Changes to MHC Google account access for graduating students and alums

As part of ongoing efforts to protect the Mount Holyoke community, LITS has undertaken several initiatives to improve the College’s cybersecurity over the last few years, including implementing new cybersecurity tools and expanding the use of multi-factor authentication. This change to MHC Google account access for alums is the latest step towards achieving the College’s information security goals. 

With almost 10,000 alums in MHC’s Google environment — and a new cohort of graduates joining the MHC alum community each year — there are an ever-increasing number of accounts for the College to manage and support. Each account added beyond those needed for current students, faculty and staff adds an increased risk of a large-scale security incident that could negatively impact teaching and learning, which are central to the College’s mission.

Additionally, the College is seeing a rapid increase in costs associated with providing Google services and needing to license additional information security and privacy tools to protect the data of the College community.

We recognize that in the past, alums were told they could keep access to their @mtholyoke.edu accounts in perpetuity and know that many built professional and personal identities based on these accounts. It is also critical that we consider how drastically the digital landscape has changed –– even over the past few years. Our decision was driven primarily by long-term data security risks, compliance requirements and escalating infrastructure costs associated with maintaining tens of thousands of lifetime accounts. 

After extensive review, we determined the current model is no longer tenable. Although we explored many alternatives (including storage limits, email forwarding, and paid access), none were viable at the scale required or consistent with our goals for equity, security and long-term sustainability.

For similar reasons, many other colleges and universities have been reevaluating email and Google services for alums in recent years.

Going forward, graduating students will continue to have access to their MHC Google accounts, including Email, Drive, Calendar, etc, for one year after their degree conferral date. At that time, they will no longer be able to log in or use the account.

Reminders about the upcoming Google account access change will be sent as each new graduate’s one year past degree deferral date approaches.

Degree conferral date details

The degree conferral date for students who graduate in May 2026 is May 24, 2026. Students who graduate in May 2026 will be able to access their MHC Google accounts for one year after that date (until May 24, 2027). 

In general for May graduates, their degree conferral date is Commencement. Students who graduate at other times of year may have a degree conferral date in October or March. Degree conferral dates are listed in the Academic Calendar. Questions about degree conferral dates should be directed to the Registrar’s Office.

Timeline

On account closure (one year after your degree conferral date):

• You will no longer be able to log in to Google Mail, Drive, Calendar or any other MHC Google apps via your MHC credentials.
• Your MHC email address will stop receiving messages.
• Autoresponders will be discontinued.
• Collaborators will lose access to files you shared from your Google “MyDrive”

Six months later (18 months after your degree conferral date), the account and all its data will be deleted from Google. 

Review the following sections for details on managing this transition:

• How can I save my Google data prior to account closure?
• There are files in my MHC Google account that current MHC students, faculty, or staff will still need after my account closure. How do I ensure they maintain access to this data?
• I log into many online accounts with my MHC email address. How do I move forward without losing access to those accounts?

Learn more about how MHC Account access to a variety of College systems changes when a student becomes an alum in the LITS guide for graduating students. More information about MHC Accounts for alums. 

Alums who graduated prior to May 2026 and have active MHC Google accounts will continue to have access to their MHC Google accounts (including Email, Drive, Calendar, etc.) until May 31, 2027, at which point they will no longer be able to log in or use the account. Alums who are serving as Board members and/or committee chairs for the Alum Association remain eligible for MHC Google accounts for the length of their terms.  

Reminders of the upcoming account access change will be sent to alums’ MHC email addresses as May 31, 2027 approaches.

Timeline

On account closure (May 31st, 2027):

• You will no longer be able to log in to Google Mail, Drive, Calendar or any other MHC Google apps via your MHC credentials.
• Your MHC email address will stop receiving messages.
• Autoresponders will be discontinued.
• Collaborators will lose access to files you shared from your Google “MyDrive”

Six months later (early December 2027), the Google account and all its data will be deleted from Google. 

Review the following sections for details on managing this transition:

• How can I save my Google data prior to account closure?
• There are files in my MHC Google account that current MHC students, faculty, or staff will still need after my account closure. How do I ensure they maintain access to this data?
• I log into many online accounts with my MHC email address. How do I move forward without losing access to those accounts?

Alums with [name]@alumnae.mtholyoke.edu addresses will continue receiving messages sent to them at their designated personal email addresses until May 31, 2027. 

On that date, the legacy alum email forwarding service will be discontinued and messages sent to the  [name]@alumnae.mtholyoke.edu addresses will no longer be delivered. 

To save account data, you can use Google Takeout (create a backup file of your account data) and/or Google Transfer (move data to a personal @gmail.com account).

If you choose to use one of these tools, LITS recommends that you plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time since it can be a time-consuming process.

This step is not applicable to alums who have legacy alum email forwarding addresses (@alumnae.mtholyoke.edu) but don’t have @mtholyoke.edu email addresses. 

LITS recommends that you move those files into an MHC Google Shared Drive with appropriate permissions so that your collaborators will maintain ongoing access to that content. 

This is particularly important if your MHC Google account is the owner of faculty research content, registered student organization (RSO) content, or other files that current students, faculty, or staff will need to continue using.

This step is not applicable to alums who have legacy alum email forwarding addresses (@alumnae.mtholyoke.edu) but don’t have @mtholyoke.edu email addresses. 

Many people use their @mtholyoke.edu or @alumnae.mtholyoke.edu address as a recovery email or login for other services.

1. Make a list of accounts (Banking, Social Media, Utilities, Streaming, other subscriptions or "Apple ID" accounts) tied to your Mount Holyoke address.
2. Update these accounts to use a personal, non-college email address (like Gmail, Outlook, or iCloud) prior to your account closure.