More documentation and announcements can be found on the UTS Website at www.oakland.edu/uts


Topic: Email
Audience: Students, Faculty and Staff
Date: April 16, 2003
How Do I Get an Email Account?

Oakland University provides many services to students, faculty and staff.  Included in these services are email accounts that allow you to send and receive email. 

 

Oakland University automatically creates an Oakland University email account for each active Oakland University student, faculty member and staff member. The email account is one several directory services provided under the Oakland University Computing Account profile (OUCA).   Faculty, staff and students can begin to use the email account by obtaining their OUCA userid and password at https://ouca.oakland.edu.  (Please see the How Do I Get My OUCA Userid and Password?  section below.) 

 

Students

  1. Active students are defined as admitted students with an active status in the SCT Banner system based on registration. 
  2. Once a new student is admitted, and their paperwork is in Banner, their record is sent to the directory service (of which email is one of the services provided). The account is created, but the student does not know their email address or their password. To find out the email address and password, the new student must have a valid SAIL and PIN. For security reasons, the SAIL ID and PIN (created in that same Banner to directory process) has a default of "expired" on the PIN. That forces an employee to change the PIN on their first entry into SAIL. So, after the student is admitted and has paperwork entered into Banner, a new student will have to first get their SAIL id and pin, login to SAIL and change their PIN for the first use, THEN go to the email page to log in and get their email id and password for the first time. If you've never logged in to SAIL, the directory system will not accept my SAIL id/pin for the email ID/password.
  3. Active status is maintained by enrollment.  If a student has not enrolled or registered for any classes for a period of 1 calendar year, the email account is locked and deleted.  
  4. Students who have graduated will continue to have their email account until they have not enrolled for any classes for a period of one calendar year.

 

Faculty and Staff

  1. Active faculty and staff are defined as active employees with an active employment record in Banner.
  2. Retired faculty are considered active for the purposes of email accounts.
  3. Once a new employee is hired, and their paperwork is in Banner, their record is sent to the directory service (of which email is one of the services provided). The account is created, but the employee does not know their email address or their password. To find out the email address and password, the new employee must have a valid SAIL and PIN. For security reasons, the SAIL ID and PIN (created in that same Banner to directory process) has a default of "expired" on the PIN. That forces an employee to change the PIN on their first entry into SAIL. So, after the employee is hired and has paperwork entered into Banner, a new employee will have to first get their SAIL id and pin, login to SAIL and change their PIN for the first use, THEN go to the email page to log in and get their email id and password for the first time. If you've never logged in to SAIL, the directory system will not accept my SAIL id/pin for the email id/password.
  4. Faculty email accounts are deleted one year after termination of employment.  Retired faculty accounts are not terminated until the Office of the Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost provides notice of termination to University Technology Services.
  5. Staff email accounts are deleted immediately after termination of employment.

 

Shared and Guest Accounts

  1. Official departments or official organizations of Oakland University can apply for shared email accounts by completing the Shared or Guest Computing Account Application Form, which requires the approval of the Dean or a Vice President.   Forms are available on the web http://www.oakland.edu/uts under the Email Services section.
  2. Individuals with an official university relationship but who are not active employees or students may apply for a guest email account.
  3. Guest email accounts are valid for calendar year.  Notice to renew are delivered to guest email accounts every December.  Accounts that have not been renewed are deleted between January 5 and January 15 every year.

 

 You are responsible for checking and reading your OUCA email according to University policies.  Many important announcements are delivered to your email account.  There are four different ways to check email:

  • Webmail is available to check your messages via the web at http://webmail.oakland.edu
  • Software such as Eudora or Outlook Express, which downloads email to your desktop or allows you to read it off of our email server. For configuration documentation go to http://www.oakland.edu/uts under Email Services.
  • General Academic UNIX software Pine via a telnet client
  • Forward all of your OU email to an existing or preferred email account using a forward file

(For configuration documentation go to http://www.oakland.edu/uts under Email Services)

Please note that it is your responsibility to make backup copies of the important messages in your email inbox.  If you need assistance in determining a backup strategy, contact the Help Desk.

 

How to Report Problems with Your Email Account
If you are having problems with your OUCA (logging in, id or password processes) or with sending or receiving email, first please check the University Technology Services Message of the Day (MOTD). The UTS MOTD will display updates on current maintenance and changes at the URL http://www.oakland.edututs. These changes or outages may explain what is causing the problem. If you continue to have problems not explained by the MOTD, please contact the Help Desk.

How Do I Get My User Name and Password?
The following steps allow you:
• To activate your account and password for first time use.
• To reset your password when you have forgotten your current password.

Open up a Web browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape and go to the website https://ouca.oakland.edu/profile
Step 1: Click on the: “Obtain your account or reset your password.” link. See Figure 1.
Step 2: In the Dialog box for “Student/Employee ID” type in your Social Security number or
Employee ID number.
Step 3: In the Dialog box for “PIN Number” type in your PIN number.
Step 4: In the Dialog box for “New Password” type in a password that is 6 to 8 characters long.

Step 5: In the Dialog box for “Verify Password” type the same password as in Step 4.
The password will be changed within seconds for email purposes.

Figure 1:


After inputting your new email password, you will be taken to a new screen that displays your OUCA user id and your email address.

Figure 2: