ALUMNI EMAIL DISCONTINUATION FAQ

Why are @alumni.uncg.edu email accounts being disabled? 

In the fall of 2022, the UNCG Office of Alumni Engagement made the decision to stop offering new alumni email accounts and to disable existing alumni email accounts in June 2023. We made the decision only after much consideration, including extended conversations with UNCG Information Technology Services (our partner on the alumni email accounts) and a review of other schools in the UNC system to confirm our decision aligned with current practice.

We made the decision based on the following: 
Resources: UNCG has experienced reduced resources across campus, and maintaining the alumni email service regularly involves multiple staff members across divisions. In looking at the program comprehensively, ITS and the Alumni Office agreed that we can't justify continuing to direct the required resources toward it.

Security concerns & lack of interest: Use of these email accounts has steadily declined due to the prevalence of alternative email resources and user preference. Inactivity can lead to accounts not being properly safeguarded, making them vulnerable to malicious intent, resulting in a security risk for the university. 

Timing: UNCG is in the midst of a migration away from Google to a different email/business application. As such, we chose this as an appropriate time to end the service.

When will alumni email accounts be disabled? 

All @alumni.uncg.edu email accounts are scheduled to be disabled at close of business Friday, June 16, 2023. At that point, your alumni email account will no longer be accessible and messages to that account will bounce back to senders as undeliverable. 

What do I need to do?

Identify an alternate email address
If you do not already have an alternate email, set up an account with a reputable email service. Once you’ve done that, you can automatically forward messages from your alumni account to your alternate account. (Learn more here.) As noted below in "Preserve your data," if your alternate address is another Gmail account, you can automate a transfer of files from your alumni account to your alternate account.  

Notify your contacts 
Take inventory of contacts who use your @alumni.uncg.edu email address and provide them with your updated information so you can continue communicating without interruption. Prior to your @alumni.uncg.edu account being disabled, you could also add your new email to your signature and/or enable an auto-responder so contacts who email you will be notified of your new contact information. 

Update your subscriptions and services
Transfer any subscriptions and services (e.g., financial institutions, utilities companies, Apple, Spotify, Facebook, etc.) to your alternate email address. Consult providers directly for information and help. 

Preserve your data (optional)
Option 1: For information on downloading data from your Google account, visit this page from Google and this page from UNCG ITS. 

Option 2: To transfer data from your alumni account to another Google account, log in to your alumni account, open a new tab in the same browser and go to takeout.google.com/transfer, and follow the steps as outlined there. Note: Photos will not transfer accounts. To preserve photos, you'll want to download; see Option 1.  

Option 3: Forward messages from your @alumni.uncg.edu address to your alternate account. 

Option 4: Save each email as a PDF and download it to your computer or upload it to an online file storage service.

I forgot the password to my alumni email account. What should I do? 

Can I keep/restore my UNCG student email account? 

There is no option to keep or restore student email accounts. However, recent graduates do have access to their student email accounts for a specified duration. Read more about that here. If you've missed the email expiration date, you can visit the Spartan Central website and request that your old student email account be reactivated temporarily. These requests can take up to 24 hours to process.

Is there an option to keep my alumni email account if I pay for it? 

There is no option to keep your alumni email account by paying for it. The Alumni office does not have the staff or expertise to implement this service. Additionally, because the university is migrating away from the Google platform, this would entail maintaining email addresses outside the university’s primary business application. Implementing a payment system simply is not feasible. 

I need tech support. What should I do? 

How do I share questions and/or comments about the decision to sunset my alumni account? 

Please direct questions and comments about the decision to sunset the UNCG alumni email accounts to UNCG Alumni Engagement at alumni@uncg.edu or 336-334-5696.