Primary Email Change Informed Consent

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Purpose

This article aims to provide a clear and comprehensive guide on the steps required to change a primary email address at Vanderbilt University. It offers alternative options, highlights potential drawbacks, and outlines the necessary steps to address any issues that may arise during the process.

Your VUIT Technician will ask for your confirmation and agreement to the information herein prior to completing your primary email address change.

Target Audience

Vanderbilt University Community
- Faculty and Staff
- Undergraduate Students
- Graduate and Professional Students

Information regarding changing your Primary Email Address

Your main (or “primary”) Vanderbilt email address is a very important part of your online identity. In addition to your Vanderbilt email messages originating from your primary email address, this address is also used to log in to your Microsoft Office 365.

Because of these three important uses of your primary email address, we recommend that you avoid changing it if at all possible. The process is cumbersome and involves downtime for you and for those with whom you collaborate.

Alternatives to changing your Primary Email Address

Two alternatives to changing your primary email address are:

Add an alias email address
Change your display name

Your Vanderbilt email account can only have one primary email address. However, you can add one or more “alias” email addresses to your account. Email messages and calendar appointments sent TO any of your addresses (primary or alias) will be delivered to your mailbox. Any email messages and calendar appointments sent FROM you will come from your primary email address.

Here’s an example:

Display Name: Elizabeth Sendas*	This is the name that will be seen in areas such as the Global Address List (GAL), and will appear next to your primary email address when you send emails.
Primary Email Address: elizabeth.r.sendas@vanderbilt.edu	Emails can be sent to this address and will always come from this address
Alias Email Address: beth.sendas@vanderbilt.edu	Emails can be sent to this address, but no email will come from an alias

* In addition to (or instead of) adding an alias, you can also change your “display name.” In the example above, the Display Name could easily be changed to “Beth Sendas.”

To Create an Email Alias or to Change your Display Name

You can add an email alias or set your display name using the corresponding links here: VU Identity

Click the "hamburger" icon.
Select "End User Tools".
Select "Add Email Alias" or "Set Preferred Display Name"
Follow the prompts to make your desired changes.

Preferred Display Name: Users can only update their First Name part of their display name.

Email Alias: You can add up to 2 additional email aliases that will deliver mail to your mailbox, but will not be available to send from.

To Change your Primary Email Address

Warning: If you choose to proceed with changing your primary email address, you will need to complete the steps below to assure that your Vanderbilt email and Office 365 continue to work as expected. (However, depending on the services you use, some of these steps may not apply.) We recommend that you contact your local IT support team before proceeding.

Place a Service Request (or respond to an existing Service request) confirming that you have read and understood the following actions that will need to be taken upon completion of a primary email address change.

Actions You Will Need to Take

Microsoft Office

Once you have changed your primary email address, you will use your new email address to log in to your Microsoft Office 365 account (www.office.com).
Outlook
- Once in Office 365, log out and log back in to your Outlook client.
Office Desktop
- Log out and log back in to Office ProPlus clients (e.g. Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and Word).
- You may also need to remove and re-add connected services like OneDrive or SharePoint.
- Any shortcuts to, or recent documents in, your Vanderbilt OneDrive space will need to be updated.
SharePoint
- As above, your login for SharePoint online will change to your primary email address.
- Test any Microsoft Flows or PowerApps you have created or interact with to determine impact.
OneDrive
- Logging out and logging back in may be required to assure files you are syncing to your Vanderbilt OneDrive remain synced.
- Links shared externally (i.e., with non-Vanderbilt University email addresses) will need to be re-shared.
OneNote
- Close and re-open notebooks stored in your Vanderbilt OneDrive space to assure that none of your changes are lost.

Box.com

Your Box.com account will need to be linked to your new primary email address.
This will be handled by IT as a part of this process.

ListServ (optional, may not apply to all users)

If you use Vanderbilt’s Listserv mailing list service, your address will need to be updated to assure that you can manage your lists.
Notify your technician if this is relevant in order to get necessary changes applied.

Update Print and Digital Reference to your Email Address (optional, may not apply to all users)

If you wish to standardize the email address you share with others, consider updating print and digital references. (Business cards, resumes, CVs, letterhead, email signature, social media contact info, online accounts, website registration, etc.)

Zoom

If you have a Vanderbilt Zoom account registered with your previous email address, once you log on to https://vanderbilt.zoom.us/ again with your new credentials a NEW account will be created, and you will lose access to previously scheduled meetings and/or webinars. After you have created a new account, if you would like your old account merged with the new one, please notify your technician.

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