Account Management
Account Creation and Termination
The Accounts Workflow process for initiating creation and termination requests for Lafayette NetIDs and access to services is used for all new hires, transfers, retirements, and terminations, and applies to all part time and temporary employees.
Account Creation
Human Resources (for staff) and the Office of the Provost (for faculty) authorize the creation of NetIDs for new full time, part time, and temporary employees by sending an Accounts Workflow Request to ITS containing information provided by hiring departments. This is known as the Accounts Workflow process and should initiated by contacting either office at least ten working days prior to an employee’s start date.
Human Resources or Office of the Provost initiates the Accounts Workflow Request during the same time that payroll authorization is created. For new hires, ITS creates a Lafayette NetID, grants access to services, and arranges to evaluate and address desktop system needs for the new employee.
Information Technology Services notifies hiring supervisors by email once the new hire’s NetID is created. The email will include NetID information, explain the access granted, and provide pointers to additional information and/or assistance. The hiring supervisor should communicate this information to the new hire as soon as possible.
Account Termination
For all employee terminations, transfers, and retirements, ITS receives Accounts Workflow Requests from Human Resources (staff) and Office of the Provost (faculty). Hiring supervisors will be notified via email once access has been terminated. This email may also include information that should be shared with the employee. Note that the Help Desk does not accept new-hire, transfer, retirement, or termination notifications. Access to campus systems cannot be granted or terminated until Human Resources or the Office of the Provost receives the appropriate documentation, prepares the necessary payroll authorization, and submits it to ITS.
The amount of time NetIDs remain active varies according to institutional role.
Students
Access to email is closed during February following the year of graduation. Alumni may configure a Lafayette email forward (e.g., name@alumni.lafayette.edu) by joining the Alumni Online Community as described on the Alumni website. The NetID remains open to provide access to IT Services for Alumni. Students who transfer out or resign from the College retain all access for thirty-days following the date effective provided by the Office of Advising and Co-Curricular Programs. The NetID remains active for Banner Self-Service access.
Staff Terminations
Accounts will be disabled on the termination date specified by Human Resources in the Accounts Workflow Termination Request. When it is anticipated that College business-related email may continue to be sent, hiring supervisors may request a temporary, thirty-day auto-reply on a former employee’s email account to instruct senders where to direct such business. Requests are made to the Help Desk and should include the content for the auto-reply.
Faculty Terminations
For full-time faculty with a termination date of June 30, access to services is removed on August 31 of the same year. For other faculty, access is removed the day following the date provided by the Office of the Provost in the Accounts Workflow Termination Request. The NetID remains active to allow for access to Self-Service Banner.
Faculty emeriti and other retirees
For faculty voted to emeriti status, access to all services, including email and with the exception of departmental files shares, is retained in perpetuity. Access to departmental shares is removed the day following the transfer date provided by the Office of the Provost in the Accounts Workflow Transfer Request. Access to personal file shares remains in place. In addition, the account will be added to a retiree and emeriti email list.
For all other faculty and staff retirees who wish to retain access to Lafayette services, requests must be submitted to Human Resources in writing via email or letter for authorization. Once authorized, the account will change from active to non-emeriti retiree status. These accounts will retain email access, network access on-campus, and access to Banner Self-Service, and the account will be added to a retiree and emeriti email list.
Problem resolution
Any problems should be directed to the office that provides ITS with the information it uses to manage the account creation/removal process, i.e., Office of Advising and Co-Curricular Programs (students), Office of the Provost (faculty), or Human Resources (staff).
Group Email Accounts
Campus organizations that require a group email account can request that one be created.
Address Forwarding
Address forwarding accounts allow all members of a group to receive messages sent to the account address, but do not provide the ability to send mail from the account. Instead, messages sent to the group account address will be automatically forwarded to the individual email address of each group member. Direct access to an address forwarding account via Webmail or an email client is not possible. One member of the group will be the account owner and will be responsible for communicating group membership changes to Information Technology Services (ITS).
Example
- An address forwarding account, e.g., linguists@lafayette.edu, is created.
- An owner of the address forwarding account will be designated and will communicate the members of the group to ITS.
- Each member of the group will receive messages sent to linguists@lafayette.edu through their individual email account.
Shared Email Accounts
Shared email accounts function like an individual email account but the username and password for the account are shared among the members of the group. A shared account can be used to send as well as receive mail; any member of the group can log in to the account with the shared credentials via Webmail. The credentials are designated for use only with the shared email account. They may not be used to access other services. One member of the group will be the account owner and will be responsible for communicating the account password to group members as well as ensuring that all group members use the account in accordance with the College’s Acceptable Use Policy and see the Help website for information about using shared accounts .
Requesting a Group Account
Group email accounts can be requested by academic or administrative department heads. Accounts for official student groups can be requested by the faculty adviser for the group, who must also assume responsibility as the account owner. All requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.
To request a group account, submit a ticket to the Help Desk. You will be contacted by an ITS staff member who will help determine the best type of group account for your needs.
Requesting Changes to a Group Account
Requests to change the ownership of a shared email account or the members of an address forward should be sent to the Help Desk at help@lafayette.edu or (610) 330-5501.
Department Accounts
Each department at the college has a generic account it can use to send and receive email. These accounts are configured to be able to post to the campus-wide announcement lists, and should be used instead of a particular employee’s email account.
Only specific people in each department have permission to use the department email account. If you do not know the username and password for your department, you should open a ticket with the Help Desk. ITS will then work with you to verify that you are able to use the account, and reset the password.
Guidelines for Strong Passwords
It is Information Technology Services’ (ITS) policy that passwords used to access computing systems at Lafayette be strong. ITS strongly encourages the use of strong passwords for all other computing systems.
A strong password is one that is more secure by virtue of being difficult for a machine or a human to guess. Password strength can be achieved by incorporating the following characteristics; the more characteristics you incorporate into your password, the stronger it will be.
Characteristics of strong passwords
- At least 8 characters—the more characters, the better
- A mixture of both uppercase and lowercase letters
- A mixture of letters and numbers
- Inclusion of at least one special character, e.g., ! @ # ? ]
Note: do not use < or > in your password, as both can cause problems in Web browsers
A strong password is hard to guess, but it should be easy for you to remember—a password that has to be written down is not strong, no matter how many of the above characteristics are employed.
While all systems that use the Lafayette NetID and password for authentication support a password with the above characteristics, please note that other systems may not support similarly strong passwords. For example, a system may not recognize case, may have a limit on the number of characters, or may not allow special characters. ITS recommends that in these situations users incorporate as many strong password characteristics as the system will allow.
Examples of weak passwords
- Any word that can be found in a dictionary, in any language (e.g., airplane or aeroplano).
- A dictionary word with some letters simply replaced by numbers (e.g., a1rplan3 or aer0plan0).
- A repeated character or a series of characters (e.g., AAAAA or 12345).
- A keyboard series of characters (e.g., qwerty or poiuy).
- Personal information (e.g., birthdays, names of pets or friends, Social Security number, addresses).
- Anything that’s written down and stored somewhere near your computer.
Tips for keeping your password secure
- Change it regularly—once every three to six months.
- Change it if you have the slightest suspicion that the password has become known by a human or a machine.
- Never use it for other websites.
- Avoid typing it on computers that you do not trust; for example, in an Internet café.
- Never save it for a web form on a computer that you do not control or that is used by more than one person.
- Never tell it to anyone.
- Never write it down.
Tips for creating a strong password
Think of a word or phrase, and then substitute the letters with numbers and special characters and mix the case. For example:
- Snoopy and Woodstock becomes Sno0py&ws
- In the dog house becomes !nTh3dawgHs
- Let’s have dinner at 8:00 p.m. becomes Lhd@800pm
Think of a word and a number, then intermix them and mix the case. For example, your elementary school name (Main Street Elementary) and your pet’s birth month and year (12/96) becomes m1A2/i9n6
Website Accounts
Lafayette WordPress accounts, used to create and maintain websites using the WordPress content management system, are available to all Lafayette College students and employees. Accounts must be used in accordance with the College’s Acceptable Use Policy, and Information Technology Services (ITS) reserves the right to limit the use of technologies that might compromise the security and integrity of the College’s IT resources.
Websites can be requested for:
- Departments/Offices
- College committees
- Student organizations
- Personal sites
- Events
- Courses/Class projects
Requests for WordPress accounts should be made using the Website Request form. The individual designated as the site administrator will be contacted within three business days with information about the account.
Website types
How a site is designed and developed, its web address, and how it will be linked to from the College website depend on the site’s function.
- Departments/Offices: Official divisions, departments, programs, and offices will be provided with a WordPress theme that conveys the site’s official College affiliation. The sites have Lafayette subdomain web addresses (e.g., engineering.lafayette.edu, govlaw.lafayette.edu) and are hosted on forge.lafayette.edu.
- Student organizations/College committees: Sites for student organizations and College committees are expected to represent the organization as a whole. Although pages on the site may be developed by any member(s) of the organization, the organization president or committee chair will be responsible for all content. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and will have addresses that identify the organization or committee (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/asb, sites.lafayette.edu/squash).
- Personal pages: Sites that represent a student’s or employee’s personal and academic interests are the creative expressions of the authors. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and have addresses that include the Lafayette NetID (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/ballyc).
- Events: Sites can be requested for one-time or recurring events. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and have addresses that identify the event (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/stemconference).
- Courses/Class projects: Faculty members may request WordPress sites for courses and/or class projects. An entire class, groups, or individuals can be given access to a site’s administrative tools. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and have addresses that identify the course (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/eng240-fa19). Faculty members requesting sites for courses and class projects will be contacted by an Instructional Technologist who can consult about site development.
WordPress Help
A collection of help documents on how to get the most out of (and into) your WordPress site is available on the Help website.
Site Administrators
To ensure the overall content and quality of the College’s web presence is high, a “primary administrator” is identified for each departmental and program website. The primary administrator serves as a single point of contact with the Web Content Management team.
We contact the primary administrator regarding the following:
- Communications regarding the health and quality of the site
- Information about WordPress training and updates to WordPress tools and services
- Outages or other critical events related to the site
- Reports concerning the quality and accessibility of the site
Site Tip
Use the Site Administrator Update Form to designate a new primary site administrator for your departmental or program website.