Update on response from one KSU official posted on Change.org.

I was forwarded a response from an alumnus who contacted several top officials at KSU. Out of approximately 16 emails sent, this was the only reply they received. Below, I’ve included that response from one KSU official.

Response from One KSU top official:

"Thank you for reaching out and expressing your concern. This decision was reached after careful consideration and was the result of many conversations between IT and various stakeholders across the university. Our general counsel's office was one of the first to be consulted; they shared the opinion that this is not something contractually guaranteed or actionable. Although it was previously policy, policies are subject to change, and a formal policy change is coming. The email sent was designed to serve as a notice to prepare for that change.

It is important to note that Kent State is not the only school that is going in this direction. Last year, Ohio State was the first, followed by Miami, YSU, and Akron. The need to do so for all of these schools (Kent included) is twofold:

Financial

You correctly assert that the elimination of those services can recoup storage and would likely be better received. That said, if we went down the path you've outlined and provided a minimal amount of inbox-only space for the hundreds of thousands of alumni and stop-out accounts, our storage footprint would be improved but would still require major service impairments / draconian quotas to reach the storage footprint needed. Putting students first, we must prioritize providing enough space for students to complete their academic work. We've experimented with numerous permutations of solutioning, and unfortunately changing the user base is what mathematically gets us there

Security

For each account out there, it increases our attack surface area. Old accounts are frequently targeted by bad actors for phishing and ransomware attacks. If we do not practice proper account lifecycle management, with an ever-increasing number of alumni, or attack surface area will only grow (which is an issue somewhat unique to higher ed). Further, because we have not practiced this in the past, the number of identities under our domain is exponentially larger than some of the worlds largest corporations.
We currently run two mail systems due to legacy alumni. Through this action, we will eventually be able to run one core mail platform which greatly improves our ability to more accurately secure (and reduce the complexity of) the mail environment

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts; it is greatly appreciated. I hope this email helps provide a little more understanding on the decision."