The UH Identity Management System
The University of Hawai'i Identity Management System (UHIMS) collects and consolidates information concerning people associated with the University so that UH may better establish and manage a single, permanent identity for each person. This unique identity enables a person to access all of the appropriate online resources centrally hosted by the University.
Middleware is considered to be software glue that enables disparate administrative applications, such as Banner and PeopleSoft, to work together. UHIMS is middleware. It provides UH the ability to automatically enable and disable access to online resources, such as email, Laulima, eCafe, lab computers, and administrative and student online resources, such as MyUH.
One of the early accomplishments of UHIMS was to establish the UH Number as a replacement for the Social Security Number (SSN) in order to better protect our community members from identity theft; it is no longer appropriate to use the SSN as a unique identifier. The UH Number has been called "employee ID number" and "student ID number". Whether a person is a student, faculty, staff, affiliate, ohana, retiree, or some combination of these, a person's UH Number remains the same. Closely associated with the UH Number is a UH Username. The UH Username is used to establish your email address, and, along with a unique password of your choice, it will be your key to using the University's online resources.
As a member of the UH community, one sometimes traverses many roles (student, faculty, staff, affiliate, retiree, ohana) and, at times, is in multiple roles at once. UHIMS tracks a person's roles to help ensure that each person has access to the appropriate online resources and services. Additionally, UHIMS provides each person with email updates of role changes that might impact one's access to services, listing in the UH Online Directory, etc.
UHIMS implements the following policies as of Spring 2012:
- Students, Faculty, Staff, Retirees and Emeriti, by default, have access to basic online services (see Resources below for links to more information).
- Retirees and Emeriti retain basic online services by subscription; they will receive annual email messages reminding them to confirm renewal for another year.
- Students that do not register for classes for two consecutive (Fall, Spring) semesters, and Faculty and Staff that leave UH (retiring is not quite the same thing) automatically transition to a UHIMS role of ohana and, by default, are granted a 180-day grace period during which continued access to email and other basic online services is provided. During the grace period, the option to enroll in our 'Ohana online services (see Resources below) is provided.
- The option to enroll in our 'Ohana online services is only available during the grace period. The enrollment is retained by annual renewal; reminders to renew will be sent by email.
- The grace period is provided so that data, files, etc. can be archived by the owner and relocated (see Resources below for a link to instructions on saving mail and webpage data to your computer). At the end of the grace period for ohana, all files are deleted from UH servers, which includes personal webpages. Enrollment in our 'Ohana online services will preserve access to the UH email account and all mail data stored there.
- For ohana that do not renew their annual enrollment in our 'Ohana online services, all mail data and folders stored in the UH email account is removed and the UH Username and password are no longer useful.
- For retirees that do not renew their annual subscription for UH basic online services, all files are deleted from disk, including mail folders and personal webpages. The grace period is provided so that data, files, etc can be archived by the owner and relocated (see Resources below for a link to instructions on saving mail and webpage data to your computer).
- For emeriti that do not renew their annual subscription upon expiration, all files are deleted from disk, including mail folders and personal webpages. Exclusive to Emeriti, there is an option to request that personal webpages continue to be preserved for as long as possible for the benefit of the larger academic community. While ITS makes no promises, the content will be left intact and accessible for as long as possible. The department of the faculty member continues to have the option to request that the pages be taken down.
Resources
Your UH Username: http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/719
UH Online Directory: http://www.hawaii.edu/dir
The UH Online Directory and Students: http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/928
Online resources for Faculty and Staff: http://www.hawaii.edu/its/facultystaff.html
Online resources for Students: http://www.hawaii.edu/its/students.html
Online Services for 'Ohana: http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/932
Saving Email and Personal Webpages (Mac OS X): http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/977
Saving Email and Personal Webpages (Windows): http://www.hawaii.edu/askus/978
ITS Help Desk: http://www.hawaii.edu/its/help-desk
