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Academic Technologies

December Graduation

Main Content

Updated October 25, 2023

Information About Your University NetID Account (Including Your Email)

You keep your NetID and Duke email account for one year after graduation. However, graduates' status is changed to "alumni" very soon after graduation (December 30, 2023), which affects your ability to access some services using your NetID. Duke's Office of Information Technology (OIT) maintains a web page that describes how services change upon graduation and when the NetID is deactivated.

You can sign up for an alumni email account here.

OIT will send you a reminder one month before your student email accounts are disabled.

Access to Licensed Software

Your ability to download or use some licensed software ends on December 30, 2023.

1) Adobe software. The software will stop working as soon as Adobe asks for your NetID and password again. For example, if you are on a journal and use Adobe, YOU WILL LOSE ACCESS TO ADOBE SOFTWARE. There is no "graduation copy" for Adobe products.

2) Zoom meetings. Your ability to schedule and host meetings will end the next time you have to log in. You can create a free Zoom account for personal use.

3) Microsoft software. Microsoft Office 365 software will eventually require you to log in to verify your license and will revert to an unlicensed state (generally 6 months after graduation).

You have the opportunity to download a "graduation copy" of Office via the OIT software site by December 30, 2023. In order to download a graduation copy, go to:

https://software.duke.edu/node/135 (If you don't get the proper page after logging in, come back to this link and click on it again)

Don't be disappointed - get the software before graduation! If you do miss the deadline, your only recourse is to license Office 365 yourself. Prices are not unreasonable:

Compare Office 365 subscriptions (choose the Home tab)

Forwarding your Email

Use the forward function in Outlook on the Web (https://mail.duke.edu) if you prefer to receive your email at another account. Outlook forwarding allows you to keep a copy in your Duke email account so even if the forward fails you will be able to see the email.

Sakai

Your access to Sakai continues as long as your NetID is active, although individual course sites, as well as linked resources like class recordings, may be made unavailable by instructors or staff. As Duke will transition from Sakai to Canvas in the summer of 2023, sites will become unavailable sooner rather than later. 

Box

You can keep your Box account until your NetID is deactivated. Before the NetID expires, we recommend syncing or downloading all files to your local computer. Alternatively, you can change your Duke Box account to a personal account (for the free level, up to 10GB of files; max file size 250MB). Contact the OIT service desk to inquire about the process. In any case, you should consider using a cloud storage service to keep your documents safe.

Microsoft OneDrive

You can keep your OneDrive account until your NetID is deactivated, although mobile access may be limited after graduation. See OIT's FAQ on OneDrive for Business for more information.

Getting Your Email Out of Your Duke Office 365 Email Account

There are two basic ways to do this: a) copy your email to a local archive file on your computer, or b) copy your email directly to another email account. For a), the simplest way to do this is to open your email in a Windows Outlook or Mac Outlook (not Outlook Web App). On Windows, create a new Data File under Account Settings and copy all the email folders you wish to keep to that new PST file. On Mac, export the contents of your email account (as an OLM file). Many email clients will import PST files (fewer will read OLM files). The copy or export process will take quite a while. For b), set up an email client, such as Windows Outlook or Mac Outlook (not Outlook Web App), to access both email accounts (Duke Office 365 and Gmail for instance). Copy folders from Duke Office 365 to the other account. This process is likely to take a very long time. Please contact the Academic Technologies help desk to discuss your best options. You will need to know what software you are using to access your Duke Office 365 account and what target email account you are thinking of.

Accessing Library Databases and Other Resources

The following links contain important information about access to resources available through Duke Law. Please contact the Law Library reference desk for further information and assistance.

Summer 2023 access to Library Databases and other resources

https://law.duke.edu/lib/alumni/

Printing in the Law School building

In general, student ePrint accounts are deactivated shortly after graduation. If the building is opened to the public, you can continue to use ePrint by buying a printing card from the device on the 2nd floor next to the vending machines. Use the code on that card instead of your netid when printing to the ePrint system. Each printed sheet of paper, whether printed on one side or two, costs $0.04.

Accessing the Duke Network

You should be able to continue to access the Duke Wi-Fi network. If for some reason, you are no longer able to do so, you can connect to the Visitor network, though that network will not give you access to resources licensed only to Duke community members. You should be able to continue to use the Duke Virtual Private Network (VPN) for remote access to Duke resources for one year after graduation. Please contact the helpdesk for further details and assistance.