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OIT News

Gmail for UTK Faculty and Staff and other Email Policy Changes

Over the next few months, university email services for faculty and staff will be changing. 

Gmail is now an option for UTK Faculty and Staff 

UTK faculty and staff now have the option to select UT Gmail as their mailbox of choice. You can update your email preferences to have your UT email delivered to your UT Gmail account.  

Keys points about switching to Gmail: 

  1. Switching to Gmail will NOT migrate existing email and calendar appointments from Microsoft 365 to Google. When you update your email preference, only new emails will be delivered to your Google account. You will continue to have access to your old email, calendar, and contacts through Microsoft 365.   
  2. Calendar sharing and delegation between Microsoft 365 and Google is unavailable, and you may need to check with your colleagues about their availability when scheduling a meeting.  
  3. Departmental email, shared mailboxes, conference room scheduling, and leave calendars are only available in Microsoft 365.
  4. Mailbox rights, including full mailbox and send-as rights, are only available in Microsoft 365.   

Learn more about your email options online. 

Using your UT email after leaving the university 

Starting on July 31, 2021, Knoxville-area faculty and staff will retain UT Microsoft 365 and Google accounts for 30 days after leaving the university*; previously, these accounts were available for 365 days. Faculty and staff will have the option to extend the 30-day window for up to 90 days, and departments may continue to sponsor employees for extended access beyond that.  

*Knox-area faculty and staff who retire with at least 10 years of service are eligible for an OIT email accounts and are not affected by this announcement.   

Change in Email Forwarding Policy 

Later this fall, all UT faculty and staff will no longer be able to automatically forward their university email to a personal email address. We will contact everyone impacted by this change in the coming months.  

We continue to evaluate the use of auto-forwarding for work-related exceptions to select .edu, .gov, and .org email accounts. UTK faculty and staff who are currently forwarding their university email to a personal Gmail account should consider using their UT Gmail account for university business as soon as possible to ease the transition. We do not anticipate allowing forwarding to .com and other personal email addresses. 

Forwarding your email to an external email address presents an unnecessary risk to the University and does not relieve the University or employee from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or other types of discovery. Therefore, the restrictions on email forwarding are being made as part of a continuous effort to protect the University’s information. 

Additional information about this initiative will be available later in the year. 

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