On Mon, 12 Jan 2004, Pete Weiss wrote:

> Other than simply doing a mass-delete of a userid@node when that address
> is no longer valid, how do you "handled" the case when that userid@node
> is a colleague and has died?  E.g., do you do so QUIETly and perhaps then

We don't do anything, at least I don't do anything about the subscriptions
immediately.  If it is a colleague and an account that I have been given
access to as part of my job or a temp job, I then do a delete from all
lists.

We do have a University policy in place that covers this situation --
e-mail accounts of deceased faculty and staff remain "active" for 6
months. Then the account is deleted if we are not contacted by the
department. It isn't unusual for departments to keep these accounts and
have another staff member monitor them for a year, and they may delete
subscriptions.  Once the account is deleted, the e-mail address bounces
and then the List Owner deletes the subscription. The List Owner may or
may not be informed of the reason of the bounce.

I am not sure, but I believe the 6-month policy grew out of an incident
where the e-mail address was also used by family members of a faculty
member who had suddenly passed away.

We have certainly been contacted by family members 6 months after a death
and asked what happen to the account. In these cases we explain the policy
and give them another 3 months or so to use the e-mail address and
provide them with some commercial suggestions.

--Trish

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Trish Forrest, Queen's University