NC State University
POLICY PROJECT

Information Technology Division
Services: Rules and Procedures

Unity Computing Account Maintenance--Procedures for student accounts

RUL#920. 10. 01
Authority: Vice Provost for Information Technology
History: First issued in 1993
Scope: All NC State students

Service Name:
Unity Computing Accounts for Students

Brief description of service:
All registered NC State students automatically receive University computing accounts. At a minimum, students receive Unity computing accounts, which provide access to the resources in the campus-wide academic computing realm. The realm (also called Unity/Eos or Eos/Unity) is a distributed computing network of servers and Window, Macintosh and Unix client workstations and software. Unity computing account privileges include

Students may have access to additional computing resources provided by the colleges and programs in which they are enrolled.

Valid Unity/Eos account login names (userids) and passwords are required to access NC State password-protected online services and resources such as course materials, registration and records, etc.

Clients eligible for service:
All registered NC State students

Type of use:
Either business or personal

Duration of service:
New student accounts are automatically generated before New Student Orientation and are fully activated before the beginning of the semester. Accounts remain active as long as students are registered at the University, unless the account holder violates NC State policies, regulations, and rules governing computing and network services. Account creation, activation and deactivation are explained in detail, below.

Cost:
A portion of students' Educational Technology fees goes toward maintaining computing accounts for students.

To access service:
See tutorials and other information provided by ITD Computing Services

Rules of use:
All NC State computer and network resources are governed by Administrative Regulations - Computer Use. University computing account holders are responsible for reading and abiding by these and all other published Regulations and Rules governing specific computing and network services. Failure to abide by these rules and regulations may result in loss of account privileges.

Use of University computing accounts by anyone other than the account holder is strictly prohibited.

Account holders are responsible for the activities performed under their account.

Account holders are responsible for changing their account passwords and keeping them secure.

Only one realm account is allowed per person. In other words, students who already have a realm account (an Eos account through COE, COT, PAMS, etc.) may not obtain nor do they need a "Unity" account. Most Unity resources are available to the entire Unity/Eos computing realm.

Additional service procedures/restrictions:

Login IDs (userids) and passwords
Userids are generated automatically, based on the account holder's first and middle initials and up to the first six letters of the last name. For example, Joe R. Johnson's userid would be jrjohnso. If there is no middle name, the userid would consist of the first initial and the first six letters of the last name. For example, Jane Johnson's userid would be jjohnso. In cases where a userid in this form has already been assigned, numbers are added to the end of the userid. For example, Jan R. Johnson's userid may be jrjohns3.

The password which is initially assigned to a University computing account is automatically generated from the last four digits of the account holder's Campus ID number plus the month and day (mmdd) of his or her birthday. For example, if a new student's Campus ID is 000001234 and his or her birthday is July 28, the initial password assigned would be 12340728.

Changing passwords and userids
For the sake of account and systems security, account holders are encouraged to change their passwords as soon as they are assigned accounts. Passwords should be changed at least once a semester. Passwords can be changed online by going to http://www.ncsu.edu/passwords

Unlike passwords, Unity account userids are public and remain the same throughout the account holder' s affiliation with the University. Due to the use of userids by many systems on campus, student userids will be changed only if an account owner's name has officially changed in University records because of marriage, divorce, or some other reason, and only between semesters. All requests for userid changes must be sent to accounts@ncsu.edu

Unity e-mail addresses
Unity e-mail addresses take the form of userid@unity.ncsu.edu. Unity/Eos e-mail addresses for students are published in the campus directory unless Registration and Records receives notice of a preferred e-mail address or a request for a Privacy Block. Students can make these changes online through TRACS

Mail forwarding
Unity/Eos account holders can have their e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail account by using the online Email Forwards Tool: https://sysnews.ncsu.edu/tools-bin/usmdb-forwards

Mail forwarded to off-campus email addresses will be screened for spam. Any messages marked as spam by the campus mail relays will NOT be forwarded to the off-campus address.

Email forwarding must be renewed (re-verified) every 12 months. Reminders are automatically sent to account holders.

Account creation, deactivation and deletion
As stated above, Unity/Eos student computing accounts are automatically generated before New Student Orientation and are fully activated before the beginning of the semester.

Student accounts are deactivated on census day (the last day of drop-add) of the first semester that a student is not registered. When an account is deactivated, no one will be able to log in with that userid or have access to files stored under it.

Accounts are deleted one year after account deactivation.

For example, if a student is not registered by census day of the spring semester his or her account will be deactivated. If that student is also not registered the following fall semester's census day, the account is deleted. Summer is not considered a separate semester for this purpose.

Account access for students during summer break
NC State students who do not take classes during the summer but who pre-register for fall semester classes will continue to have computing privileges throughout the summer. This means that students who are pre-registered for the fall will continue to be able to use the workstations in Unity labs, check e-mail, telnet to campus servers and to transfer files to and from your Unity file space using FTP software via the University's server, ftp.ncsu.edu. Web pages on the www4.ncsu.edu server will also remain accessible via the Internet during the summer.

However, students who are not pre-registered for the fall semester will lose their Unity/Eos account access, including the ability to access their Unity/Eos e-mail from off campus.

This procedure applies to Unity accounts for graduate and undergraduate students registered for both spring and fall classes. There are no extra fees.

Account access for Life-Long Education (LLE) students
Like other NC State students, students enrolled through the Life-Long Education program, including Post-Baccalaureate Studies (PBS) and Undergraduate Studies (UGS), automatically receive Unity computing accounts. LLE student accounts are generated when the studnet is enrolled with Registration and Records.

Account access for students in Study Abroad programs
Students enrolled in an NC State Study Abroad program which includes being registered in an NC State course (e.g. ISE 900 or ISE 910) and paying tuition and fees will continue to have full access to their Unity/Eos computing accounts. Account access for Students enrolled through Life-Long Education (LLE) may be delayed several weeks, however. See information about LLE students, above.

Students enrolled in study abroad programs they have arranged on their own typically do not have Unity account access because they are not enrolled at NC State and are not paying NC State tuition or fees.

Account access for Co-op students
Co-op students who are registered as NC State students through the Co-op office will maintain normal access to their Unity/Eos computing accounts.

Extended access for newly graduated students
Computing Services will extend recent graduates' access to their e-mail and Unity/Eos file space for four months after graduation. This policy is being offered as a courtesy to help the many students who use e-mail and Web resumes as part of their job search and career planning strategies. While recent graduates will not be able to login to public workstations in campus computing facilities (such as Unity labs), after graduation they will be able access e-mail and file space remotely; Web pages on the www4.ncsu.edu server will remain accessible via the Internet while accounts are active.

For more information/documentation

To learn more about Unity computing accounts see ITD/Computing Services' Computing Essentials: http://www.ncsu.edu/it/essentials/


Policy Disclaimer

Last modified: October 22, 2007, jd

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