Students - Email

Your Columbia UNI account serves as your official academic email address. It is vital that you check it regularly, or you may configure email forwarding if you wish to receive Columbia related emails at a different address.

If you have not yet activated your email account you will need to go to the myUNI web site. Here are some important things to know about activating your UNI account:

• UNI = Email - your UNI (University Network ID) will be the first part of your Columbia email address, immediately prior to the @columbia.edu.
• Finding your UNI - if you do not know your UNI yet, you can search for it by typing your name into the Forgot your UNI? field in the middle of the myUNI page.
• Activating your account - when you know your UNI, you can select the Activate a NEW UNI Account link to select your password. This will take you directly to pages displaying the Computer and Network Use terms.
• Accepting account terms - you must accept the terms of the Columbia Computer and Network Use Policy if you wish to use your UNI account. Any violations can result in the immediate suspension of your computer account and network access as well as possible academic and legal repercussions. If you ever need to review these policies please see the Computing, Network and Information Policies page; CUMC students must also be aware of policies regarding email forwarding.
• Choosing a password - Be sure to follow the instructions on the Activate your UNI page, including all 3 required rules for picking your password:
• It must be between 6 and 8 characters
• It must include a mixture of letters and non-letters (numbers, special characters)
• It cannot be close to any term found in the dictionary

Remember to always keep your UNI password secret - you are responsible for your account. If you share your password with anyone, your account may be suspended or permanently invalidated.

• Other UNI based resources - your UNI and the password you select will also be your logon to a variety of resources such as Student Services Online, Library Digital Collections, your Columbia personal home pages, and much more.
• Problems activating your account - if you receive an error and cannot resolve the problem by trying again, please contact us with the exact error message for assistance. The CUMC IT Service Desk can be reached seven days a week at (212) 305-4357, or via 5help@columbia.edu
• How soon can I use my account? - your Columbia email account should be active within 24 hours. You can access it via our web based email, CubMail, and can also set up an email program such as Outlook or Thunderbird on your computer. For configuration instructions please select the link to the program you wish to use on the Email Software Titles page.

Email Tips and Tricks

Email and UNI account technical support

Please note that many of the web sites linked here in reference to your email and UNI account are found within Columbia University's main Email and Computing web site, but as CUMC students, faculty or staff you should contact the CUMC IT Service Desk with your questions or issues. CUIT on the Morningside campus manages the Columbia email servers, yet the CUMC IT Service Desk is the primary technical support group for the Medical Center campus and will have the necessary answers and access to troubleshoot and resolve any problems you may encounter.

What should I do if I forget my password?

Contact the Service Desk at (212) 305-4357 or come by the 2nd floor of the Health Sciences Library for a password reset. Proof of identification will be required. After your password is reset you can use the Forgot your password online form to choose a new password and immediately access your account again.

Managing your email account

The myUNI page (http://uni.columbia.edu) allows you to manage many aspects of your account, including:

• Changing your password
• Setting up an automatic Vacation or "Away" message
• Email filtering to automatically sort your messages
• Check your quota - the amount of space you are using on the Columbia mail servers - and request an upgrade if necessary.

You can also check your printing page quota and purchase printing pages from myUNI. Please follow the instructions found at myUNI for all of these individual features, you will need to login first.

Using CubMail

CubMail is the web based program for accessing your Columbia email account. You can quickly access it from any Internet-connected computer and web browser. If you don't know the exact link for CubMail you can simply go to www.columbia.edu, select the Email and Computing link in the blue navigation bar at the left, and then select the CubMail link found under the Quicklinks heading.

CubMail is not a full featured email program like Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail, but it does allow you to create address books and create your own folders as well as send and receive email. For detailed information on using CubMail please see About CubMail, the CubMail Tutorial, and CubMail FAQs.

Setting up an email program

The majority of available email programs should work with your Columbia email account, however we strongly recommend that you choose one of the supported programs on the Email Software Titles page. To download, install and configure an email program please select the appropriate link listed on that page, and contact the CUMC IT Service Desk at extension 5-Help (212-305-4357) with any questions or problems.

POP or IMAP?

POP and IMAP refer to two different ways an email program can access your account. CUMC IT strongly recommends configuring your email program as IMAP and then using locally stored email folders to save and sort email. In short, IMAP accounts leave messages on the Columbia mail servers by default, which means you can access them from more than one computer. It also means that messages lost due to a computer crash have a better chance of being restored, since the Columbia mail servers are backed up regularly.
If you use IMAP, you will eventually have to store messages on your computer rather than the mail servers if you surpass your default account quota of 250MB. Most people find that it is easy and very useful to create and use local email folders within their email program.

Using folders to store email

The vast majority of email programs allow you to create folders where you can sort and store messages according to your own preferences. Using folders generally makes it easier to find old email messages and helps you avoid using up all of your allotted space on the Columbia mail servers. Moving a message to a folder can be as easy as dragging it from your Inbox or wherever it currently resides to another folder, or you can set up filters and rules to automatically move messages based on the sender, any text within the message, and other options.
Since each email program is different, please select the link for your program on the Email Software Titles site and look for information on storing messages within the installation or configuration instructions. You can also contact the Service Desk at extension 5-Help (212-305-4357) for more help.

How much space do I have in my email account?

By default, new Columbia email accounts have 250MB of email storage. If you exceed this storage you can request an account upgrade for more space. At myUNI you can check your quota (how much storage space you are using) and automatically upgrade to 1GB of space if needed.
Previously, Columbia email accounts had a default quota of 40MB. By this summer all existing email accounts should have been moved to the new Cyrus email system and have the higher default quota of 250MB.

What is Cyrus?

Cyrus is the most recent email system for Columbia. Migration to Cyrus began in the Fall of 2005 in order to provide better performance, faster response time, and more storage space for your mail. All accounts that were created before Fall of 2005 should be moved to Cyrus by Summer of 2006; new accounts are automatically created on Cyrus.
More information can be found at the Cyrus web site.

More email answers

Please read our Email FAQs for more information.