By Carla Carlson

In late August, I set up a Zoom meeting that was to be held September 3 for a fundraising discussion with a national nonprofit that I work with as a volunteer. There were to be about 15 people in the meeting, including the national executive director.

When I went to open the meeting as host, the system would not let me in. After several unsuccessful attempts, I called the IT Help line and was told that access to Zoom for former faculty and staff ended on August 31.

Luckily, a colleague quickly launched another Zoom invitation, and we were able to conduct the meeting as planned.

Here’s what I was told in a follow-up email from IT:

Hello Carla,
As of August 28, 2020 the University of Minnesota is no longer providing access to Zoom accounts for previous Student, Staff, Faculty or Retired who no longer have a current role with the University. We encourage users to sign up for a Basic account directly with Zoom with a non UMN email address. Features of those accounts can be found at https://zoom.us/pricing.

You can also check Account End of Life Reference Guides … and check to determine if Google Meet may also be an option.

This change was necessary due to Zoom licensing limits which are needed to support those who have Current Student, Staff, Faculty or Departmental account status.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
University of Minnesota Technology Help

I received a few check-in responses from IT staffers who, I think, were going the extra mile to be helpful. I was aware that some of my retired colleagues were able to continue using the U’s Zoom account, so I contacted IT again in mid-November to verify the impact of this change specifically on retirees.

IT responded: “Unfortunately, the same situation would apply for recent retirees. We're definitely happy to help troubleshoot and otherwise support retired users with Zoom.”

—Carla Carlson joined UMRA in October 2020 after retiring from the University as senior consultant in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost.