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Email, Calendars, & Instant Messaging

Retirement of Retiree Email for Staff


Eligible staff retirees may request a retiree email account with a retiree-branded email address that will allow their continued affiliation with the University, the ability to receive retiree program information, and will provide the necessary security and fraud prevention.

Call the OIT Retiree Account Change Hotline for help with the transition.

  • 865-974-2001
  • Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET

Who is affected?

Current Staff Retirees

Current staff retirees will be moved into the new retiree email option on October 31, 2023. Read below for your next steps and checklist.

Current faculty retirees may continue to use their UT email and NetID services.

New Retirees

Faculty and staff who retiree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, including the Institute of Agriculture and the Space Institute, UT System Administration, and Institute of Public Service, with ten years of service, are eligible for continued access to email. New retirees can start the process online with Benefits and Retirement.

  • Staff Retirees* can apply for continued access to UT email; however, their email address will change to a retiree.utk.edu email address. Non-email NetID services are not included.
    *Retirees with active appointments in IRIS will retain the use of their UT email and NetID. Departments can sponsor NetIDs for retirees who continue to serve the university; sponsored accounts must be renewed annually.
  • Emeritus and Retired Faculty can apply for continued access to UT email and NetID services.

Retirees, who are also UTK alumni, can choose to have an alumni email account. More information about how to switch will be available when the alumni sign-up is ready. You can learn more about the alumni email option at oit.utk.edu/alumni.

What’s included with Staff Retiree email

The staff retiree email is a Microsoft 365 Exchange-only account. This account includes email, calendar, contacts, and to-do.

Eligible staff retirees will use a new email address: NetID@retiree.utk.edu.

Non-email NetID services will not be available in the new staff retiree email solution. Some of these services include:

  • Microsoft 365 non-email services and applications, such as Microsoft Office Desktop Applications, Web Apps, and OneDrive.
  • Google accounts, including Drive, Docs/Sheet/Slides, and other Google services.
  • Eduroam: Access to the eduroam, the secure wifi network on campus, will no longer be available.
  • Zoom: Access to your UT Zoom account will no longer be available.
  • Linux/VolWeb account.  Your UT website hosted on the Public Linux/Volweb system will be deleted.
  • Plus, any service or software that authenticates with your NetID/email address and NetID password will be unavailable.

Check out the frequently asked questions in the OIT Knowledge Base.

Important Dates

April 5, 2023: Start using your new email address, NetID@retiree.utk.edu, to receive messages.

April 12, 2023: Your NetID@retiree.utk.edu email address will become your new reply-to address. When you send an email, this will be the new email address that recipients will see.

April – October 2023: Move any important documents and files and transition to personal accounts (see Steps 2 and 3 below)

October 31, 2023: Your UT email username will change to NetID@retiree.utk.edu, and this will become your only UT email address.

Spring 2024: Retirees will be required to opt-in annually to retain their UT email account. Additional information about this process will be available in the Spring.

What are your next steps?

Between now and October 31, 2023, we encourage you to use the checklist below to assist in the transition.

Your new email address will be NetID@retiree.utk.edu. Once your account is moved, this will be your only email address.

  • Starting April 5, notify anyone who communicates with you through your UT email account about your new email address. You can do this automatically through an Out of Office/Auto-reply message.
  • On April 12, 2023, your NetID@retiree.utk.edu email address will become your new reply-to address. When you send an email, this will be the new email address that recipients will see.
  • Change any private accounts that utilize your UT email address/account to log in or as a username to use the new email address (e.g., social media, banking, service providers).

Begin moving your personal files stored in your UT Microsoft OneDrive, UT Google Drive, and T-Storage accounts elsewhere. You can move these files to your local computer, an external hard drive, or personal non-UT cloud storage. Check out the How-To guides below for more information.

  • Any files that need to be accessed by others at UT after your departure should be moved to a shared space, such as Microsoft Teams.
  • Free, limited, online storage is available from various sources, such as the consumer versions of Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon Drive.  Additional storage is available from these sites for a fee.

The new services will be a Microsoft 365 email-only account, which will include calendaring and contacts. If you are using your UT NetID to access any other services, it’s time to find an alternative. Here are a few things to consider:

  • Sign up for a personal Zoom account.
  • Move your personal website hosted on volweb.utk.edu and volweb2.utk.edu to an alternative hosting solution.

Other University Services

If you use the mobile VolCard for access to university services, we encourage you to contact the VolCard office and switch to a physical VolCard. Other non-OIT services affected by this change include access to Library resources and TRECS. If you use these services, OIT recommends that you contact these departments to learn more.

On October 31, 2023, staff retiree accounts will be moved to the new Microsoft service. On this day:

  • Your Microsoft 365 username will change to NetID@retiree.utk.edu; you may need to sign out of your email client and sign back in with your new username.
  • Your alternate UT email addresses, including NetID@utk.edu and NetID@tennessee.edu, will no longer be available. Email sent to these addresses will be returned to the sender.
  • Accounts that have not enrolled in two-factor authentication will be disabled.

Two-Factor Authentication for Retirees

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is required for all UT email accounts.

If you have not enabled 2FA on your account, please visit directory.utk.edu/setup and follow the steps to reset your password and set up 2FA.

How-To Guides – Moving to Your Personal Email and Storage

Please note that OIT can only assist with email migration to a like service, e.g., UTK Outlook to personal Outlook.com or UTK Gmail to personal Gmail. While it is technically feasible to migrate from Outlook to Gmail or Gmail to Outlook, OIT is unable to assist with this transition. Visit the article: Migrating your email from Microsoft 365 to Gmail for more information. The process for migrating mail is not clean; therefore, proceed at your own risk.

Google Gmail and Drive

Microsoft Outlook and OneDrive

Why the University Made this Change

This decision was initially made to improve information security and prevent fraud. The previous email process did not meet those goals, leaving the university vulnerable to fraud, impersonation, and stale addresses mixed in with active accounts. This new option enables the University to distinguish between accounts while enabling better management and security. 

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