Checklist for Graduating Students

As you prepare to graduate from Goshen College, take the following steps to make sure you have what you need before you leave.  All ITS services (student computer account, GC online account, Email access, print balance, etc.) will be disabled six months after your last day of classes, except as stated below. All personal files on your M: Drive and W: Drive, will be deleted one year after your last day of classes, and all email will be deleted six months after your last day of classes.

 
Forward Your GC Emails and Inform Others of Your New Address

You will only be able to access GC email for six months after your last day of class.  After six months, any email messages still stored on the mail server will be deleted.  Before that time, be sure to forward to yourself any old email messages you wish to keep.  If you set up a forwarding address before that time, any new incoming emails will be forwarded to your new address for six months after your last day of class. For example, if your last day of classes is May 15th, email and forwarding will be disabled on November 15th.  After your account is disabled, all email sent to your GC email account will be bounced back to the sender.   You will not be able to retrieve old email after the six-month period has expired.

To Forward your new email:

1. Set up a new email account (YahooMail, GMail, Hotmail, or an ISP account such as Verizon) if you don’t have one yet.
2. Log in to Zimbra. Click on the Preferences tab. In the column on the left, click on Mail.  Scroll down to the "Receiving Messages" section. In the "Forward a copy to" field, enter in the new email address that you want your GC email to forwarded to. Click the box next to "Do not keep a local copy of my messages".  Click save. Now, any incoming GC email will be sent to your new email address.
3. To inform others of your new address, Log in to Zimbra. Click on the Preferences tab. In the column on the left, click on Mail. In the "Receiving Messages" section, click the box to enable the "Send auto-reply message," then type into the message window your message containing your new email address.  Set the starting time (this is up to you) and end time (six months after your last day of classes). click on Save.
4. Also, be sure to forward to your new email account any current email messages you will need.

To Archive your old email (Windows users):

1. Install Thunderbird on your personal windows computer. Do this while your email account is still active.  Follow the instructions here
2. Thunderbird will have both IMAP folders and Local Folders. Your email that is on the Goshen College email server is located in the IMAP folders area. Anything that you place in the Local Folders area will be located on your computer's hard drive.
3. To archive your email off of the Goshen College server you will need to "move" those messages from IMAP to Local Folders.  Note that folders that contain email messages cannot be moved. Only individual messages can be moved.  If you wish to file the messages into folders in the Local Folders area, you will need to first create new folders under Local Folders, and then move the messages.

To Archive your old email (Mac users):

1. While your email account is still active, configure Mac Mail using the instructions provided at http://www.goshen.edu/zimbra/Zimbra_Help/Mac_Screenshots If you have already configured Mail to retrieve your messages, you may skip to step 2
2. When you are finished step 1 and have downloaded your email, right click (ctrl-click) on your Goshen email Inbox and select "Archive Mailbox." Save to whatever location you wish. The archive may take some time. Check the progress by selecting Window > Activity in Mail.
3. If you have any folders in your Goshen email account, complete step 2 for each of the folders. Don't forget to archive your Sent mail folder if you wish to do so.
4. To view your archived messages, import them into Mac Mail or whatever email client you wish. To import them into Mac Mail, open Mail and select File > Import Mailboxes. Choose type Apple Mail, select Continue, and choose an archived mailbox from step 2 or 3. It will then appear in Mac Mail under a folder named Import. These messages are now stored locally on your computer.

Remove yourself from Listservs
Remember to remove yourself from all GC listservs you no longer want to receive mail from before leaving. Log into GC Online and click on the Email List Services/Subscriptions link. Follow the steps to unsubscribe from the lists.

Keep a Copy of  M:\My Documents

Your M: drive will be disabled six months after your last day of class.  You’ll want to download the content of your My Document folder and personal web pages to a personal disk. You can either copy the content to your personal computer's hard drive, or you can burn it onto a CD or a DVD. You can also access and download M: Drive content from off-campus at https://goshenvpn.goshen.edu/cgi-bin/welcome/GCFile-Online All files in your My Documents folder will be permanently deleted one year after your last class. Click here if you need assistance.

 
Keep a Copy of your Web Pages

Be sure to copy all your files in M:\Web Pages\mypages to CD or DVD.  From off-campus, you can access and download M: Drive content at https://goshenvpn.goshen.edu/cgi-bin/welcome/GCFile-Online  Click here if you need assistance.   You will be able to edit your web pages for six months, and they will be viewable for one year.  After that, they will be deleted from the web server.

Take Advantage of Student Discounts on Computing Products

Through the Microsoft Student Select Program, currently enrolled students are able to purchase Microsoft products at a savings of over 85% off the retail price. Take advantage of the discount before you graduate! Click here for more information.

Other software titles can be purchased from the college bookstore, or online from JourneyEd, Academic Superstore, or Apple.  You can also receive educational discounts on computers and peripherals from Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Apple.

Alumni Services - Stay in touch with alumni through our online community

The Alumni Office understands that along with an excellent education and life-changing values, you are leaving Goshen College with special relationships--relationships you want to endure long after you and your classmates have scattered across the globe. That's why we have created a special online community just for Goshen College alumni. Register at
http://mygc.goshen.edu/alumni/Home  and you will be able to update your contact information, search for friends, network with alumni you've never met, post your own news or read news from classmates.