Complying With Policy On Only Using University Email Addresses to Conduct University Business
Policy Requirement
Per the UT Austin Information Resources Use and Security Policy "Users must use University provided email accounts, rather than personal email accounts, for conducting University business." This policy requires anyone conducting business on behalf of the University must use a university provided email mailbox to do so and to register this email address as their primary email address in UT Austin information systems. University business includes research where the University is responsible for the research data. This page will provide guidance for complying with this requirement.
The basic steps for complying with this policy are:
Ensure that you have Duo set up, since University email accounts require two-factor authentication using Duo.
Claim a University email account if you do not already have one.
Register your University email address as your official email address.
Disable any automatic external forwarding you may have configured on an existing University email account if it forwards to a non-University email account.
How Do I Know If This Policy Applies To Me?
If you can log into UT Workday then this policy applies to you.
Student employees must comply with this for their work email address specified in UT Workday.
If you are a student but are not employed by the University then in this case you won’t be able to log into UT Workday. If you are conducting business on behalf of the University then the email address you use to conduct that business is affected by the policy and you should use a University provided email mailbox to conduct that business. University business includes research where UT is responsible for the security of the research data.
Set Up Duo
Due to the ubiquity of services that require Duo, all students, employees, and affiliated workers should already have this set up. If you have not done this already, you can find instructions for doing so at https://ut.service-now.com/sp?id=kb_article&number=KB0017949
Claim a University Email Account
You will need to establish a University provided email account if you don’t already have one. Recently UT Austin has been automatically creating a University email account for new employees and students so its possible you already have a University email account. UT Austin currently offers two email account services for conducting University business:
Microsoft 365
NOTE: Microsoft recently renamed its “Office 365” service to “Microsoft 365”. So you may still see references to the older “Office 365” name in some documents and websites.
All new employees and students are provided Microsoft 365 mailboxes automatically, and this is the preferred email account for University business since it also integrates with Teams, OneDrive and other Microsoft 365 applications. This email address usually ends in “@austin.utexas.edu” but in some cases may also end in “@utexas.edu” or in the case of students “@my.utexas.edu”.
If you do not currently have a Microsoft 365 mailbox you can claim one at https://office365.austin.utexas.edu. There you should click Office 365 Management. This will allow you to establish an email mailbox in the system.
For more information about all the Microsoft 365 services please visit https://microsoft365.utexas.edu.
UT Mail
UT Mail is a UT branded “@utexas.edu” Gmail account. It is an optional service primarily intended for students, but it is also available to employees that prefer this to Microsoft 365. To claim a UT Mail account please visit https://utmail.utexas.edu.
Register Your Official Email Address
You’ll need to update your employee/student information such that your University provided email address is associated with your UT EID account.
Employees
If you have any type of employment position at the University including one as a Teaching Assistant or Graduate Research Assistant, you must change in UT Workday your employee official email address to be a University provided email mailbox. Step-by-step instructions for doing this are as follows:
Log into UT Workday (https://workday.utexas.edu) and then from the left menu click: Personal | Personal Information TIP: Click on the screenshots to see a larger version of it. |  |
In the screen that appears, under the “View” section click: Email Addresses | |
In the screen that appears, click the Edit button. | |
In the screen that appears, scroll down to the “Work Contact Information” find your “Primary Email”. Then click the edit button for it. | |
Specify your University business email address. Whether or not you want your email address to appear in the UT Directory is set with the “Visibility” value. Click the check mark to save your changes. | |
Email Address Not Updating and You Are an Alumni
If you are an employee and alumni of the University, then you may encounter an issue where UT WorkDay is configured correctly with your work email address however the UT Directory and EID system still displays your alumni/student email address. This due to an issue with the Registrar’s Office systems overriding UT WorkDay and inserting your Student Records email address. To fix this issue do the following:
Update your UT WorkDay Work email address as explained above however temporarily set it to a totally different email address. Save this change.
Go back and change your Work email address in WorkDay to what it should be. You can do this update immediately and don’t need to wait after saving the temporarily email address you set in step 1.
Now you will need to wait 1-2 business days for the the UT Directory and UT EID system to update to your work email address specified in UT WorkDay.
Students
What website a student uses to change their official email address is different depending on whether or not they have an active employee position at the University. The easiest way to determine which website to use to make the change can be done by using the “UT EID Self-Service Tools” website to change their email address there. Do the following:
Go to the UT EID Self-Service Tools website at: https://www.utexas.edu/eid
Click the link labeled “Manage My UT EID Profile”
Log in with your UT EID account when prompted.
The “My UT EID Information” website will now be displayed. Click the link labeled “Update Personal Information”
The “Update My Personal Information” website will now be displayed. On this page you’ll either be able to change your email address or be provided with instructions on what website to use. If you are directed to use the “All My Addresses function in UT Direct”, then go to the linked UT Direct website. If on the UT Direct “All My Addresses” website you see a note at the top that you need to use Workday to change your employee records then follow the instructions above in the “Employees” section that details how to change your email address in UT Workday.
Disable Automatic Forwarding To Non-University Email Mailboxes
Neither Microsoft 365 nor UT Mail should allow you to configure automatic forwarding to a non-university email account, though you can still forward to another University email account.
To enable or change automatic forwarding for Microsoft 365 please visit https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-on-automatic-forwarding-in-outlook-on-the-web-7f2670a1-7fff-4475-8a3c-5822d63b0c8e?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us
To enable or change automatic forwarding for UT Mail please visit https://support.google.com/mail/answer/10957?hl=en
To clarify, it is permissible to automatically forward a University provided Microsoft 365 mailbox to a UT Mail mailbox and vice versa since both are approved for University business use.
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