Previously, University email addresses followed the format of firstname.lastname@uconn.edu. In January, we changed the format of all newly created email addresses to NetID@uconn.edu. We made this change for multiple reasons. One of which is because contemporary systems, including Microsoft 365, increasingly use email addresses for identification and authentication. A new email address signals a new person to the system. If existing customers change their email address, they typically lose access to their account and experience other downstream consequences, such as broken links to shared files. Industry best practice is for email addresses to be unique and immutable specifically to avoid these issues and potential data loss. NetIDs satisfied the contemporary needs for email addresses.
We have received strong feedback from our community that firstname.lastname@uconn.edu is preferable for some situations (e.g., networking, business cards, resumes). In response, we are providing all new accounts with an alias based on their legal name. This address can be shared openly with others, and any emails sent to the alias will be properly delivered. Account holders may also request a new alias if they have a life event that affects their name. Their published email, the one they use to log in to Microsoft 365 and other systems, would not change.
We are also enabling the ability to change published (or official) email addresses in the Personal Name Account Administration system (pername.uconn.edu). If a person changes their published address, then it becomes their identifier in Microsoft 365 and the account displayed on incoming and outgoing mail. We do not advocate that UConn users make this change due to the previously described account issues. Instead, we strongly recommend updating the display name because this also appears on outgoing and incoming mail and is, by design, intended for personal information. More information about changing email addresses it is available at: kb.uconn.edu/space/IKB/10744071296