Features
Limited employees are automatically provisioned with the following IT services.
Basic Services
- IdentiKey
- CU Boulder email (50GB)
- Employee portals (MyCUInfo & CU Resources)*
- VPN service
Microsoft 365 Apps
Google Apps
*Sponsored affiliates are typically not entitled to portal access.
Who can get it
New and current campus affiliates with the following Human Resources classifications are eligible for these services:
- Unpaid faculty
- People with a POI Type C designation
- Certain types of sponsored affiliates
How to get it
OIT automatically provisions limited employees with these services approximately one business day after their IdentiKey is created.
If you already have an IdentiKey from a previous role at CU Boulder, we recommend that your hiring manager coordinates with OIT to ensure you're provisioned correctly for your new role.
What to expect if your eligibility changes
Adjustments to your IT services occur when your primary role changes or when OIT reevaluates your eligibility based on a previous role change or a policy change.
If your new eligibility entitles you to fewer services, OIT will notify you of the change and provide a grace period.
Changes to your primary role
If your primary role changes in a way that affects your eligibility for IT services, OIT will automatically adjust your access to align with your new eligibility.
If you enroll in CU Boulder classes
If your enrollment status qualifies you for full student-level services (see Accounts & Eligibility - Students), your eligibility will change as follows:
| Original Role | New Role | Services Gained | Services Adjusted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limited employee | Student | Buff Portal, Microsoft 365 desktop apps | CU Boulder email storage increased to 100GB, Microsoft OneDrive storage increased to 1TB |
Once OIT receives confirmation of your new role, your eligibility for these services will be adjusted automatically.
If you move to a full employee position
If your role changes from a limited employee position to a full employee position (see Accounts & Eligibility - Employees), your eligibility will change as follows:
| Original Role | New Role | Services Gained | Services Adjusted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limited employee | Employee | Microsoft 365 desktop apps, Microsoft Teams Calls, phone extension (upon request) | CU Boulder email storage increased to 100GB, Microsoft OneDrive storage increased to 1TB |
Once OIT receives confirmation of your role change, your eligibility for these services will be adjusted automatically.
If your employment ends but you're a CU Boulder alum
When your limited employment ends, you'll typically lose access to departmental IT services within a few days (e.g., UCB Files, SharePoint and Teams sites).
After approximately 30 days, you'll be downgraded to an email-only license and lose access to campus-provided Microsoft and Google services, and your stored files will be permanently deleted.
| Original Role | New Role | Services Retained | Services Discontinued |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limited employee | Alum | IdentiKey, CU Boulder email (50GB), Buff Portal | Employee portals, Microsoft 365 Online, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Workspace, Google Drive, VPN service |
Once OIT receives confirmation of your departure, we'll send a message to your CU Boulder email account specifying when you'll lose access to Microsoft services; you should expect to lose Google access at the same time.
For details about what changes to expect and when, see Alumni - Microsoft and Google Account Access.
If your employment ends and you have no other campus role
When your employment ends, you'll typically lose access to departmental IT services within a few days (e.g., UCB Files, SharePoint and Teams sites) and campus-provided Microsoft and Google services after approximately 30 days.
When your Microsoft and Google access ends, OIT will permanently delete your email account and your Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive files.
Once OIT receives confirmation of your departure, we'll send a message to your CU Boulder email account specifying when you'll lose access to Microsoft services; you should expect to lose Google access at the same time.
For details about what to expect if you return to CU Boulder in the future, see Accounts & Eligibility - Former Employees & Students.
If you retire from CU Boulder
When you retire from CU Boulder, you'll have approximately 30 days to save any important files before your IT access is downgraded to email-only services.
| Original Role | New Role | Services Retained | Services Adjusted | Services Discontinued |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Limited employee | Retiree | IdentiKey, employee portals* | CU Boulder email storage reduced to 50GB | Microsoft 365 Online, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Workspace, Google Drive, VPN service |
*Retirees who select their annual benefits through CU's open enrollment process will retain access to the employee portal as long as their IdentiKey credentials remain active.
Once OIT receives confirmation of your departure, we'll send a message to your CU Boulder email account specifying when you'll lose access to Microsoft services; you should expect to lose Google access at the same time.
For details about what changes to expect and when, see Retirees - Microsoft and Google Account Access.
Reevaluations of your eligibility
If OIT reevaluates your eligibility for IT services, you'll receive an email indicating that your Microsoft license is being adjusted from one role-based license (e.g., employee) to another (e.g., limited employee).
This reevaluation may be due to a previous role change that OIT didn't fully address at the time or to recent changes to OIT's eligibility policies.
If you're changing to an alumni license
If the email from OIT states that you're being adjusted from a limited employee license to an alumni license, then you can expect your access to IT services to change as follows:
| Original License | New License | Services Retained | Services Discontinued |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limited employee | Alum | IdentiKey, CU Boulder email (50GB), Buff Portal | Employee portals, Microsoft 365 Online, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Workspace, Google Drive, VPN service |
To learn more about alumni eligibility, see Alumni - Microsoft and Google Account Access.
If you're changing to a retiree license
If the email from OIT states that you're being adjusted from a limited employee license to a retiree license, then you can expect your access to IT services to change as follows:
| Original License | New License | Services Retained | Services Discontinued |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limited employee | Retiree | IdentiKey, CU Boulder email (50GB), employee portals* | Microsoft 365 Online, Microsoft OneDrive, Google Workspace, Google Drive, VPN service |
*Retirees who select their annual benefits through CU's open enrollment process will retain access to the employee portal as long as their IdentiKey credentials remain active.
To learn more about retiree eligibility, see Retirees - Microsoft and Google Account Access.
If you're not currently eligible for a Microsoft license
If the email from OIT states that you're not currently eligible for Microsoft services, then you can expect to lose access to all other IT services as well. OIT will permanently delete your email account and your Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive files on the date specified in the email.
To learn more, see Accounts & Eligibility - Former Employees & Students.
What to do before you lose access
If you're leaving CU Boulder entirely, plan to complete the following steps during your final weeks of employment; some access is likely to be removed shortly after your last day. Depending on the circumstances of your departure, you will have up to three months to review your Google and Microsoft files before they are deleted.
Note: Some files and email stored in your Google Drive, OneDrive and email account may need to be retained pursuant to the Retention of University Records Administrative Policy Statement. If you have questions about whether a particular file or email should be retained, contact your supervisor.
Move work files to a department-owned location
Identify any files saved in your personal Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive that your colleagues may need to access, then move them to the most appropriate department-owned location (e.g., Microsoft Team or SharePoint site, Google Shared Drive, UCB Files folder).
Move non-work files to a personally owned location
Transfer any non-work files you want to keep to a non-CU Boulder location, like a personal hard drive or personal cloud storage.
- Microsoft OneDrive - Download Files to Your Computer (OIT tutorial)
- Google Drive - Copy Content from Your School Account to Another Account (Google tutorial)
Note: Unless you're a CU Boulder retiree (see Retiree Support), OIT can't help you transfer files to a personal storage location or recover them after they've been deleted.
Transfer ownership of shared files
To prevent your colleagues from losing access to important files that you've shared from a personal account, follow the instructions below to transfer ownership to them.
- Microsoft OneDrive - Transfer Ownership of Shared Files (OIT tutorial)
- Google Drive - Make Someone Else the Owner of Your File (Google tutorial)
Transfer ownership of secondary accounts
Secondary accounts are assigned to one primary owner who must be a faculty or staff member. Please work with your supervisor to determine who the new primary owner should be, then contact oithelp@colorado.edu to request an ownership change.
Change your contact info for external services that use your CU Boulder email address
Identify any services that use your CU Boulder email address as a primary or backup contact method and update those accounts before you lose email access. The service may send a confirmation code to your CU Boulder email address to ensure the request is legitimate.
