Email Forwarding vs. Email Redirect

When a student, faculty member, or staff member leaves Colby, their e-mail and associated accounts are closed. Graduating seniors are given the opportunity to request one temporary extension on access to their Colby email accounts while they establish email access elsewhere. Retired faculty and staff may request continued access to their email account.

When an email account is closed, the person may request that redirection be provided. Redirection sends a response to any sender of email addressed to a closed account with information on the new address to try. No email is sent by the Colby email system to the new address. It is up to the sender to determine whether to send to the new address or to readdress the message to someone else at Colby. Redirection will be available for 6 months following closing of an account, after which the sender of email will simply be notified that there is no such email address.

When a student, faculty member, or staff member leaves Colby temporarily (e.g., sabbatical leave, semester abroad, administrative leave, etc.) mail can be forwarded to an alternative address. The sender is given no notification of the alternative address and no messages are stored on Colby's email system. In most cases it will be better to continue to access Colby's email system while on leave or otherwise away from the College, rather than use forwarding.

Addresses to be used for redirection (when an account is closed) or forwarding (when the person will be away from campus temporarily) must be given to Jeff Earickson in person or through the Colby email account. Email sent from another email system will not be honored because it cannot be authenticated.