Obtaining Computer Accounts at WWU

General Information on Automated Accounts Creation

This document relates to employee type accounts only. This document is intended to provide general information about the Account Creation and Account Closure procedures for employee type accounts.

Eligibility: who is eligible?
How Accounts are created: employee and non employee types
How to get your accounts working: activating your accounts
Banner/Famis Special Accounts: access to central business systems accounts
Status Change: status change - employee becomes a student or student becomes an employee
Employee Checkout: upon your departure from the institution
Accounts Removal:the deleting of accounts process

Who is eligible?
You must be a current student employee, staff, faculty, emeritus of the University or working with an academic department to receive employee computer accounts. In special circumstances, accounts are issued for non employees.

Getting Your Accounts
New Employees -  Your hiring official will complete the hiring paperwork commonly referred to as the "PA" (Personnel Action) form.  Upon receiving the completed PA form, Human Resources will enter the required data elements (Name, SSN, Birthdate, Gender, Mailstop, Department, Phone Number, Room or Office Number) into the Banner personnel system to initiate the account creation process.  Once all of the required information has been entered into the system, your W# (Western ID) and userid (universal login account name) are automatically assigned. Your computer accounts will automatically be created overnight. Your supervisor will be notified via a system notification message when your administrative computer accounts have been created.

Returning Employees - If your previous accounts were deleted and you require your accounts on or prior to the first day of of your return to work at WWU, your hiring official: supervisor, dean, department head or director must submit the Account Request form prior to your return to work located at https://west.wwu.edu/admcs/forms/default.aspx to expedite the creation and  the processing of your computer accounts.  Your supervisor will be notified when your administrative computer accounts have been created.

Student Employees - Student employee accounts are separate from student computer accounts at WWU.  Student employee accounts are requested by their supervisor. Students may be given access to administrative functions which allow them to perform the critical elements of their jobs. Access to departmental resources are granted only as part of their employment. Student employee accounts are revoked upon termination of employment however, student accounts are not affected by employment status.  Their supervisor will be notified that your administrative computer accounts have automatically been created.

Non-Employee Accounts - non-employee accounts are for a group of people who work at Western but are not paid by Western e.g. persons who work for Dining Services. Other groups include volunteers of various types, state auditors and vendors. These accounts are requested by and sponsored by department heads or directors. The sponsors are required to submit the Departmental Sponsorship of Computer Accounts for Non-Employee esign form located at https://west.wwu.edu/admcs/forms/default.aspx. The sponsor will be notified when the administrative computer accounts have been created.

Account Activation, Pin and Password Information
Once your accounts are created, your supervisor should notify you that your accounts exist. You must activate them at https://www.wwu.edu/webactivate/  in order to use them. To activate your new employee computer account you will need to use your W# and pin. Your W# is an 8 digit number preceded by the letter W for use with WWU systems, example W00009999.  Your hiring official will notify you of your W number and the pin # schema. Once entered, you will be prompted to read and agree to the Code for Responsible Computing document. At the time of activation you will be given your userid (e.g. login name = smithj)  and you will establish a universal password.  This password can be changed at any anytime.  Click on the link titled "Reset your Universal ID and Password" on the ATUS Universal Password Change Page link http://west.wwu.edu/atus/web/password.shtml. If you need additional assistance with your pin, please contact the ATUS Accounts at 360.650.4444. 

Banner/Famis High Security Accounts
Banner/FAMIS Account Access. Additional High Security accounts may be requested for you during your employment at WWU.  One such account is the Hydra/Banner/FAMIS Login Request found at:  https://www.wwu.edu/empactivate/index.jsp which provides account access to specific Banner applications such as Student, Finance and HR.  The first step in gaining access to restricted systems requires that your supervisor, department head or director  fill out and submit the Hydra/Banner Login Request form. The second step is obtaining permissions to the necessary database from the custodian of the data (listed at the top of the banner request) - and in most cases your supervisor will need to submit a second esign form to the custodian of the Banner data.  All requests for Banner access must be signed by a departmental chair, director, dean or supervisor.  Please direct any questions you may have about this process to the ATUS Accounts at 360.650.4444. 

Status Change
WWU Students who become WWU Employees - If you transition from WWU student to WWU employee your accounts are required to undergo a "context" change. Before your student accounts have been closed, you may wish to preserve your student files and accounts.  Your hiring supervisor will need to authorize the context change using the Account Request esign form located at https://west.wwu.edu/admcs/forms/default.aspx.  Please make sure you indicate whether or not your student files will need to be saved.

Employees who become students - Will also require a "context" change.  Your access to employee accounts such as Banner/FAMIS will be removed if you are not to be employed as a student employee by your current department. Your Outlook email account will be removed therefore you should save any emails you wish to retain. In lieu of the Outlook account you will get a student Unix email account. Please read the Accounts Removal and Employee Checkout portions of this document to help facilitate your department prior to your departure.

Employee Checkout.
For all other accounts such as Novell, Outlook, Titan and any other computer accounts you may have acquired, they will be placed on hold once the HR PA form has been submitted indicating that your employment record has been terminated or at the time when an Employee Checkout form has been received by ATUS Accounts.  You will be sent an email notification indicating that your employee accounts will be removed within 7 days of the the email notification.  An Accounts Delete Request esign form will be sent to your employer requesting a confirmation of our intent to remove all computer access. Upon receipt of that confirmation, your accounts will be removed.

Accounts Removal
When you know that you will be leaving the university, you should plan for this transition. Involve your supervisor in your planning for there are several details to be aware of beyond email issues. For those associates assuming your responsibilities, plan to download non sensitive important files that you have stored on WWU servers to share with them. It is best that you move the files to a sharable folder providing those associates access to those files.  For those files saved on your desktop hard drive: save those files e.g. spreadsheets that may possibly contain sensitive data to a network server drive or delete the files if they are not to be intended to be shared with others. If you do not have permissions to set up a shareable folder on the network server you will require the assistance of a technical support person that supports your department's area.

During the time your accounts remain active, you can use the auto-reply feature to automatically respond to incoming email notifying the senders of your new off campus email accounts or to remind them whom they may contact within your office when you are no longer available.  Once your email account is closed, mail to your account will bounce back to sender as undeliverable. 

High security accounts such as Banner/Famis are usually closed at the end of your last working day at WWU.  Discuss with your supervisor whether there is a need to transfer ownership of any of your high security files to another associate before your leaving. You should also consult with your departmental supervisor about how to best transfer your duties and permissions to another associate in your department.

This is a summary of the overall account generation and closure process for WWU employees only.  Questions should be directed to the ATUS Accounts at 360.650.4444. .

Contact ADMCS: E-mail , Other
Send comments to: Bob Schneider,  Director ADMCS