An Officer or responsible person in the organization must take responsibility for the organization’s accounts.
  
  
• The responsible person or Advisor must request renewal of the accounts and report the organization’s new officers or Advisor to IT Services by October 1 of each year.

If an organization’s accounts show no activity for one year, they will be suspended and the last known Advisor and responsible person will be notified. The accounts including contents will be deleted at the end of the semester in which they are suspended.

If an organization has an advisor who is not associated with the University as a faculty or staff person, the organization will be directed to obtain a commercial Internet service provider.

Faculty organizations may request accounts for communicating with students, faculty and staff as well as other organizations at Miami University. For these organizations to obtain computer resources they must meet the following criteria:

• An Officer in the organization must take responsibility for the account.
  
  
• A Faculty organization account request must be initiated by completing a request form. The form will include the information of who will be the responsible person for the account. (This person must be a University faculty or staff person.)
  
  
• The last known responsible person must request renewal of the accounts and report the organization’s new officials to IT Services by October 1 of each year.

If an organization’s accounts show no activity for one year, they will be suspended and the responsible person will be notified. The accounts, including contents will be deleted at the end of the semester in which they are suspended.

If the organization’s responsible person is not associated with the University as a faculty or staff person, the organization will be directed to obtain a commercial Internet service provider.

General Account Information

Information on the account and the account holder will be recorded for the purposes of system management, including the date of installation, last used (logged on) date, and the client's name, Miami ID number, department, and status. Additional information may be supplied by the account owner and be included in printed and on-line directories. Students may request that their information not be published in print by registering in writing at the Office of the Registrar prior to September of each year. Students may request that their information be excluded from electronic directories at any time, however, new students, when enrolling for the fall semester, will not be visible in electronic directories prior to August 1, in order to give the student sufficient opportunity to alert the Registrar’s Office of their desire for exclusion.

In the event of the death or incapacity of a client, the client's accounts will be handled as a deleted account with the accounts and their contents being deleted 30 days after expiration of the account. Access to the information in the account may be authorized at the discretion of the former supervisor in the case of faculty or staff, or the Vice President for Student Affairs for students.

Passwords will be set by the account generation process to a default value of month of birth, day of birth and last four digits of the social security number (MMDDSSSS). Miami University web-based services will prompt the client to change the password the first time that they log into a web-based service. When the password is set, it will be suggested that the client create a ‘Secret Question/Answer pair’. If a Secret question/answer pair is on file, the client will be able to create a new password, in the event that the password is forgotten. If the client does not create a Secret Question/Answer and they are unable to remember their password, the client will be required to go to the Support Desk (regional campus clients can also visit their technology support centers) and present a picture ID. When the identity has been confirmed, the support staff will reset the password to a default value and the client will be required to change the password to a new value at first login to any web-based service.

Electronic mail will be established with all accounts. When the e-mail account is deleted, all redirects of mail will be deleted in individual systems. The Miami University electronic directory will continue to support an individual's mail forwarding for six months after the individual has left the University.

Disk space will be allocated to each account on principal supported systems. This primary disk storage will, by default, not be accessible from another account. All accounts will have full data sharing capability, accomplished either through the file system or through the communications facility. It is suggested that institutional data be stored in directories that are not identified by UniqueID names.

Automated Account Procedure

Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students receiving stipends must complete ALL payroll forms with the appropriate personnel office (Academic Personnel for faculty and graduate students receiving stipends). When forms are completed, the personnel office will add the person to the payroll master file. The UniqueID and accounts for some systems will be added in ‘real-time’ (immediately) after Personnel completes the Banner information. Accounts not created in real-time will be created in a nightly process.

Students must complete ALL pieces of the admission/readmission process with the appropriate Admission or Registrar's Office. When the Admission or Registrar's Office has updated all administrative system information to reflect acceptance of the student to the appropriate term, the student record will be processed. The UniqueID and accounts for some systems will be added in ‘real-time’ (immediately) after Admission or Registrar completes this information. Accounts not created in real-time will be created in a nightly process.

Procedure for Deletions

When an employee’s record is marked as ‘inactive’ by the payroll system and marked as ‘not enrolled’ by the registration system, the account process sets a flag that starts the process of deletion. For faculty and staff, the beginning of the deletion process is initiated immediately when they formally leave the University. For students, it is held in abeyance during the periods January 1-February 1 and June1-September 25 to ease management of returning students. As a courtesy, the clients will be sent an electronic mail message to their e-mail account, UniqueID@muohio.edu, notifying them that their account is to be deleted. This allows time for clients to move any personal files that they wish to keep from Miami University supported servers or to be reinstated as a member of the community, if so desired

Thirty days after the suspension message is sent, the account will be become unavailable to the client. Data recovery after the account becomes unavailable to the client will be dependant on the system on which the account resides. There is no guarantee of recovery of data, once an account is deleted. Attempts to recover data are done on a best-effort basis. It is the client’s responsibility to remove data from university disk space during the 30 day period prior to account deletion.

The client’s directory entry (PH) will be retained for six months to allow mail to be forwarded to a new e-mail address if a new address was specified prior to account deletion.

After one year of inactivity, the UniqueID is returned to the pool with the possibility of being assigned to another person. Until that point, people may return to the University and be reassigned the same UniqueID; however, there is no guarantee of this. Anyone returning after one year may be assigned a new UniqueID