Re: [e-mail] is not long for the world

[John C Klensin <[e-mail]>]

--On Wednesday, August 14, 2024 17:18 -0500 David Farmer
<farmer=[e-mail]> wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 14, 2024 at 3:38 PM Stephen Farrell
> <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
>> On 14/08/2024 21:28, Scott O. Bradner wrote:
>> > But the university values process over history (or at least the
>> > automaton that is doing this does)
>> 
>> That's a shame. I wish people and organisations had a bit more
>> clue that supposed efficiency is not everything. You'd a
>> expect universities to be good at that;-)
>> 
>> Bad job Harvard.
>> 
> 
> Back in the day, many Universities had email for life. It was easy
> because the email systems were fully in-house operations, and the
> world was a different place from a cybersecurity perspective.
> 
> However, in the late 2000s, most universities often outsourced
> their email to cloud services for low to no cost to focus on more
> strategic IT priorities. Fast-forward to today, those cloud
> services are no longer completely free. The email accounts remain
> free, but they charge for the storage necessary to support the
> hundreds of thousands of accounts involved. For a large university,
> that is tens of petabytes of email storage, large amounts of which
> are for old dormant and currently unused accounts. Then add to that
> the cyber security risk represented by all those dormant accounts.
> 
> So, the prudent thing to do both fiscally and from a cyber security
> perspective is to close all those old accounts and change policies
> to close accounts for departing staff, students, and faculty after
> a reasonable grace period. Short-term extensions are allowed, and
> emeritus faculty are another exception.
> 
> Unfortunately, when looked at from a Board of Regents or Trustees
> level, this is a no-brainer. It is all financial and cyber security
> risk with little to no real upside.
> 
> So, the reality is that this is just Harvard and a bunch of other
> universities properly minding the store based on today's financial
> and cybersecurity realities.

David and Stephen,

A small correction.  Many universities have email for life
arrangements but only for alumni/alumnae, not retired staff members.
That includes Harvard who, IIR, considered shutting their down a few
years ago but got some vigorous feedback and changed their minds.
Those addresses are often different from the ones used when those
former students were enrolled.   The same universities often maintain
email addresses for life for at least some regular faculty members,
often ones with emeritus status, who were tenured, or who occupied
special chairs.  I have no idea where Harvard falls on that one.  But
they tend to be less enthused about other categories of former
employees unless there is some particular reason for retaining the
address that is of clear benefit to the university.   So, if you want
to sent email to [e-mail], it will probably reach me
despite my last active association with Harvard being before 1980,
but Scott's address disappears within months of his retirement.

None of that is inconsistent with your last paragraph above, perhaps
with "alumni email for life" being tied to fund-raising expectations.
But it is a tad more subtle than your explanation.

    john