What is happening?
As IT works to modernize the way accounts are created for the Bowdoin community, one of the first steps is to adjust the way usernames and email addresses are built for faculty and staff. The changes that are being made will enable email addresses to be longer, preventing most names from being truncated.
An example of the change for someone named John Smith-Weston would be as follows:
- Existing process - John's username and email would be jsmithwe@bowdoin.edu, or if that was already taken, would be jsmithw2@bowdoin.edu. If John went by Bill, their account would still be built as jsmithwe@bowdoin.edu.
- New process - Johns username and email would be j.smithweston@bowdoin.edu, or if John had a Preferred Name of Bill Smith, the username and email would be built as b.smith@bowdoin.edu.
These adjustments will be for new employees ONLY. We will not be adjusting existing email addresses to use this new format, nor will students be included in this change.
Why is this happening?
To help create a more friendly username building process and to simplify, automate and secure the process of managing accounts for the Bowdoin community.
What does it mean for me?
This change will mean that emails sent to employees hired from December 2020 onward will have a different email address format. You can still search for contacts the same way you are used to in your email client or the directory, but actual email addresses will be different from the older patterns.