VCU uses Google Vault email retention and eDiscovery service for all faculty & staff Google Workspace accounts.  The Library of Virginia guidelines for Virginia State Agencies are followed.  

Active Employees

• Email that has been removed from trash and is older than 3 years is purged from Google Vault.  
• Email that remains in your All Mail view is retained for eDiscovery. Vault treats undeleted draft messages just like every other message. If a draft is deleted without being sent, it is expunged 30 days later regardless of retention policies or holds.
• Drive data remains in Google Vault is retained for eDiscovery. Drive data moved to trash remains there for 60 days, then it is permanently expunged.
• Google Meet Chat conversation history is off by default.  If enabled during a chat by a user, conversations are stored in Gmail and stored in Google Vault following email retention guidelines.
• Meet Chat rooms maintain the history and are stored in Google Vault.

Former Employees

Accounts are purged annually in January upon return from winter break. Employee accounts that have passed the required data retention timeframe of three years are expunged and no longer discoverable.

Learn More

Visit VCU's Record's Management FAQs for more information.

Email Size Guidelines

• Inbound email may equal a total size of 50 MB. 
• Outbound email is limited to file attachments up to 25 MB. If an attachment is greater than 25 MB, Gmail automatically adds a Google Drive link in the email instead of including it as an attachment. Learn more about Google Drive attachment sharing settings. 
• Documents may be created in or uploaded and then shared via Google Drive or you may use VCU TS Filelocker.
• If you choose to use an external commercial service, these sites should never be used if your files contain any VCU-related confidential, personally identifiable, fiscal, personnel, student-related or other sensitive information.  Also, please familiarize yourself with the company's terms of service. VCU does not guarantee service levels for external file sharing services. 

Attachment Guidelines

• To protect your account, Gmail doesn't allow you to attach certain types of files. Gmail often updates the types of files not allowed to keep up with harmful software that is constantly changing. This list is available from Google in this document.
• To assist in protecting your computers, we will also block all attachments with file extensions INF, .RAR, .REG, ISO, UDP. Cisco email security appliance will quarantine the file attachment for three days to defend against new viruses that may exploit a vulnerability before it is known. After that time, it will be released and re-scanned for viruses. If the attachment is found to be virus-free, it will be delivered to you. If it contains a virus, the attachment will be deleted. The email minus attachments will be delivered to the intended recipient. Please email drgee@vcu.edu if this is a file you are expecting and you wish for immediate assistance receiving the file.
• Due to recent efforts to deploy malware, any email containing a file attachment with a .slk extension will not be delivered.

For assistance, please contact your department's computer support staff, the VCU IT Support Center at 804-828-2227 or submit a support ticket.

An employee who leaves employment at VCU for employment at VCU Health System will have their eID@vcu.edu redirected to their vcuhealth.org account at the hospital.  The VCU account will no longer be available. Please review steps included under Email/Email Accounts to prepare your account prior to departure.  Data will not be migrated.

A former student who has graduated and is employed at VCU Health System will have their eID@vcu.edu redirected to their vcuhealth.org account at the hospital. Email addressed to eID@alumni.vcu.edu will be delivered to the graduate's alumni Google Workspace account. Data will not be migrated.

To update your name and eID with VCU, please visit the Call Me By My Name page and click the Students or Employees section as appropriate. 

After submitting a name change with the Office of the University Registrar or Human Resources, your name will be synced to your VCU Google account automatically. After your name change has been completed, you can change your eID by reading and following the instructions on the Changing Your eID Username page.

For assistance troubleshooting issues regarding Name of Use and your VCU Google account, please see our Troubleshooting Name-Of-Use in Google page.

Outside normal account suspension upon separation from VCU, requests from departments for suspension, removal, or access to university systems must be submitted as a special request.

The request must originate from a Dean or equivalent administrative position (faculty/staff) or Dean of the School or the Division of Student Affairs or equivalent administrative position (students) and be sent to the Chief Information Security Officer at iso@vcu.edu.

For questions, contact the VCU IT Support Center at 804-828-2227.

1. FOIA-related requests - Freedom of Information Act requests for data that may be contained in VCU email accounts must be forwarded to the FOIA Officer in University Public Affairs for review and approval. They will coordinate any request with the Director, Collaboration Services.
2. Investigative requests - Investigative requests for access to email data that may be contained in accounts located on the VCU Google Domain(s) must be sent to the Director of Central Services, Technology Services, and CC drgee@vcu.edu, for review and approval. The Director will coordinate these requests with the University Counsel's Office and Audit and Management Services.
3. Departmental transfer requests - Upon notification of employee departure, the department should work with the employee to transfer ownership of shared calendars and Google Drive documents to another employee or a shared drive. Closing your Google account document may assist.  If this exchange of ownership is not or cannot be completed before employee departure, collaborative documents may be downloaded or new copies made to change ownership in Google Drive. Any other requests to transfer Google data should be sent to the Director of Central Services, Technology Services, and CC drgee@vcu.edu, for review and approval.  This request should originate from a dean or equivalent administrative position.
4. Former Employee Special requests - University email accounts belong to the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Employees lose access immediately when employment ends.

• Employee eIDs suspend when a Banner record becomes inactive, terminating access to university systems. The eID will remain locked unless an employee record becomes active again. Access to the Google Workspace account cannot be granted temporarily unless the employee record is active.
• If emails owned by a former employee are required for a university related issue, a request including detailed keyword-specific criteria must be submitted to determine if data is available in the university's Google Vault.   
• Access to email accounts or data from email accounts due to special circumstances which could be requested due to death or other special circumstances should be made through the Office of University Counsel for faculty/staff accounts or the Division of Student Affairs for student accounts.

Authorization

Requests for email data or Google Drive transfer require authorization of a dean or equivalent administrative position, such as vice provosts, associate/assistant vice presidents, executive directors, etc. (or above). The dean or equivalent administrative position should forward the request to Barry Lanneau, Director of Central Services, VCU Technology Services, and CC drgee@vcu.edu. This policy was approved by the University Information Technology Advisory Committee (UITAC) as part of the Email Policy and Operational Procedures Issues document.  

Email

Inadvertently deleted email may be restored from trash for up to 30 days or by an administrator if requested less than 25 days following permanent deletion. After this allotted time has passed, email is not recoverable.

Drive

Google Drive documents may be restored from trash for up to 30 days, or by an administrator if requested less than 25 days following permanent deletion. After this allotted time has passed, Drive data is not recoverable.

Submit a support ticket or contact the IT Support Center at 804-828-2227 to make this request. 

We understand that users at VCU sometimes have multiple roles.  Email gets routed to different accounts depending on your role(s).  If you have more than one role at VCU, check out our guide to help you learn how your account(s) will work.

VCU Email Standard

Students

VCU graduates will be provided a new Google Workspace for Education account in the alumni.vcu.edu Google Domain upon graduation. The alumni account is named using the eID@alumni.vcu.edu format. Email addressed to the eID@vcu.edu will forward to the alumni account. Google's authentication will be used. More information is available at https://collaborate.vcu.edu/how-to/use-an-alumni-account/. Data migration will not be available. Graduate's active student accounts will suspend after the re-enroll cycle has expired (three semesters). Former students who are not graduates will be removed after the re-enroll cycle has expired.

Faculty

We are pleased to continue access to Google Workspace accounts for faculty with Emeritus status.  The department does have to enter you into the "VCU Affiliate Database" with an EMER job class so that we can validate who you are. Retired faculty members may also keep their VCU Google account if the retiree's record is listed in the Affiliate Database. Interested retirees should check with their department and request inclusion in this database with a RET job class.

The Affiliate Database is VCU's method of allowing departments to give "official" status to persons who are no longer VCU employees but are affiliated with the University and should have some VCU privileges such as a Google Workspace account. The Affiliate Database is an online real-time system that has been decentralized to the "owning" department (the department responsible for the individual's affiliation). All non-employees except those with EMER or RET job class have a June 30 end date. It is the responsibility of the department, dean's office, or vice president's office to extend the end date annually by inputting and maintaining data on their "affiliated" employees. Individuals within departments who handle these issues are usually personnel administrators or assistants.

Faculty who are leaving the university for another position outside of VCU must use caution when moving email from VCU to another location.  Any email that contains PHI or HIPAA-related data may not be transferred to an external (non-VCU-related) email service. 

Staff

VCU staff members will not retain their Google Workspace for Education accounts after they leave employment or retire from the university unless their department adds them to the Affiliate database.  Employees who are also active students at the time of their departure from the university will continue to use their vcu.edu account until their after the re-enroll cycle has expired (three consecutive semesters without registering for class).