The University of Virginia has announced plans to retire lifetime virginia.edu email accounts beginning in July 2026, limiting access for current students to just nine months after graduation.

For generations of alumni, a UVA email address has been far more than a convenience. It serves as a trusted marker of professional legitimacy, a vital tool for networking and lifelong communication, and an enduring connection to the University and its global community.

Why This Matters

UVA has long represented continuity, integrity, and support beyond graduation. The provision of lifetime email access reflects these values by allowing alumni to maintain professional and personal connections built during their time at the University.

Retiring lifetime email access risks disrupting professional communications, weakening alumni engagement, and severing an important institutional link that many alumni rely upon.

Peer Institutions Have Reversed Course

Peer institutions—including universities of comparable stature—continue to offer lifetime alumni email access, recognizing its long-term value to both graduates and the institution itself.

In similar situations, universities such as Virginia Tech and Notre Dame reversed comparable decisions after alumni advocacy and restored lifetime alumni email access, recognizing its enduring institutional value.

Why Now

With the announced timeline approaching, this is a critical opportunity for thoughtful reconsideration before permanent implementation steps are taken.

Our Request

We respectfully call upon UVA leadership to pause implementation of this policy and reaffirm the University’s longstanding commitment to its students and alumni by maintaining lifetime email access.

Preserving this benefit would reaffirm UVA’s dedication to its community, strengthen alumni relationships, and honor the trust placed in the University by generations of graduates.

We urge the University’s administration to reconsider this decision before it is finalized.

Please sign this petition to support lifelong UVA email access and share it widely with fellow alumni, students, and supporters.

Wahoowa.

——— "University-of-Virginia-Rotunda" by Mark Lagola (original) and Ben Lunsford (this version) is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.