IT Policies

NetID Eligibility

This document details the eligibility policy for NetID, WiscMail, and dial-up services.

All UW-Madison students and faculty/staff must have a VALID UW-Madison Campus ID number in order to activate and keep their NetID accounts and related services. Having a valid UW-Madison Campus ID number does not mean that you must possess an actual physical card.

To be considered valid for NetID services one of the following must be true:

  • You must be an officially registered student in the current semester. Students studying/working abroad must retain their registered student status with UW-Madison. Special Rules:
    • Undergraduate and graduate applicants are eligible for NetID and My UW-Madison only they do not get other WiscWorld services like WiscMail, WiscCal or My Webspace.
  • You must have an official, current, active UW appointment at UW-Madison or in Dane County. Special Rules:
    • Limited Term Employees (LTE) must have received a UW Payroll issued check within 45 days of the current date to be considered eligible.
    • Student Employees are not eligible. They have access because they are a student. Students at other institutions (non-Madison UW, MATC, Edgewood) need to be granted Special Authorization status by their department.
    • LUMP SUM paid employees are not eligible.
    • UW Hospital and Clinics and UW Medical Foundation employees are eligible for NetID and My UW-Madison only they do not get other WiscWorld services like WiscMail, WiscCal or My Webspace. Other services will be deactivated.
    • UW-Colleges, UW-Extension and UW-System Administration employees who are employed outside of Dane County are not eligible.
  • You must be an officially retired faculty or staff member.
    • Emeritus staff should have their human resources staff add their names to the Special Authorization database.
    • Non-emeritus retirees must renew their status with their human resource department to ensure eligibility. See Privileges for UW-Madison Retirees for more information.
  • You must be a member of a group holding special authorization status with UW-Madison. This status is not granted to individuals nor is it granted by any informal request. Instead, this designation is reserved for pre-determined organizational entities.

For those who are no longer eligible, the following rules apply to deactivation of NetID services:

  • NetID account deactivation will take place shortly after the “last day to add” of the Fall and Spring semesters each year.
  • We will not deactivate NetID accounts between the last day of the Spring semester and the "last day to add" of the Fall semester.
  • We will not deactivate NetID accounts between the last day of the Fall semester and the "last day to add" of the Spring semester.
  • The initial phase of deactivations will only disable the non-eligible individual’s ability to dial into the Internet, check mail, access My UW-Madison, and access WiscCal. Mail sent to that person’s address will still be accepted.
  • A grace period is available, by request only, to allow individuals to continue using NetID services for a specified amount of time. This grace period is intended to allow time to correct issues that may lead to reinstating eligibility or, for those who are indeed not eligible, to allow time to establish a private internet service provider (ISP) and set a forwarding address. The grace period will end on an advertised date, generally 2-4 weeks after the initial deactivation.
  • The final phase of deactivations will take place in conjunction with the end of the grace period. Anyone who has not resolved outstanding issue will have his or her NetID account completely purged.
  • Forwarding addresses established before or during the grace period will be honored for a six month period. We reserve the right to exclude messages identified as highly likely to be bulk mail ( spam ) from the allowable forwarded mail. Forwarding addresses can be added by modifying your NetID account
  • Faculty and staff will retain access to the My-UW Madison portal for 30 days beyond their appointment termination date such that the final on-line pay statement will be available through the work records tab.