Students - Email

Your Columbia UNI account serves as your official academic email address. You are required to check it regularly.

If you have not yet activated your email account you will need to go to the myUNI web site. Here are some important things to know about activating your UNI account:

• UNI = Email - your UNI (University Network ID) will be the first part of your Columbia email address, immediately prior to the @columbia.edu.
• Finding your UNI - if you do not know your UNI yet, you can search for it by typing your name into the Forgot your UNI? field in the middle of the Manage My UNI page.
• Activating your account - when you know your UNI, you can select the Activate UNI or Email link to select your password. This will take you directly to pages displaying the Computer and Network Use terms.
• Accepting account terms - you must accept the terms of the Columbia Computer and Network Use Policy if you wish to use your UNI account. Any violations can result in the immediate suspension of your computer account and network access as well as possible academic and legal repercussions. If you ever need to review these policies please see the Computing, Network and Information Policies page.
• Choosing a password - Be sure to follow the instructions on the Activate your UNI page, including all 3 required rules for picking your password:
• It must be between 6 and 8 characters
• It must include a mixture of letters and non-letters (numbers, special characters)
• It cannot be close to any term found in the dictionary
Remember to always keep your UNI password secret - you are responsible for your account. If you share your password with anyone, your account may be suspended or permanently invalidated.
• Do Not Set Automatic Email Forwarding - CUMC students must not configure automatic email forwarding their institutional email to an external account including Gmail, Yahoo mail, etc. Severe legal and financial fines can be incurred if sensitive data is released, see the Email Policies page for details.
• Other UNI based resources - your UNI and the password you select will also be your logon to a variety of resources such as Student Services Online, Library E-Resources, your Columbia personal home pages, and much more.
• Problems activating your account - if you receive an error and cannot resolve the problem by trying again, please contact us with the exact error message for assistance. The CUMC IT Service Desk can be reached seven days a week at (212) 305-4357, or via 5help@columbia.edu
• How soon can I use my account? - your Columbia email account should be active within 24 hours. You can access it via Columbia's web based email, CubMail, but should set up a secure email program such as Outlook on your computer. For configuration instructions please select the link to the program you wish to use on the Email Software Titles page.

Email Tips and Tricks

Email and UNI account technical support
Please note that many of the web sites linked here in reference to your email and UNI account are found within Columbia University's undergraduate Computing web site, but as CUMC students, faculty or staff you should contact the CUMC IT Service Desk with your questions or issues. Although CUIT on the Morningside campus manages the Columbia email servers, the CUMC IT Service Desk is the primary technical support group for the Medical Center campus and will have the necessary answers and access to troubleshoot and resolve any problems you may encounter.

What should I do if I forget my password?
Contact the Service Desk at (212) 305-4357 or come by the 2nd floor of the Hammer Building for a password reset. Proof of identification will be required. After your password is reset you can use the Forgot your password online form to choose a new password and immediately access your account again.

Managing your email account
The Manage My UNI page (http://cuit.columbia.edu/cuit/manage-my-uni) allows you to manage many aspects of your account, including:

• Changing your password
• Setting up an automatic Vacation or "Away" message
• Email filtering to automatically sort your messages
• Check your quota - the amount of space you are using on the Columbia mail servers - and request an upgrade if necessary.
• As stated above, CUMC students must not set automatic email forwarding even though the option is available within myUNI.

Please follow the links and instructions found on the Manage My UNI web page for all of these individual features.

Using CubMail
CubMail is a web based program for accessing your Columbia email account. You can quickly access it from any Internet-connected computer and web browser. Please note that CubMail does not fully meet CUMC IT email security standards. CubMail is also does not offer the advanced features of an email program such as Outlook.

Setting up an email program
The majority of available email programs should work with your Columbia email account, however we strongly recommend that you use Outlook Professional in order to meet best security practices. Both are free for current CUMC students under Columbia's site license with Microsoft.

POP or IMAP?
POP and IMAP refer to two different ways an email program can access your account. CUMC IT strongly recommends configuring your email program as IMAP and using locally stored email folders to save and sort email. In short, IMAP accounts leave messages on the Columbia mail servers by default, which means you can access them from more than one computer. It also means that messages lost due to a computer crash have a better chance of being restored, since the Columbia mail servers are backed up regularly.
If you use IMAP, you will eventually have to store messages on your computer rather than the mail servers if you surpass your default account quota of 250MB. Most people find that it is easy and very useful to create and use local email folders within their email program.

Using folders to store email
Most email programs allow you to create folders where you can sort and store messages according to your own preferences. Folders generally makes it easier to find old messages and helps you avoid using up all of your allotted space on the Columbia mail servers. Moving a message to a folder can be as easy as dragging it from your Inbox or wherever it currently resides to another folder, or you can set up filters and rules to automatically move messages based on the sender, any text within the message, and other options.
Since each email program is different, please select the link for your program on the Email Software Titles site and look for information on storing messages within the installation or configuration instructions. You can also contact the Service Desk at extension 5-Help (212-305-4357) option 5 for more help.

How much space do I have in my email account?
By default, new Columbia email accounts have 250MB of email storage. If you exceed this storage you can request an account upgrade for more space. At Manage My UNI you can check your quota (how much storage space you are using) and automatically upgrade to 1GB of space if needed.

More email answers
Please read our Email FAQs for more information.