Email Info: After Graduation

Part of your transition from Barnard will involve the expiration of both your Barnard and Columbia email & ftp accounts (including websites). The timetable of expiration for Barnard email is as follows:

  • February graduates: accounts expire on June 15
  • May graduates: accounts expire the following January 15
  • October graduates: accounts expire the following June 15

In order to ensure a smooth transition from your old to new email accounts, please take the following five steps:

  1. Set up a replacement email address
  2. Activate your Barnard alum forwarding address
  3. Set up a vacation message on your Barnard email OR Forward all incoming mail from your original Barnard email to your replacement email*
  4. Bounce all the messages you wish to save from your Barnard to your replacement email

* Unfortunately, it is not possible to setup a Vacation Message and a Forwarding Address at the same time, you can only use one or the other. However, you can setup a signature on your Barnard or Gmail account that tells people you will be switching email addresses if you choose to forward your email.

Alumnae FAQ

  1. What if I forget my password and cannot log on to the Barnard Alumnae Online Community?
  2. What campus computers can I use? How can I print?
  3. When does my Columbia UNI expire?

NOTE: If images are unclear, click for a larger version.



1. Set Up a Replacement Email Address


You should first establish and become comfortable with an alternate email address (we recommend setting up a Gmail, if you don't already have one), which will be your replacement email. We like Gmail because it is easy to use, has a good spam filter, and gives you 6GB (and growing) of free storage.



2. Activate your Barnard alum forwarding address


You should also sign up for an alumnae email forwarding address (username@alum.barnard.edu). All email sent to this address will be forwarded to your replacement email account.

If you already know your alumna username and password (not your UNI), you can sign in here to activate your e-mail forwarding address.

After you log in, go to the "Email Addresses & Interests" section and follow the instructions.

If you do not know your alumna username and password, please visit the alum site to sign up for one. After you have it, you can follow the link above to set up your alumnae email forwarding address. Please note that you cannot set up your forwarding address until late February your senior year.



3 Set up a vacation message for your Barnard email


Once you begin using your replacement email, you might want to set up a vacation message for your original Barnard email account, which will notify anyone who sends you email of your new address (or that you will no longer be checking your Barnard account -- it can say whatever you want, like a voicemail).

In order to set this up, you must have SSH Secure Shell, (unfortunately, you cannot set up a vacation message through eBear at this time. Forwarded messages to Columbia accounts will not trigger vacation responses, should you set one up in Cubmail). You can use SSH on any lab computer or you can download it through eBear.

To Download SSH (Click the tab My Tools, click Download, and find the heading Secure Networking Connectivity Tools, under which is listed SSH Secure Shell Client for either Windows or Mac.)

Click here for a tutorial on how to configure SSH, if you have not already done so.

  1. At the $ prompt in SSH, type vacation and hit Enter, like so:
  2. You will be directed to a standard vacation message that looks like this:
  3. Hit the I key in order to be able to edit the message informing senders of your new email address:
  4. The text after "Subject" is the text that will appear in the subject of your vacation message. Everything after that will be the body of your message. "$SUBJECT" will insert the subject of the email your vacation message is replying to into your message.
  5. When you are done editing your vacation message, press the Control and C keys simultaneously. Now type the following to save the file and activate the message:
    :w<enter>
  6. Type the following to quit:
    :q<enter>
  7. You can now logout of eclipse and exit SSH.

In the event that you wish to remove your vacation message

  1. At the $ prompt in SSH, type the following:
    rm .forward <enter>
  2. Repeat for
    • rm .vacation.msg <enter>, and for
    • rm .vacation.db <enter>


4 Forward all incoming mail from your original Barnard email to your replacement email


Learn how to forward email from your original Barnard account with our tutorial.



5. Bounce all the messages you wish to save from your Barnard to your replacement email


In order to save email messages from your Barnard account, you will need to forward them to your replacement email by "bouncing" them or by using an email client to save old emails onto your computer's hard drive. (For more information on email clients, see this page: Email Info.)

  1. To bounce emails from your Barnard account to your replacement email account, you will need to login to Pine using SSH Secure Shell Client.
  2. Once in Pine, open your inbox by pressing the "I" key, and then press ONLY the semi-colon key (do NOT hold down shift), which stands for "Select."
  3. You will then see a command line reading "Select Criteria." In order to select all your messages, press "A." You can tell a message is selected when it has an "X" next to it, like this:
  4. You will need to press the "A" key one more time to bounce all of the messages. Then press the "B" key in order to generate the command line "BOUNCE (redirect) message to:".
  5. Type in your replacement email address. Then press enter.
  6. When asked to send messages to your replacement email, hit "Y" for yes.

Congratulations on successfully completing your email transition process! (It may take a few minutes for all of your emails to arrive in your new account.)



Signature

An email signature is a line (or a few lines) that is automatically appended to the bottom of all of your outgoing emails. You can use this to include contact information, just your name, or a message (like "my email address is changing!").

To setup a signature using Pine, login then type "S" for Setup. Once your are in the SETUP menu, type "S" for Signature. Now you can type whatever you want your signature to be. When you're done, hit ctrl and "X" at the same time then type "Y" to save your changes.

To setup a signature using Webmail, login then choose "Options" from the choices at the top of the page. Now choose "Personal Information" and you cane change/enter a signature on this page. Remember to "Submit" your changes to save them.

To setup a signature for your Gmail account, login and choose "Settings" on the top-right of the window. Under the "General" tab you can setup a signature.

If you use an email client, you can have multiple signatures (personal, professional etc.), think of the possibilities!



Alumnae FAQ

What if I forget my password and cannot log on to the Barnard Alumnae Online Community?
Alumnae Affairs can give you a hint or email your password to you. Check their User Login page.
What campus computers can I use? How can I print?
Alumnae can purchase printing pages. However, even if an alumna purchases printing pages, she is NOT entitled to use the student computer centers. She is welcome to print in the Library on the second floor or at other locations around campus. The Vagelos Alumnae Center has two computers with Microsoft Office for alumnae to use.
When does my Columbia UNI expire?
Columbia email and UNI expiration dates change annually. We recommend that you download the most recent version of Symantec Anti-Virus from the Columbia CUIT website BEFORE the summer is over.
Once you download Anti-Virus software, you will NEVER have to pay for Anti-Virus updates! For more information on your Columbia account, visit the CUIT Computing Accounts info page.