Essential IT Tips for Departing Colleagues & Their Supervisors

Owned by Shane Leasure
May 08, 2023
5 min read

Employees (including non-Emeritus faculty)

As an employee (faculty or staff), here are the technology-related resources that will no longer be accessible upon your departure:

  1. CNU Connect, including email
    1. Inform your contacts of a new personal or work email address. Your CNU email will not provide automatic forwarding information.
    2. A best practice is to minimize personal use of your cnu.edu email address. At least two weeks before your departure, ensure all personal and/or professional correspondence is updated to another personal, non-CNU email address (examples include Facebook, LinkedIn, bills, friends and acquaintances, professional networks, contacts, etc).
    3. Your CNU accounts will be suspended upon your separation from CNU unless a request is submitted (by your supervisor) to retain access to email (see below) for historical or transactional purposes. 
  2. Google Contacts: 
    1. Consider taking note of any contact information you may need after separating from the University.
  3. Google Drive: 
    1. Think about any Google Drive information you may need after separating from the University. Note: Retaining access to sensitive or University-specific information after you have separated from the University is prohibited by the Employee Separation Clearance Policy (5080). Shared Google files should be moved to a Google Shared Drive for use by others. IT Services cannot recover individual files and send them to new users. 
  4. Scholar:
    1. If you have materials for your teaching stored in Scholar, you will need to transfer them to personal storage.  If your new institution uses Blackboard, you may be able to export the course.  Otherwise, you’ll need to download the files from your shell.  Call the ITS Help Desk if you need assistance with this.

Supervisors

As the supervisor of someone leaving the University, you need to be aware of the following information. The departing employee may have data in various locations that require your attention:

  1. CNU Connect Email: 
    1. In the case of a mission-critical employee’s departure, IT Services can offer one or both of the following:
      1. Do you need information contained within this account? 
        1. The account may need delegation to a specific person (or you). See the options below.
      2. Should this account remain open, with an out-of-office reply? ITS suspends all accounts when an employee separates from the university. If the separating employee’s email is required (such as ongoing business or anticipated email arrival) please see below:
        1. Please submit a ticket with this request along with the date at which IT Services can close the account.
          1. Standard message: Thank you for your email. <former employee> is no longer employed by Christopher Newport University. Please contact <current employee> if you have questions or concerns. 
          2. Standard timeframe: 90 days
  2. Google Drive: Files may need to be placed in a Google Shared Drive
    1. The departing employee can transfer ownership to the supervisor or any designated CNU user for individual files and folders, or move his or her data to a Google Shared Drive where others can use it. 
    2. To change ownership after an employee has departed, the supervisor can submit a ticket to IT Services.
  3. Google Calendar: Shared calendars via G Suite
    1. The departing employee can transfer ownership to the supervisor or any other designated CNU user. 
  4. Files and Folders: 
    1. Shared files on one or more servers (ex: F:\) may require relocation
    2. Files and folders on their computer’s hard drive (“local files”) may have to be shared with another employee (or you).
  5. Procurement eVA account (if applicable)
    1. Does the employee have open orders/purchases in the eVA system? If so, you may need to request additional access from Procurement. 
  6. Phone service
    1. Should the voicemail greeting and password be updated?
    2. Will you need access to the voicemails?

Important note: You can coordinate the items above with your departing employee for a seamless transition. Any changes after the employee has been terminated will require separate helpdesk tickets. 

Other things to consider:

Do you need to transfer all Google Drive files owned by the employee?

FAQ

  • Q: Why don’t I get to keep *insert access here* after I separate from the University?
  • A: Both the Commonwealth of Virginia’s and the University’s policy require that access is removed promptly. Specifically, VITA’s SEC 501 PS-4 and the University’s Employee Separation Clearance Policy (Policy 5080) require the prompt removal of access for separated employees. 
    • Q: What if I need *insert information here* after I separate from the University?
  • A: Personal information can be made available for use after separation, however University-related information, including sensitive data (FERPA, HIPPA, PII) is not available after separation. 

References

  • Virginia Information Technology Agency’s IT Information Security Standard 501
  • “VITA SEC 501 Personnel Security Policy and Procedures (PS-4) Control: The organization, upon the termination of individual employment:

a. Disables information system access within 24 hours of employment termination;

b. Terminates/revokes any authenticators/credentials associated with the individual;

d. Retrieves all security-related organizational information system-related property;

e. Retains access to organizational information and information systems formerly controlled by terminated individual;”

  • CNU Employee Separation Clearance Policy (Policy 5080)
  • “Ensure that all technical and building access for the employee is removed … “

Supervisor Options for Departing Employees

If a University employee or student requests that IT Services view his/her email account in the presence of the requester, IT Services may only do so after obtaining consent in writing. 

The only exception to this prohibition is contained in the following circumstance:

  • If Departmental Deans or Directors need access to the messages coming into the departing employee's account, they must, within those 30 days, send a written request to IT Services approved by the appropriate vice president. IT Services will reset the email account of the terminated employee so that its inbox is shared by the requester. These actions will give University administrators access to the incoming mail but will prevent the email identity of the former employee from being used. After 30 days the account will be deleted.

Continue CNU Business Operations 

  • To continue departmental operations, options 1, 2, or 3 are offered when someone requests access to a former employee’s email.

Handling Options

  • Option 1 - Out of office responder: The email account must remain open, but the vacation responder is set up with a message instructing where to direct future business communications. There is no need to review existing emails but ensure future communication to the constituent is redirected appropriately.
  • Option 2 - Forward all new emails: All new emails would be sent to one or multiple accounts. The need exists to review new emails being delivered to the account.   
  • Option 3 - Delegated access: Someone needs access to the email account and the information contained within. That person needs to review the email in the account but will be unable to send an email as the former user.
  • Option 4 - Full access: Someone needs full access to all constituent emails and will be able to send emails as a former user.
  • Option 5 - Full email export: Someone needs access to all sent/received emails in an offline format.