FAQs

ABOUT THE UPGRADE

ICIT will be upgrading your Hunter College Outlook email account to Microsoft Office365 Outlook email. This upgrade includes access to Microsoft Office365 (M365), a suite of cloud-based software products including Outlook email, MS-Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, OneDrive storage, and others. As a cloud-based solution, Office365 allows you to run these programs, as well as access your files, from anywhere with an internet connection.

Office365 provides increased reliability, comprehensive cybersecurity features including Multi-Factor Authentication, and enhanced accessibility features. You will be provided with a total of 1TB of storage which includes 100GB allocated for your email account. All CUNY colleges will transition to Microsoft Office365 before the Fall 2023 semester. For people working at multiple CUNY Colleges Office365 Outlook email will allow you to consolidate all your email into a single mailbox.

You will keep your current Hunter College email address, but accessing your Microsoft Office365 account will be done using your CUNYfirst login credentials. After the upgrade, you will use FirstName.LastNameXX@Login.CUNY.Edu and your CUNYfirst Password. See below for important information on accessing M365 email in the Microsoft cloud.

Student ‘myHunter’ email will remain as is and separate from faculty/staff email.

FAQs

What is being done?
The current on-site email system will transition to the Microsoft 365 (M365) cloud-based email system.

Why is it being done?
The primary motive for this change is for the security and confidentiality of information as well as greater email storage and other Microsoft cloud app benefits. See the ‘Resources and Guides’ page for more information.

What are the most important points to know?

You will retain your @hunter.cuny.edu for email sent to you.
If you work at more than one college, your primary address for sending email will be connected to the CUNY college of primary affiliation.
Multi-Factor authentication will be required for access to M365 and email.
Existing email accounts retain their current usernames. However, Hunter email accounts created after the cutover will take the form of CUNYusername@hunter.cuny.edu (eg, thomas.hunter70@hunter.cuny.edu).
Users will still get a Hunter NetID for Wifi and certain local campus applications.

What are the benefits?
The transition to M365 provides increased reliability, enhanced cybersecurity features, efficient single sign on (using CUNYfirst credentials), Microsoft support and accessibility features.

Multi Factor Authentication (MFA) for enhanced account security
Consolidation of login credentials to CUNYfirst login
Integrates with Teams – collaboration, file sharing, unified communication
Larger mailbox (up to 100 GB)
Single mailbox for people working across multiple CUNY Colleges
Security and Maintenance of Cloud environment will be handled by Microsoft

What is Multi-Factor Authentication?

Comprehensive information is available on pages dedicated to this topic on the CUNY website.
For information on setting up the Microsoft Authenticator app on your mobile device, see Download and Install the Microsoft Authenticator App on the Microsoft website.
See also FAQs for Microsoft Multi-Factor Authentication in CUNY IT Help for information specific to the CUNY implementation of Microsoft Multi-factor Authentication.

When will documentation be available?
See the ‘Resources and Guides’ area of the project site. That page will be updated with new and revised information throughout the project.

Will more training be available?
Yes, IT will provide opportunities for training, webinars, and self-help documentation.

Why do I get repeat requests to ‘Authorize’ using an app that I’ve authorized before?
Microsoft MFA will periodically (every week or two) require reauthorizing apps you use.

What happens to new email messages addressed to me before and after the cutover?
Up to the cutover, emails will be delivered to the Exchange system at Hunter. At the time of cutover, all new incoming emails addressed to your Hunter email address will ONLY be sent to your M365 mailbox.

Will my email address(es) change?
Your Hunter email address will remain the same. What will change will be the system and login credentials you use to access your email. Access to email will use your CUNYfirst login credentials (firstname.lastname##@login.cuny.edu).

How will I log into the new system?
You will log in to the new system either through the web interface or Outlook 2021. You will need to login with your CUNYfirst credential in both areas. On initial sign-on with each device, you will need to verify your identity using Multifactor Authentication (MFA).

When can I log into the new system? When will the change occur?
The project plan calls for cutover in summer of 2023. Precise date to be announced.

Will our old emails be transferred or will we lose them? Are we able to keep all emails we have stored?
You will not lose old emails. IT will migrate your mail using a migration tool

Will all our contacts be transferred?
Yes, contacts will be transferred using the migration tool (see previous email migration question).

Will all our calendar appointments be transferred?
Yes, calendar appointments will be transferred using the migration tool (see previous email migration question).

Will the rules I’ve set up in my inbox transfer as well?
Sorry, rules will have to be recreated in the cloud environment.

If a faculty/staff member also has a student account, will their accounts be combined?
Faculty/staff and student accounts will remain separate. Students will continue to log into their myHunter account as they do now. People who are students, as well as employees, may have two separate email accounts, as they do now.

How will retirees access their email?
Emeritus faculty and those with waivers will have email in the new environment, accessed using their CUNY login.

What are some steps that we can take to prepare for the cutover?
See the main page for this site.

What if I do not have a CUNYfirst account?
As of February 2023 Research Foundation employees are automatically added to CUNYfirst. For other non-CUNY employees (Non-Tax Levy, Hunter College Foundation, etc.) who must have Hunter email as part of their work, the hiring area will need to have HR create a Person of Interest (POI) record, and inform IT afterward so that licensing can be provisioned.

Can I still send email from the old servers after the cutover?
No. On the date of implementation/cutover, you can only access new content and send email from your Microsoft 365 account.

Will we be able to use webmail?
Yes, but the new location for Hunter webmail will be https://login.microsoftonline.com/ or https://outlook.office.com.

Will I still be able to use mail merge?
Yes, to send emails to a large number of recipients, senders can use mail merge functionality with content from Microsoft Word.

Is this system accessible?
Yes! One of the wonderful features of Microsoft 365 is its accessibility. Read more about accessibility features here.

What about services that sync with Outlook, like EAB Navigate?
Outlook users will need to resynchronize their calendars with EAB. Instructions will be provided for this via a principal stakeholder at the college.

Will I lose my archived email?
If you have archived email using your old Hunter Exchange account, export the archive to a .PST (Windows). You can then import the .PST file to your CUNY M365 email account. Mac users can use a similar procedure using Outlook to export an .OLM file.