FAQ - User Info and Accounts

The College of Education and Human Ecology has several practices concerning user accounts. Below are frequently asked questions about these accounts and general standards.

Who gets an EHE account?

Generally, anyone that needs access to EHE network resources. This includes email, computers, network shares, the intranet, and other similar items. Typically, the following groups get EHE accounts:

  • Faculty
  • Staff
  • Student Workers
  • Visiting Scholars
  • Lecturers
  • Adjunct Faculty (if requested)
  • Graduate Students
  • Undergraduate students requiring special access as an employee or lab spaces

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Who gets an EHE email account?

Faculty and staff are typically the only ones assigned an EHE email account. Lecturers are assigned an EHE email account on a case-by-case basis. While there are exceptions, these must be requested by the department with a legitimate need. Typical needs include advisors that need access to calendaring, or special circumstance undergrad accounts that work with advisors. Convenience is not typically an acceptable reason.

Once given an EHE email account, a user's OSU email accounts is forwarded to his or her EHE account. This forward (mail sent to name.n@osu.edu is sent to our email server for processing and scanning) is kept in place until that person leaves the College. Under certain very special circumstances (for example, dual appointments), we may forward an EHE account to another location for ease of use. This must be requested by the user with justifications for the change.

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How does a person get an EHE account?

The hiring, enrollment, and other related processes are left up to the individual departments and Human Resources. Once these have been completed, requests are submitted by the department or HR to the Office of Technology and Enhanced Learning.

At a minimum, the following information is required to gain an EHE account. Accounts will NOT be created if any of this information is missing.

  • Planned Start Date
  • First Name
  • Middle Initial
  • Last Name
  • Title
  • Unit or Department
  • Office Location
  • Office Telephone Number
  • Supervisor
  • Account Type

Once the account has been created, the department contact will be notified and the user will need to make arrangements with the department contact to pick up his or her new user info packet. This packet contains basic information, including an initial password and an overview of acceptable use policies.

During each quarter, a spreadsheet will be sent out to department contacts for updates. This list is for the bulk addition and deletion of user accounts prior to the start of the next quarter. If users need to be added during other times of the year, an online account request form is available on the Service Desk. Please allow 24 to 48 hours for the account to be created.

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What is the password policy for EHE accounts?

The following guidelines apply to all new user accounts:

  • All users are prohibited from sharing their passwords with anyone, for any reason.
  • Passwords must be at least 8 characters long and contain 3 of the following:
    • Capital Letter
    • Lowercase Letter
    • Symbol
    • Number
  • User accounts are automatically disabled after three failed login attempts, at which point the user is forced to either wait 30 minutes for the account to reset itself, or contact the Service Desk to reset the account for them.

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How do I update user information?

During the year it becomes necessary to update user information if status, address, office or other information changes. Please contact your HR representative to change this information.

This information is used/available for a number of uses, including the website directories, mailing lists, email lists, etc. It is vital that this information be kept current by departments.

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Who falls into what distribution lists within the College?

As a centralized service, we have several standard lists for email distribution. In order to keep things standardized across all departments and the College, the following categories are used for the lists.

  • Faculty - Includes all faculty appointments, lecturers and adjunct Faculty
  • Staff - Includes all other full time staff, including Civil Service and A&P staff
  • Extension - Anyone with an extension appointment (staff/faculty depending on the list)
  • Grad - Grad students within that department
  • Department All - Everyone in a department
  • Everyone - Everyone that has an EHE user account

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Why aren't there more lists?

There are several reasons for this, but the most important is the attempt to keep things simple. Individual departments may have differing definitions for what persons fall into what categories. However, others within the College may not be aware of these differentiations, as such these standard lists are there for anyone to use. If a department would like to make custom lists, it is more than welcome to do so, but these lists are not centralized lists managed by the College and are kept locally on users' machines (see Custom Distribution Lists for more information).

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Can we give grad students contacts only instead of EHE accounts?

No. Because we rely on user accounts to do other things besides logging on to computers, a contact entry is not viable (i.e. Intranet, website access). If a department wants to limit whom can access computers or other information or resources, the Office of Technology and Enhanced Learning can discuss various options with the department to meet these needs.

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What is the process for someone leaving the College?

This is a several step process. Typically we will need you to send us an email letting us know the basics of who and when. At that point, we will make an entry of the dates and the person leaving. All persons with P drives and EHE email accounts will go through the following process:

  • 2 weeks before leaving (if given notice), they will be contacted concerning email options for forwarding and data backups for their network resources and help (if needed) with their local files.
  • After their last day, their network info and email will be backed up to CD or other media. The user has the option of requesting a copy of this. Once completed, a copy of the data is forwarded on to HR for records. After this point, any requests for data from either the department or the user must go through HR.
  • On their last day, any mail forwards will be removed and set to OSU if that email is kept, or forwarded to another outside address for a period no longer than 30 days.
  • On their last day, the account will be disabled.
  • 30 days after their last day, the account will be deleted.