Overview
When a student leaves Texas A&M University, they lose many of the resources they enjoyed as a student. Below is a list of resources and options for former students as they transition resources away from the University.
Former Student Email
Introduction
When a student leaves Texas A&M University, they lose many of the resources they enjoyed as a student. Because email is such an important method of communication, Texas A&M Technology Services retains student email accounts for two years after a student has left the university. This provides a former student with ample time in which to establish a personal or professional email presence in place of their student email presence. A student is considered to have left the university by either graduating or by simply no longer enrolling for classes.
Forwarding
In an effort to establish a personal or professional email presence, it is recommended that students begin transitioning away from using a Texas A&M Email address in favor of an alternate address. To avoid checking multiple email accounts, you can forward your Texas A&M Gmail emails to an alternate account for as long as the Texas A&M Gmail account is active.
Forwarding can be set up within the Settings option of your Texas A&M Gmail account. For instructions on this process, see How to Forward Texas A&M Gmail to Another Email Account.
Archive or Transfer
After two years, or three years for international students, the data in your Texas A&M Gmail account will be deleted. Once this data is deleted, it is often not recoverable. Once the account is deleted, email forwarding will no longer work. For this reason, we recommend archiving your Texas A&M Google Apps data including your Texas A&M Gmail data.
You may also wish to transfer your Texas A&M Google Drive contents as a whole to a personal Gmail or other account via the Google Take Out tool, see Transferring TAMU Gmail Content to Personal Email.
Library Access
The Texas A&M campus hosts public library access for non students. Anyone may apply for a library card here: http://library.tamu.edu/assets/pdf/libraryCardApplication2014.pdf
Any student who has graduated from Texas A&M can check out up to 5 books at a time for 2 weeks if they have a Former Student Account. Although a Former Student account does not give access to our Electronic Resources online, graduates can come by in person to receive temporary usernames and passwords to be used on TAMU library computers in order to temporarily access the online databases. These temporary credential will not work when used on personal iPads, laptops, phones, etc. Thus, former students may only access the online databases if they come to the library in person.
On Campus Wireless Access
Access to TAMU_WiFi and eduroam is lost upon graduation or non-enrollment of courses. Access to the TAMU_Visitor network is still available, however.
People Webpage Access (people.tamu.edu)
After graduation or being no longer actively enrolled, a students OAL account is disabled. This includes access to the U: drive and an active people.tamu.edu webpage will no longer be available.
If the former student is within the 2 year time from leaving the University and still has a NetID, please contact Help Desk Central for assistance in temporarily reactivating your OAL profile.
If the former student has spent more than 2 years away from the University, the OAL account has been deleted and cannot be accessed.
Common Questions
Q. I set my _______ account up with my TAMU Email address, how do I access that email after 2 years?
A. If it has been more than 2 years since you've left the University, your email box no longer exists and has been completely deleted. You will need to contact the support desk for the service in question for further assistance.