Retirees - Microsoft and Google Access After Retirement

Per the terms of the university’s contract with Microsoft, we are not permitted to provide Microsoft services, beyond Outlook on the web, to non-working, non-volunteer faculty and staff retirees.

Google is instituting strict storage quotas impacting file storage (Google Drive, Shared Drives, Photos) and email. Access to the significantly reduced amounts of storage must be prioritized for active students, faculty (including emeritus faculty), staff (including working retirees) and those who need access to these tools to perform volunteer duties for the university.  

Upon retirement retirees will no longer have access to the following IT services through CU Boulder:

• Microsoft Office 365 desktop applications including Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote,
• Microsoft Office 365 online applications with the exception of Outlook on the web. 
• Microsoft OneDrive cloud file storage,
• Google Workspace for Education applications including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, and
• Google Drive cloud file storage.

No. The following groups of retirees will not be impacted by these changes:

• emeritus faculty entered correctly in our HR system with emeritus status,
• working retirees (those employed at CU Boulder), and
• Retirees who are volunteering for the university and have been entered into the HR system as a Person of Interest (POI) - Security Access because they need access to these services to perform their volunteer duties.

Google offers a free personal Google One plan, which provides the Google applications you’ve been using, Google Drive storage, and Google Photos. The free plan offers 15GB of storage. Learn more about Google One plans.

You can create a personal account on Microsoft’s website to use Office Online for free. You can also sign up for 5GB of free OneDrive storage.

For access to Microsoft Office 365 desktop applications and more OneDrive storage capacity, Microsoft offers individual and family plans at approximately $70-100/year. 

Emeritus faculty members with active emeritus appointments in the university’s HR system will automatically be included in the group of individuals who continue to be able to access the same Microsoft and Google services they are able to access currently.

The exception is applied by HR job code. There are eight emerita/us job codes: 1452-1457, 2900-2902. An HR liaison for their department can confirm an emerita/us faculty member's job code.

Retirees who have an active Person-Of-Interest (POI) Security Access appointment in the university’s HR system will automatically be included in the group of individuals who are able to access Microsoft and Google services. 

If you are a retiree volunteering for the CU Boulder campus and you need access to Microsoft and Google products to carry out your volunteer duties, please contact the department or organization at CU Boulder for whom you are performing volunteer work. A current CU Boulder employee from that department or organization will need to sponsor you for a POI appointment and this appointment will need to be entered in the university’s HR system in order for OIT to provide you with access to these services. POI appointments are usually entered into the university’s HR system by the department or organization’s HR Liaison.

All individuals retiring from CU Boulder are able to access Google and Microsoft services as an active faculty or staff member for a period of 90 days following the effective date of their retirement from CU Boulder. 

Once the 90 days has expired, if the retiree does not fall into one of the exception categories, the retiree will lose all access to CU Boulder provided Microsoft and Google services except Microsoft Outlook on the web, which can be used for sending and receiving emails from the retiree’s @colorado.edu account. If the retiree was previously using Gmail to send and receive email, their stored emails will be moved to Microsoft and will be accessible through Outlook on the web.  

Yes. As a retiree, you will be able to use your @colorado.edu email account through Outlook on the web.

No. Your CU Boulder provided Outlook desktop application will no longer work. You can access your @colorado.edu email using Outlook on the web. Learn more about Outlook on the web.

No. Your @colorado.edu email will be migrated to Microsoft and you will then be able to access it using Microsoft’s Outlook on the web. Learn more about Outlook on the web. If you are currently using Gmail to check your @colorado.edu emails, OIT will send a follow-up message to those impacted with a migration date to Microsoft Outlook and instructions on how to check email on Outlook on the web.

No. If you send and receive your @colorado.edu email on Gmail, all of your email and folders, in its existing folder structure, will be moved to Outlook on the web at the same time you are transitioned. 

Yes. Learn more about multi-factor authentication (MFA) across Microsoft services.

Your files will no longer be available to you. 

If you have personal documents in your CU Boulder Google Drive and/or Microsoft OneDrive that you would like to retain access to after your retirement it is critical that you download files to store them in an alternate location, such as a personal Google or OneDrive account, or a personal external hard drive. OIT will not be able to assist you with recovering any personal files that you have not downloaded and stored in an alternative location. 

Please see the following FAQ for information about alternate storage options: What are my options if I still need to access Microsoft Office 365 applications and OneDrive? Also, see our FAQs addressing Google Drive shared files and Microsoft OneDrive shared files access.

Yes. OIT’s Buff Techs is ready to assist you. We encourage you to schedule an appointment with Buff Techs as soon as possible. We have created dedicated appointments for retirees. The process of relocating files, especially when done over a residential internet connection, can take a considerable amount of time depending on the size of the files you are moving. We encourage you to not wait until the last minute to complete this process as appointments for the Buff Techs may fill up and they may be unavailable to assist you.

Files containing any information which the university considers highly confidential or high impact are prohibited from being moved to personal storage and must remain in your CU Boulder Google Drive and/or Microsoft OneDrive. 

Please note, this exclusion does not apply to any data containing your personal information.  Personal information can and should be moved to a storage location of your choice (excluding CU Boulder’s Google Drive and/or Microsoft OneDrive instance). We encourage you to consider the security of any platform you move your personal information to as you would any platform where you store personal information (such as financial information, health information, or any other information you would want to keep private). 

It depends on the number of files you will be downloading. The process of downloading files, especially when done over a residential internet connection, can take a considerable amount of time depending on the size of the files. We encourage you to not wait until the last minute to complete this process.

Yes, they will lose access. If you’d like to transfer ownership of the files, follow Google’s instructions on ownership transfer.

Yes. If you’d like to transfer folders in OneDrive to a CU Boulder faculty or staff, follow these instructions:  

1. Open a web browser and navigate to your OneDrive file library.
2. Right-click the name of the folder you wish to transfer.
3. Click Manage Access.
4. Find the Direct access section and click the + button.
5. In Enter names or email addresses… field, search for the person to whom you want to assign permissions, then click on their name to select it.
6. Click the pencil icon and select Can edit. 
7. Optional: Enter a personal message explaining why you are sharing the folder.
8. Click Grant Access.
9. The new editor will now see the folder in their own OneDrive file library under the Shared tab on the left-hand menu.
10. Ask the new editor to download the contents of your folder and transfer those contents to a new folder that they create within their own OneDrive account.
11. Ask the new editor to share their new folder with the same people who had access to your folder.