Within the Department, there are two separate account domains. One is isolated in room 002, and is for use in introductory level courses. The other is for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses, and for graduate and faculty research. All public machines not located in room 002 constitute the latter domain.

To request a new account, login to any Department workstation in the appropriate domain as "newuser" with no password. This begins an interactive application process, during which questions related to your status with the College and the nature of your account request will be posed. Within one full business day, the administration staff will review your request and either open the account or reject the request. If the account is not available within 24 hours (excluding weekends and holidays), contact technical support.

Undergraduate students are issued 200MB of backed-up disk quota. Accounts for declared concentrators persist until graduation; non-majors' accounts expire semesterly.

Graduate students are issued 200MB of backed-up disk quota. Accounts persist until graduation, with the exception that graduating doctoral students retain accounts for one additional year. Upon entering Ph.D. candidacy, graduate students may request an increase in quota to 1GB.

Faculy members are issued 2GB of backed-up disk quota. Accounts persist until the individual leaves the Department.

Invited guests may obtain access to Department resources by applying for a temporary account. A Faculty member must sponsor the application. Guests are issued 200MB of backed-up disk quota. Guest accounts are deleted without being archived when the individual leaves the department.

Excepting Faculty members and graduate students known to be continuing as TAs that require 002 accounts, all accounts in the 002 domain are deleted semesterly without being archived. Accounts in the general domain will be archived to DVD before being deleted. Account deletion occurs semesterly, within one month of, but not less than one week after, the end of final exams. Barring any physical destruction of archive media, account archives will be available by request for at least two years after deletion. The availability of accounts that have been expired for more than two years cannot be guaranteed.

What follows is the official policy passed by the Department Systems Committee regarging account deletion:

Departmental accounts are intended for declared undergraduate concentrators, graduate students, faculty and staff. These accounts are persistent as long as the individual maintains his or her association with the Department. The account of an individual who does not fall into one of the above categories is temporary and will be deleted at the end of the semester in which the temporary account is active.

A faculty member may extend the account of a recently-completed undergraduate or M.S. student for one semester; a faculty member may extend the account of a recently-completed Ph.D. student for one year. A petition to the Department Equipment Committee is required for account retention outside the scope of the above extensions. A petition is also required for the creation and retention of an account for any individual without a formal association with the department.