Alumni Email Service Level Agreement (SLA)

As of March 2025, all new alumni, as well as existing alumni with active accounts, will maintain access to their @berkeley.edu email account under the Alumni Email Service as long as they adhere to the terms listed here, maintain their account activity, and reduce overall storage to below 5 GB across all associated Google account services (see 2.3 Service Requirements and Limits). Go to Alumni Email Service for more information.

Beginning March 6, 2024, existing alumni with an active @berkeley.edu account and future alumni will be required to follow a transition process to maintain a UC Berkeley-provided Google @berkeley.edu account. The transition process includes an initial renewal of the service, acknowledgment of these terms, and reductions to below 5 GB of total storage usage across all associated Google account services. Go to Alumni Email Service for more information. 

1 General Overview

This document describes the bounds, limits and terms of use for email services made available to eligible alumni and attendees of UC Berkeley.

• Alumni Email Service Description
• General levels of response, availability, and maintenance associated with this service
• Responsibilities of Berkeley IT as a provider of these services
• Responsibilities of alumni receiving these services

2 Service Description

2.1 Service Definition 

The Alumni Email Service provides eligible alumni and attendees with a berkeley.edu email address. Email addresses are currently provided to eligible alumni and attendees using the same Google Workspace for Education account that they used as students.

For the purposes of this service:

• Alumni refers to individuals who have completed a degree-seeking program.
• Attendees refers to individuals who have completed at least one (1) semester in a degree-seeking program.

2.2 Service Eligibility

All eligible alumni with an active CalNet are eligible for the Alumni Email Service, as long as their account has not been deleted. Note: If your CalNet has been reactivated after a period of inactivity, you will only be able to regain access to your previous email if your account has not been deleted. 

2.3 Service Requirements and Limits

Accounts may be disabled if requirements are not met. 

1. CalNet Requirements: Alumni must use CalNet 2-Step and abide by the CalNet User Terms of Service and campus use policies.
2. Service Limits: All other Google Workspace for Education services except Gmail are ancillary to the Alumni Email Service, are subject to additional limits, and may be disabled at the discretion of UC Berkeley.
3. Storage Limits: All Google accounts used to provide email services to alumni are limited to 5 GB of total account storage as of July 15, 2024.
4. Activity Requirement: Alumni must demonstrate account activity with their @berkeley.edu account at least once every 6 months (180 days) to keep their account active.
   • Measures of Activity: An account that is in use is considered active. Activity is tied to your account, not to a specific device, so actions on any device where you’re signed in count toward your activity.
     • Measurable activity:
       • Signing in through a web browser or supported app
       • Reading and sending email
     • Non-measurable activity:
       • Forwarding email
       • Using auto-reply
       • Using POP email clients 
   • Inactivity Notifications & Consequences: If your account is not used within 6 months (180 days), it will be deemed inactive, and its contents may be deleted. Before that happens, you will have the opportunity to take action.  
     • After 4 months (120 days) of inactivity, a notification with a reauthentication link will be sent to both your @berkeley.edu and recovery email (if available).
     • After 5 months (150 days) of inactivity, a second notification with a reauthentication link will be sent to both your @berkeley.edu address and recovery email (if available).
     • After 6 months (180 days) of inactivity, your account will be disabled. Once disabled, you will not be able to regain full access, but you may request temporary access to retrieve information. See 2.4 Request to Regain Access
     • After 12 months (365 days) of being disabled, the account and all of its contents will be permanently deleted.

2.4 Request to Regain Access

If a @berkeley.edu email account has been disabled due to inactivity, but the account holder is otherwise still eligible for service, the account holder may request access to their account, if it is within the initial disablement period. 

• Access requests must be made within 12 months (365 days) of being disabled. If the account has been disabled for longer than 12 months (365 days), the account and all of its contents will be deleted.
• Requests require an active CalNet ID. When a CalNet ID has lapsed, the CalNet Alumni Access Request will need to be completed prior to requesting access to your @berkeley email account.

2.5 Service Level Expectations & Performance

Berkeley IT provides limited support to Alumni for email services including:

1. Verification of eligibility and access to Berkeley provided Google accounts
2. Clarification of service limits and restrictions
3. Response to privacy or security threats identified in the course of using this service

Berkeley IT does NOT provide the following supports for email services provided to Alumni:

1. General technical support in the use of Gmail or other Google Workspace for Education services
2. Support for computers, desktop email clients, or third-party email accounts where email is forwarded

3 Roles and Responsibilities

3.1 Parties

The following parties have responsibilities under this agreement:

• Berkeley IT
• Eligible Berkeley Alumni and Attendees

3.2 Berkeley IT Responsibilities 

Berkeley IT responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:

• Overall management of Google accounts including Google Workspace, accounts, renewal processes, security and maintenance 
• Responses to incidents and service requests in the IT Request ticketing system (ServiceNow)
• Follow the principle of least perusal, policy for access without consent, and other specifications in the UC Electronic Communications Policy. 

3.3 Alumni Responsibilities

Alumni responsibilities and/or requirements in support of this Agreement include:

• Adherence to the following campus and UC policies: 
  • Email Service Policy
  • Terms and Conditions of Appropriate Use for bMail
  • Mass Email Communication Guideline
  • UC Electronic Communications Policy 
  • Campus Online Activities Policy
  • Acceptable Use Policy for UC Berkeley
  • Data Use Agreement for Google Workspace and Google Apps for Education
• Following acceptable use guidelines within the Google Workspace terms of service
• Specific prohibited conduct:

• • Sending of unsolicited email (SPAM) for any purpose
  • Activities that are illegal or fraudulent or that violate Copyright law
  • Use that inaccurately implies endorsement, approval, or sponsorship by UC Berkeley (or any individual officer of the university)
  • Use that can be confused with official communications of UC Berkeley or its officers
  • Use that can be confused with official communications of the California Alumni Association or its officers
  • Personal mass mailings of any size beyond 5 recipients
  • Activities that violate the privacy of other customers, such as transferring membership access to the system or releasing personal information about others (for example, name, address, email address, or phone number)
  • Activities that further commercial or other personal financial gain
  • Activities that solicit donations
  • Harassment of any individual

UC Berkeley reserves the right to deny any individual access to the alumni email service.  This applies expressly to those who violate the above standards or other applicable policies and procedures. Participants in the alumni email service who misuse information and communication services may be permanently removed at any time from the alumni email service, and risk legal action for failure to abide by these policies and procedures.

Please contact support for feedback or to report violations of this code of conduct. UC Berkeley is not responsible for the content of in-system messages, email service, and public profiles and will not routinely monitor content. The University, however, reserves the right to reorganize or delete any messages, photos, and public profiles and may at its discretion reassign registration or ownership.

Cause for such termination of alumni email service shall include, but not be limited to:

• Breaches or violations of the alumni email service SLA (this document) and related university policies
• Requests by alumni for self-initiated account deletions
• Discontinuance or modification to the alumni email service
• Technical or security related incidents or problems

When possible, customers will receive a single warning about behavior that violates the Code of Conduct and policies governing the alumni email service. The warning will cite the specific behavior or behaviors that violate the policy, invite the user to respond, and explain that rights to the alumni email service will be terminated if the cited behavior is repeated.

When a user’s alumni email service is terminated, UC Berkeley will:

• Notify the holder of the account via email that their access to the alumni email service is being terminated
• Terminate the access to the alumni email service, including the email service and ancillary services

4 Requesting Service

As of May 13, 2025 alumni are no longer required to request service. Please see 2.2 Service Eligibility for eligible groups.

5 Hours of Coverage, Response Times and Escalation

For all requests, the Berkeley IT goal is to have a staff member assigned and acknowledge requests within four business hours of receipt. Campus priorities may require exceptions to this goal during certain periods of the academic year, including curtailment and holidays. 

5.1 Hours of Coverage

Service coverage is provided 8AM - 5PM PT, Monday - Friday except for holidays including curtailment days, and campus closure. 

5.2 Service Outages and Major Incidents

The alumni email service is monitored by Berkeley IT. Any outage that impacts standard operability will be posted at https://systemstatus.berkeley.edu/. Outages classified as a major incident will follow major incident protocols. Information about Google Workspace service disruptions is available at https://www.google.com/appsstatus/dashboard/.

6 Maintenance and Service Changes

The alumni email service abides by the standard maintenance and service change process whenever possible. Changes are listed on the Berkeley System Status page: http://systemstatus.berkeley.edu/

7 Pricing

Email services for alumni are currently funded by UC Berkeley as a privilege and limited benefit to alumni. There are no charges to alumni for using the alumni email service.  All UC Berkeley Google account provided to alumni will be limited to 5 GB of total storage with no options for alumni to purchase additional storage.