Access to Deceased Employee Email Account

In the event of the untimely passing of a UMD faculty or staff member, DIT can provide the following access to the deceased employee's UMD email account. 

• Delegated access to the active account can be provided until it is suspended in the system. 
• Copies of account contents (email, Drive, etc.) can be provided to family (if requested) and department representatives as approved by the department. Accounts may be copied several weeks after becoming inactive.

DIT can only provide this access while the account is active in the Student Information System (SIS) and/or Payroll Human Resources (PHR) system. When an account has been deactivated and removed from SIS/PHR, delegated access will be removed as well. 

Auto-Reply Message for Deceased Employee

DIT also recommends that custodians of the deceased employee's email account construct an auto-reply message to inform correspondents of the situation. A sample auto-reply message is provided below:

“It is with great sadness that we inform you _____________, died on __________(date). More information can be found at: __________ [if a university death announcement was published]. If you would like to have your email handled by another staff or faculty member for a response, please forward your message to __________ at _______________. If your message is of a personal nature, please contact ________ via ___________ Thank you.”

Support Services

Need assistance with accessing a deceased employee email account? Contact the Service Desk. 

Need assistance with questions on policy and procedure regarding deceased employees? Contact the University Human Resources office.