During the Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters, the university is making some changes to the student email environment to ensure that the TERPmail and UMD Gmail systems are used for official communications to undergraduate and graduate students. These changes will prevent situations that have occurred in the past where university information was not delivered to some students who had their university email delivered to inactive non-university accounts.
UMD Student Email Environment
For undergraduate students, the university provides the TERPmail system for academic and personal use. UMD students keep their TERPmail accounts after graduating from the university. UMD Gmail faculty/staff accounts are also available when appropriate for business use for some undergraduate students employed by the university who may conduct university business via email, and those accounts must be sponsored by the supervisor and renewed regularly.
For graduate students, the university automatically provides UMD Gmail faculty/staff accounts, because so many are employed as teaching, research, and administrative assistants, and the IT Standard on Institutional Email requires that university business be conducted via UMD Gmail. Because UMD students may keep their TERPmail accounts after graduating from the university, TERPmail accounts are also provided for graduate students.
Both TERPmail and UMD Gmail are Google Workspace for Education systems, and they offer email, calendar, and collaboration features. For students who may have both a UMD Gmail and a TERPmail account, find out how to view multiple Gmail inboxes simultaneously.
Changes Completed in December 2021
TERPmail accounts were created for all current students who had not already created their own. Even though UMD Gmail is the official university account for graduate students, TERPmail accounts were also created for them so that they can keep a UMD account after graduation.
Changes Coming for Current Students February 16, 2022
To ensure timely delivery of university information to students, starting February 16, 2022, every student will receive university email communications at their university-provided email account. This change will prevent situations that have occured in the past where university information was not delivered to some students who had their university email delivered to inactive non-university accounts.
Currently, students can set any email address as their preferred email address in Testudo, and mail sent to their DirectoryID@umd.edu email address will be forwarded there.
Undergraduate Students
On February 16, your contact information in Testudo will be set to point email to your TERPmail account, unless you have a sponsored UMD Gmail account for university business. If you have a sponsored UMD Gmail account, that will be set as the destination for your email in Testudo.
If the scheduled change is inconvenient for you, you may update your email address in Testudo to point to your TERPmail address at your convenience before February 16, 2022.
Graduate Students
On February 16, all forwarding addresses will be set to point email to UMD Gmail accounts for graduate students.
If this schedule is inconvenient for you, you may update your email address in Testudo to point to your UMD Gmail address at your convenience before February 16, 2022.
Incoming Students
Beginning with students admitted for Fall 2022, all new students will be automatically given a TERPmail account when they accept admission to UMD. This account will be treated as the official university email address for academic and personal use for undergraduate students after they register for classes.
You can learn more about TERPmail by reviewing the TERPmail FAQ. If you have any questions, please contact the IT Service Desk.