Alumni Google Account Deactivation

Google Workspaces accounts are provided to students to support their academic work at Biola University. Once a student graduates or withdraws, their account is deactivated and permanently deleted.

This article explains the university's policy for alumni Google accounts, outlines the timeline for account deletion, and provides essential steps for updating your contact information and saving your data from your biola.edu email and Google Drive before access is removed and the data is irrevocably deleted.

At the end of each academic year, Information Technology will delete biola.edu email accounts and Google Drive data for any student who left the university more than 18 months prior to the scheduled date of deletion. This means most Biola graduates or students who withdraw for the unviersity will retain their account for 18-24 months after their departure date, depending on the date of their final term. There are two exceptions to this policy:

• F1 Visa International Students: International students will retain their biola.edu Google Workspace account for approximately 38 months after their final enrolled term.
• 3+2 Engineering Students: These students will retain their Workspace account for approximately 38 months after their final enrolled term at Biola.

As an alumni, if you choose to re-apply for additional continuing education at the university prior to your scheduled deletion then your account will remain active.

For example, if a student graduates in Spring 2023 then their account will be deleted in Fall 2024. However, if they chose to apply for a graduate program in September 2024 but ultimately declined to enroll, then their account would remain active until Spring 2026.

The Biola University Alumni Office will notify former students about their scheduled account deletion approximately 6 months prior to deletion, and again approximately 6 weeks prior to deletion.

Once your account is scheduled for deletion, it will first be deactivated for approximately 60 days. During this time, a recently deactivated account may be temporarily reactivated. This is an involved process and requires manual intervention from an IT Technician. As such, Biola IT will only reactivate accounts for extenuating circumstances.

After the 60 day deactivation period, the account is automatically deleted. Google allows deleted accounts to be recovered for 20 days after the deletion date. On the 21st day after deletion, account data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. There is nothing that Biola IT can do to recover your data once your account is permanently deleted.

You may either transfer your data to a personal Google account, or download your data to your personal computer. 

Keeping your contact information up to date with Biola is very important, especially your personal email. This information is key if you want to access any Biola services in the future such as transcripts, information for taxes, access to the BiolaHub, or Library alumni benefits.

Please follow these steps to update your contact information on Biola's database:

1. Go to myaccount.biola.edu.
2. Log in with your prior Biola email address as a username and password.
3. Click on the Personal Information tab.
4. Click Edit on any sections that you need to update, such as your personal email address.
5. Click Update.

Biola University also sends regular communication to Alumni with news, events, and exclusive opportunities for alumni.

Upon graduation with withdrawal from the university, students are also encouraged to update their personal email address and contact information to stay connected with Biola University.

• View our FAQ page here: Biola Alumni Google Account Support FAQ
• If you are unable to set up Microsoft Mulitifactor Authentication: visit this page here