

If you are an admitted or registered student at Purchase College, your college credentials and email account have been created and are ready for you. Your account should be activated right away since you will receive important notices and information from the College via email. The College uses email as its primary communication channel. Activation or use by anyone other than the student is a violation of the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The student's parent(s), guardian(s), family and friends may NOT use this account nor activate it.


Faculty and Staff Employees:
If you are a faculty or staff member, and your appointment paperwork has been completed, your account can be activated. If you are having trouble locating your account to activate it, please contact your hiring department to ensure your appointment has been completed.

Please note: Purchase College login credentials expire at the close of business on their last day of service – unless extension of email privileges is requested by their supervisor when their end-of-service PAF is submitted and the extension request is approved by their sector officer. Faculty and Staff who were previously students will retain their login credentials as students do, but their email mailbox will still be removed on COB LDOS.

Non-Student and Non-Faculty/Staff:
If you are a Research Foundation employee, visitor, contractor, intern, volunteer, or other non-student/faculty/staff category, your sponsoring department/unit is responsible for creating your record in our system. If you are having trouble locating your account to activate it, please contact your sponsor department to ensure your record has been created.

Please note: This account should only be activated and used by the student for whom it is created. Activation or use by anyone other than the student is a violation of the College’s Computer Ethics Policy.


Before Activating your Purchase College Email Account, please review the policy below and agree at bottom.

Purchase College Computer Ethics and Usage Policy

Purchase College network is a private network for the use of our students, faculty, staff, and administrators. With very limited exceptions where special open access is provided to the Internet anyone using our network must authenticate with a Purchase College user name and password.

Users of computer systems and networks at Purchase College must read, understand, and agree to comply with the Purchase College Computing Ethics Policy. You are responsible for your actions. That responsibility exists regardless of what security mechanisms are in place. Unauthorized use of computing facilities will lead to suspension or loss of privilege, and may lead to more serious penalties. All rules and policies of Purchase College must be adhered to by all users of computing and information services at Purchase College. All rights and privileges of all users should be protected.

Do not consider e-mail private or secure. Purchase College does not encrypt e-mail. Mail can be easily intercepted at any machine that it passes through. Mail can be altered and copies can be made and forwarded. Messages sent to nonexistent or incorrect addresses may be delivered to an unintended destination.

The systems administrator(s) at Purchase College has the right to monitor the computer system. The systems administrator has the right to examine user files to diagnose system problems or investigate security breaches.

Internet is not secure. If you are going to transmit sensitive data or files across the Internet you must take precautions to protect it on your own. Data and files can easily be intercepted and read, altered, misused or destroyed at any machine on the Internet that they pass through. In addition, machines attached to Internet are vulnerable. Do not assume your data is safe on your computer if it is directly connected to Internet. Do not store valuable or privileged information on these systems without applying security. If you can't afford to lose it, back it up. If it is information that should never see the light of day, don't store it on a networked computer.

Keep all valuable diskettes and tapes in a secure place. Secure backup copies of valuable files or data off site. When throwing out old diskettes or tapes make sure no sensitive information can be found on them.

Whenever you are shipping software from one place to another, you must consider intellectual property and license issues. The Internet is a global network, and the importing and exporting of software may fall under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Commerce. Exporting anything may require a license. A general license covers anything that is not explicitly restricted, and is readily available in public forums in the United States. The exportation of networking code or encryption code is restricted. You may not allow access to a restricted machine to persons or entities outside of the United States. Please be aware when posting information to a bulletin board, that data will probably cross the border. If you have any questions on the legality of transmissions over the borders of the United States, please seek legal counsel.

Purchase College has joined Internet via an educational connection. Use of the Internet for commercial purposes is not allowed.

The following are considered unacceptable uses of computer systems, and are strictly prohibited

  1. Deceiving a machine. (i.e.: mimicking, imitating or attempting to use an ID other than your own).
  2. Computer fraud (with and without intent to deceive).
  3. Computer damage or destruction.
  4. Offenses against computer users including, but not limited to, harassment.
  5. Unauthorized use of any system.
  6. Modification or destruction of programs or data other than your own personal files.
  7. Use of computer to commit crime (embezzlement, harassment, blackmail etc.)
  8. Tampering or alteration of computer, computer systems, programs or files.
  9. Unauthorized access or attempted unauthorized access to a computer or network.
  10. Causing denial of computer services (ex: run a virus that renders a network unusable).
  11. Preventing others from using computer services.
  12. Causing deterioration of system performance (e.g. playing Doom over a network).
  13. Computer trespass. This includes remote systems as well as secured areas of this system.
  14. Theft of computer related materials.
  15. Theft of computer services. For example you may not use any pay service without paying.
  16. Computer invasion of privacy - unauthorized examination of files.
  17. Computer caused physical injury.
  18. Copying licensed software.
  19. Violation of any interstate laws applying to electronic transmissions.
  20. Violation of any import/export laws applying to electronic transmissions.
  21. Posting confidential information such as Social Security Numbers or Phone numbers.
  22. Cracking passwords.
  24. Even if a file is updatable, do not modify it unless explicitly granted authority to do so.
  25. You may not share your account.
  26. You may not use any computer resource without prior permission.
  27. If a Purchase College systems administrator asks you to cease an activity on the computer, you must stop that activity immediately.

Password Policy

Your password is the only means you have of keeping your account and files secure. The algorithm that encrypts passwords has not been broken, however, it is possible for your password to be stolen when using the Internet so you are encouraged to change it often. More than 80% of computer break-ins are because passwords can be easily derived by hackers.
The following requirements must be met when choosing a password:

  1. Your password must be kept secret and changed often.
  2. Your password must contain at least eight keystrokes, including the following in any order;
    choose at least 1 character from 3 of the four groups below:
    • One or more uppercase letters (‘A’ through ‘Z’)
    • One or more lowercase letters (‘a’ through ‘z’)
    • One or more numerals (0 through 9).
    • One or more non-alphanumeric keystrokes (Special Characters), including punctuation marks
      (including ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ - [ ] { } ’ ” ~ / ? , . < > | ).
      (it is best to include both numerals and punctuation marks.)
  3. The space may be used in creating a password, or pass phrase. The space is not required and does not count as a Special Character, but does improve the complexity of a password. Most people find it easier to remember pass phrases than complex passwords. Combining words, spaces, digits and special characters can make a pass phrase that is both easy to remember and hard to guess.
    For example, I’ll always have eyes 4 U is a valid password.
  4. Select a secure password that you are guaranteed to remember. An easy way to accomplish this is to join unrelated words, syllables, and/or letters that have special meaning only to you. Place non-alphabetic keystrokes between parts of words, syllables, or letters in your password. For example, “my Dog likes to eat Bananas and Strawberries” (note capitalized nouns) becomes “myD@wgl2eB&S”.
  5. Do not use consecutive keys on the keyboard to form any significant part of a password (e.g. “ASD”, “qwerty”, “1234abcd”, “!@#”).
  6. Do not use your login name to form any part of a password, nor use any common name, such as the name of a person or pet, nor any personal information (date, license number, etc...). Reversing these words is ineffective as well (e.g. the password “John.Smith” and “htimS.nhoJ” are equally ineffective, as is “1491/7/ceD”, or any form of a date).

Data Policy


Game Playing Policy

Game playing is allowed on student systems as long as:

  1. It does not deteriorate system performance.
  2. The computer is not needed for school work, research or any other legitimate purpose.

Hardware Policy

  1. You may not move or take any hardware without explicit permission from the designated owner of that hardware.
  2. You may not destroy or vandalize any hardware, cable or service provided by the campus.

Denial of Service

  1. You may not disable the network by means of any computer program.
  2. You may not disable the network by rendering any equipment unusable.

Security Policy

You are responsible for the security of your account. Please read the policy on passwords. The following are symptoms of unauthorized trespass of your account. If you become aware of the following please contact the computer security team at X6460.

  1. New, unexplained files found in your directory.
  2. Changes in file lengths or dates.
  3. Unexplained data modification or deletion.
  4. Unable to login to your account.
  5. Suspicious beeps, messages or pictures.

By clicking on the words "I Agree" below, you signify that you have read, understand, and agree to comply with these terms.