PantherNow |Letter| The New FIU Alumni Email Policy: Apparent Caveats and Possible Way Forward

Link: https://panthernow.com/2024/01/20/email-policy-should-be-changed/

Haley R. Dawson and Sarwar J. Minar | Graduate and Professional Student Committee | Florida International University| 

Florida International University announced a new alumni email access policy which restricts alumni access to their FIU email for one year after graduation (or two consecutive inactive semesters), replacing the previous policy of lifetime access.

They cite three primary reasons for the new limited email access: 1) a decrease in alumni email use, 2) cybersecurity, and 3) cost. While these reasons are understandable, the new policy is biased against the active alumni who regularly use their email.

On May 26, 2022, FIU announced the migration of students’ email from Google Workspace to the Microsoft 365 (M365) platform on June 5, 2022. Due to the transition to M365, alumni email usage dropped tremendously.

This resulted in a large number of inactive accounts, which according to IT (Information Technology) poses a security risk for the university network as they are not properly safeguarded and vulnerable to malicious intent.

The new policy seems to ignore the root cause (i.e., transition to M365) and seeks a solution by restricting email access to all alumni for only one year. The new policy clearly punishes the active users, whereas security risks are emanating from the inactive users.

From the cost front, it is important for FIU to support the alumni community even after graduation. As students use the FIU email, students gather valuable contact and networking resources and become part of students’ online professional identity which cannot simply be transferred to another email network, let alone in a period of one year.

FIU alumni may use their FIU email account to store important information from their degree-seeking years, to keep active alumni engagements and close communication (promoting lifelong learning opportunities and skills development opportunities and paving ways to succeed in professional life), communicate with FIU collaborators and faculty, or as a part of their online professional identity (e.g., LinkedIn) for jobs and post-secondary education.

Importantly, while jobs may change, FIU email can be a constant in a young professional’s life. It is important for FIU to continue their support of students after they graduate.

The new policy is not a helpful solution to the problems identified by FIU, and instead punishes active alumni who continue to use FIU email. Therefore, FIU should reconsider their alumni email policy to an opt-in verification system for active users to maintain university connections, while also considering
the security and financial burden of lifetime email access to all alumni.