Re: Question on student user accounts

[Bill Frazier <frazier () IASTATE EDU>]

We allow faculty, staff, and students to select the netid they
wish.  It must be three to eight characters long and begin
with an alphabetic.  We do prohibit a few choices for
propriety.  We also allow users to change the id if they wish.
We have found that, over time, most of the less wise choices
do disappear -- especially when the student is about to
graduate and learns that the email address will be given to
recruiters.  If an id is changed, a mail list is automatically
created as the old id with the new as the only member.  If the
person really wants to abandon the old id, he or she can
delete the mail list.

We have about a one year cycle when a person leaves before the
id can be reused.

Our experience has been that the majority of people make
reasonable choices.  We have observed that many want their
id/mailing address to reflect their name and many do not.

Bill

__________________________________________________________________
On Tue, 21 Jun 2005 10:37:04 EDT, "Fretz, Kerry" wrote:

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> --- Begin Message ---
>
>
> Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 10:37:04 -0400
>
> Our institution has been using a specific format for student network
> accounts for many years.  Our format has always been the last name
> followed by a sequential number.  For example, we would use SMITH11,
> SMITH12, SMITH13 with the email set as the same format.  After the user
> would graduate, we would remove the accounts and eventually, the
> username would be reused by another incoming freshman.  This has created
> some issues over the years.
>
>  
>
> I was just curious what you are using for the network username format at
> your institution and what you've found that works well for you.  Do you
> reuse network accounts or do you have a unique username for each student
> coming in?
>
>  
>
> Any input is appreciated.
>
>  
>
> Kerry Fretz
>
> Manager, Network & Systems
>
> Philadelphia University
>
>  
>
>
> --- End Message ---
__________________________________________________________________
Bill Frazier                                 frazier () iastate edu
Assistant Director/Software Support          voice: (515) 294-8620
Iowa State University                        fax:   (515) 294-1717
Academic Information Technologies, 291 Durham, Ames, Iowa 50011