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Alumni

Google Accounts

SAIC has been using Google Workspace for Education since 2008. In late 2021, Google announced significant changes to the services they provide to the School and museum. Previously, Google provided higher education institutions, including ours, with unlimited pooled storage for these services. This has now changed as Google has ended unlimited storage for institutions. Because of this decision by Google, the School and museum was forced to deactivate all alum Google accounts (including access to all content in Gmail, Google Drive, Contacts, etc.) and set storage limits for current students, faculty, and staff.

Graduating students can retain their SAIC Google accounts for one year after graduation. Accounts will be deactivated and all contents deleted on June 30 of the year following their graduation year. For example, if your degree was conferred at the May 2023 commencement ceremony, your Google account will be closed on June 30, 2024. All alums should review the information and important next steps below.

In order to continue using an SAIC-affiliated email address, all alums will have the option to use DUOCircle (alumni.saic.edu), an email forwarding service, to share an SAIC-related email address that forwards messages directly to a personal email account of your choice. Note, the forwarding service does not forward or store any content from your former SAIC email account. That account will be permanently closed. To make use of the new forwarding service, alums must designate a non-SAIC email address as their primary address for DUOCircle’s purposes.

For any questions, please email accounts@saic.edu.
 

Next Steps

  • Use the form linked below to update your contact information with SAIC Alumni Engagement to maintain regular communications with your alma mater.

    UPDATE YOUR CONTACT INFO

  • If you have data, files, and information you want to save, you can use Google Takeout to export files or Google Transfer to move data from your SAIC Gmail account to a personal Gmail account.

    TRANSFER YOUR DATA

  • If you have course materials or files you want to save from your SAIC Canvas account, be sure to log into saic.instructure.com and download content before June 30 one year after you’ve graduated.

  • If you have used your saic.edu email account to sign up for external services or accounts, be sure to update them with your new email address. Most platforms will allow you to update this information easily.  If you don’t see an option to change your contact information, we recommend you reach out to their customer support and ask them to update your email address.

  • The CAPX (Career and Professional Experience) office is a resource to alums for life. To ensure you have continued access to our services, please update your email address on Handshake. Once your saic.edu email is deactivated, you will no longer be able to log into Handshake using your SAIC account credentials. Find out how to update your email address below.

    UPDATE YOUR INFO WITH CAPX

  • Optional: leading up to the deactivation of your account, create an automated response email in your saic.edu account to inform your contacts of your new email address.

    HOW TO SET UP AN AUTOMATED EMAIL

  • This service provides alums with an SAIC-related address (xxx@alumni.saic.edu) which will forward to a personal email account. Note this is not a Gmail account and does not store, receive or send messages; it simply forwards them to the personal email of your choice. 

    MORE INFO AND SIGN UP HERE

  • To make this transition as easy as possible, please read the frequently asked questions to get a better understanding of how this change impacts you and what next steps to take. You can find the FAQs below.

  • Missed our email notices about this transition? You’ll find links to our previous memos below.

    August 11, 2022 Memo: Final Reminder
    July 28, 2022 Memo
    July 15, 2022 Memo
    June 30, 2022 Memo
    March 8, 2022 Memo

Frequently Asked Questions

  • The "alumni.saic.edu" forwarding email address is replacing the "saic.edu" email address. Each address is served by different systems. The "saic.edu" email address is served by Google and emails sent to this address are stored on Google servers. The "alumni.saic.edu" is a forwarding service provided by DUOCircle. No emails are stored on their forwarding servers. All emails received by the "alumni.saic.edu" forwarding servers are sent to a private address you provide when signing up for the forwarding service via this form. There is no link between the two services.

  • Due to changes in Google's terms of service, saic.edu email addresses for alums will be permanently retired. All alums who use an saic.edu email address may sign up for the email forwarding service, DUOCircle (alumni.saic.edu). Alums can transfer all contacts, emails, folders and files to an alternate email account of their choosing in order to avoid losing content stored in their saic.edu Google account.

  • The transition from the Google platform has already started. Alums had until August 15, 2022 to transfer all data and folders from their saic.edu address into alternate storage services and to make sure that all important emails, contacts, and subscriptions are associated with a new email address. However, you can sign up for an alumni.saic.edu forwarding address at any time.

  • Alums need to create a new email address on a platform of their choosing and may choose to export or transfer all contacts, emails, folders, and files to that service provider. It is recommended to set up an automatic response (also known as a vacation reply) on your saic.edu email to provide your contacts with your new email address.

  • Active staff, faculty, and current undergraduate and graduate students will continue to use their SAIC email accounts until they are no longer at SAIC. In accordance with Google’s new storage limits, a cap will be placed on all active accounts. Information will be shared later this calendar year on how limits will be set and managed. If you are staff or faculty and an SAIC alum, you are welcome to sign up for the alumni forwarding service. You will want to export any of your SAIC academic work from your account to separate it from work-related email and files to help you fit within future storage limits.

  • The alumni.saic.edu address is a forwarding system that is not associated with Google. It does not have any storage associated with the address.

  • Alums who graduated prior to August 2021 lost access to their saic.edu addresses on August 15, 2022. Moving forward, all students will retain access to the SAIC Google accounts until June 30 of the year following their year of graduation. 

  • You can still sign up for a new alumni.saic.edu email forwarding address. A new email address will be created for you. Just make sure to include a separate, non-SAIC email account when signing up via this form.

  • No. Alums will no longer have access to their saic.edu email address, which means they will no longer be able to access any documents or files on the Google Drive associated with that account. Alums need to create a new email address and transfer all contacts, emails, folders, and files to an alternate email address and storage option of their choosing.

  • If you have data, files, and information you want to save, you can use Google Takeout to export files or Google Transfer to move data from your SAIC Gmail account to a personal Gmail account.

  • It is not advisable to move your entire email history from Google. We suggest you select important messages to save and either forward them to a personal email account or download them. 

    The only way to move your email history to a non-Google account is to use Google Takeout to then import the emails into your preferred email system. Google Takeout backs up the entire email system, including storage, unless you deselect those options. If the destination email is Microsoft Outlook, you can open the exported Google files (mbox) by installing Thunderbird and Outlook on your computer at the same time. Thunderbird is free and will help convert the Google mbox into a format (PST) that Outlook can import.

    Note: There are many mbox converters online. Some are free and others cost money. The Thunderbird option is free and it works on both Mac and PC.

  • Yes; as of August 15, 2022 alum saic.edu emails will no longer be in service and access will be denied. Alums who graduated beginning in 2022 will retain their accounts for one year, until June 30 of the year after they graduate.

  • No, there is no automatic forwarding from your saic.edu address to alumni.saic.edu — your saic.edu address will be retired. Please set-up a vacation response that provides your new email address, and make sure to move all your important files, folders and contacts to another storage location. You will also need to update your email with any subscriptions and services to ensure you still receive their emails.

  • Alums are responsible for updating their subscriptions and services to a personal email address prior to account closure.

  • No, alums will have through June 30 a year after graduating to transfer all contacts, emails, folders, and files to an alternate email address and storage option.​

  • You can use Google Takeout and select YouTube videos for export, or use the YouTube Studio to download them. Read this YouTube Help article for more information.

  • Google has recently announced significant changes to the services they provide to colleges and universities. As you probably know, SAIC uses Google’s platform—consisting of apps and services like GMail, Google Drive, Google Docs, Slides, Sheets etc—as one of its primary digital work and collaboration platforms. Previously, Google provided institutions with unlimited pooled storage across the College for these services—imposing no limit on the amount of files/storage SAIC could use. This will soon change as Google is ending unlimited storage for institutions. All of us will all have to change our overall mindset on file storage and be mindful of the amount of storage space we are using. Unlimited storage is ultimately unsustainable both economically and environmentally, making this transition, while inconvenient, is one we all should ultimately embrace.

  • Alums will retain full access to Handshake and CAPX resources. If you already have a personal email associated with your Handshake account, simply log in with that. If your Handshake account is attached to your saic.edu email, or if you're not sure, submit your personal email address here so that CAPX can update your Handshake account. A representative from CAPX will email you when your account is updated. Contact handshake-support@saic.edu with any questions or read more information here on how to update your email address with CAPX.

  • No, ARTIC Accounts for single sign-on and Google accounts are deactivated at the same time.

  • Alums will no longer be able to log into PeopleSoft. To request a transcript, contact the Registrar's Office. Questions associated with a balance owed to SAIC can be emailed to Jackie Smith (jsmith@saic.edu) or Debra Stephens (dstephens@saic.edu) of the Collections department. There is no need for alums to access PeopleSoft. 

  • No, alums will no longer have access to Canvas as of the date of their Google account closure. Be sure to log in and download any content from your courses that you wish to keep prior to that date.