Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions for Columbia Alumni Association Benefits and Services

Users of Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) provided benefits and services including email benefits (CAA email forwarding and @caa.columbia.edu alumni Gmail accounts) and use of the Online Alumni Community must abide by the Terms and Conditions of the Online Alumni Community and all related University Policies and procedures. An Alumni UNI and password is required to access the Online Alumni Community and CAA Gmail accounts. If you do not have a UNI and/or password you can find help here. Storage limits have been applied to all CAA Gmail accounts and they will be granted a maximum of 5 GB data storage limit. If your account is over the 5 GB data limit at any time, for any reason, you will have limited access to your data and files until your account falls below the 5 GB data storage limit. In addition, if your CAA Gmail account is inactive for one year or more, your account may be suspended and eventually terminated by the University.

Any inappropriate behavior and/or misuse of CAA-related benefits and services including the Online Alumni Community and/or CAA Gmail accounts is strictly prohibited. Anyone found violating the Terms and Conditions of the Online Alumni Community or CAA Gmail accounts shall have their alumni privileges suspended or permanently revoked based on the infraction, and you may become “an alum/na not in good standing”.

CAA Gmail

Your CAA Gmail account is provided at the discretion of the University and access to the Alumni Online Community or your CAA Gmail account may be terminated at the University’s discretion at any time. Therefore, you should not link to any personal accounts (including bank or financial accounts), store any personal information in your account, or use your account for any commercial-related purposes. Terms and Conditions related to CAA Gmail accounts can change at any time, for any reason, so please refer back to this page periodically for any changes and/or updates.

Examples of misuse of CAA Gmail include:

1. Violation of any Google terms and conditions related to the use of your Gmail account.
2. Inappropriate behavior of any kind.
3. Use of your account for any commercial, personal fundraising, public, and/or political purposes is strictly prohibited. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to, solicitations for commercial services, cold-calling of any kind, and/or mass mailings for commercial purposes. Also prohibited are personal and/or political fundraising campaigns not sanctioned by the University.
4. Sending unwanted communications or commercial electronic mail (i.e. spam) per CAN-SPAM policies.
5. Engagement in illegal or unethical activities.
6. Activities that are harassing, demeaning, or threatening to others in any way.
7. Violating the privacy or data integrity policies of Columbia University.

If you have created a CAA Gmail account and have never signed into it or your CAA Gmail account and your account has been inactive for 6 months or longer, your account may be suspended and/or deleted. You will receive an email notification from the CAA concerning the suspension and potential deletion of your Gmail account. We will use our best reasonable efforts to contact you regarding the suspension and potential deletion of your account. We will send a notification by recovery email or other email address if we have one on file for you. If another email address does not exist, we will do our best efforts to send a letter to you notifying you of your CAA Gmail account suspension and potential account deletion if we have a home address on file for you. You will have 90 days to act and respond to our notifications before the deletion of your account occurs due to inactivity. In cases where you have signed up for a CAA Gmail account but have never logged into your account, your account will be subject to deletion after 6 months of inactivity. 

Columbia University Online Alumni Community (Updated Oct 2023)

The Columbia University Online Alumni Community (Community) is provided by the Columbia Alumni Association (CAA) and Columbia University (CU) and, is designed to facilitate communication among alumni for personal or University-related purposes. We reserve the right to update these Terms and Conditions at any time.

Student Access

Beginning in spring 2019, eligible Columbia University students will have limited access to the alumni directory within the Community to network and build relationships with alumni in their region, field, or area of study. Alumni cannot search for students but may respond to direct messages received from students. Students reaching out to alumni will be clearly labeled as such in all Community notifications, and alumni may opt out of appearing in search results to students at any time within their Community preferences. Students will be limited to sending no more than 24 messages a day to alumni. For more information, see section III. Student Access Guidelines.

I. Privacy and Security

The CAA has taken all reasonable precautions to secure the personal information available through the Community. The Community is UNI and password protected to allow access only to registered University alumni, select University staff members, and students. Although this precaution should effectively protect any personal information available through the Community from abuse or outside interference, a certain degree of privacy risk is faced anytime information is shared over the Internet. Therefore, through the Online Directory feature of the Community, you can hide your information from being viewed by other Community members.

All user information is strictly guarded for use by individual alumni, students, and the CAA for personal and University-related purposes only. Columbia University and the CAA only share select information with third-party partners to provide alumni services and benefits. Current partners include Bank of America and Travel Study Services. No student information is shared with any third parties.

Neither the University nor the CAA is responsible for screening communications in advance but reserves the right to monitor messages and activity in the Community to ensure that there are no violations of usage, Terms and Conditions, or instances of inappropriate behavior. This is not a fail-safe to prevent any abuses from potentially occurring. For this reason, it is essential that users of the Community report any abuse or misuse immediately to the CAA.

To ensure alumni users' privacy and security, you may be asked to provide personal identification either in-person or by video conference in instances where you may require a password reset or to acquire a UNI and password to access CAA alumni benefits and services. Failure to provide this information and/or comply with these requests may result in the inability of the University to grant access to CAA alumni benefits and services.

The CAA and CU abide by all University-wide policies including GDPR, Acceptable Usage of Information Resources, and Columbia University Privacy Statement. A list of University policies are outlined here and may be subject to change at any time:

II. Policy and Guidelines for Proper Use

To safeguard the operation of the Online Alumni Community, the CAA has adopted many guidelines and policies used by the University, to govern the conduct that occurs in an online environment.

In addition to the University's policies and guidelines, which for students include the Student Conduct and Community Standards, all users of the Community must abide by the following specific rules and regulations:

1. Use of information or communications available through the Community for any commercial, personal fundraising, public, or political purposes is strictly prohibited. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to, solicitations for commercial services, cold-calling of any kind, or mass mailings for commercial purposes. Other prohibited activities include personal fundraising campaigns not sanctioned by the University. Information available through the Community may only be used for networking and University-related purposes. Members may not use the Community to engage in any hate speech, or inappropriate behavior, or spam the group with multiple postings or continual discussions about one issue or topic that is not productive to Community discussion or connections. All views and communications should be shared thoughtfully and respectfully.

2. The Online Alumni Directory should not be used to confirm alumni status and/or employment verification purposes. If you need to confirm the alumni status of an individual or the employment status of any alumni, you should contact the Registrar's Office or Human Resources.

3. Users are limited to 24 direct messages within any 24-hour period. Users should be both thoughtful and purposeful in their messages. Messages should not be sent for any restricted activities or purposes outlined within the Terms and Conditions.

4. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, republishing, uploading, downloading, posting, transmitting, or duplicating any information or posted material contained within is prohibited. You may download or copy any downloadable materials displayed on the Community for home, non-commercial, and personal use only; provided, however, that you maintain all copyright, trademark, and other notices contained in such material and you agree to abide by all additional copyright notices or restrictions contained in any material accessed through the Community.

5. Users shall not restrict or inhibit any other user from enjoying or productively using any service in the Community. Posting of obscene materials or use of obscene language, posting of vulgar materials, or use of vulgar language, or use of abusive, defamatory, disrespectful, profane, or threatening language of any kind, will constitute a violation of these policies governing the use of the Community. Additionally, users shall not upload, transmit, distribute, or otherwise publish any materials containing a virus or any other harmful component. Trolling, stalking, and harassment are strictly prohibited and will not be tolerated.

6. If the CAA determines that a user's participation in the Community creates a liability for the CAA or the University, or that the user has violated the policies set forth herein, the CAA reserves the right, and in its sole discretion, to take appropriate actions against the user. The CAA reserves the right to expel a user and/or deny a user further access to the Community if such user violates its policies or applicable laws or regulations.

III. Student Access Guidelines

Students must adhere to all guidelines outlined below:

1. All terms and conditions, rules, policies, and requirements related to alumni also apply to students.

2. Students may use the Community for individual networking purposes only.

3. Students are limited to 24 direct messages to alumni in the Community within a 24-hour period; if you are using the Community for networking purposes, you should be both thoughtful and purposeful in how you contact alumni to accomplish this goal (visit the “Using the Alumni Directory” section of the Students page for further usage recommendations and details).

4. It is prohibited for students to use the Community to solicit alumni or businesses for financial support of any kind, including any form of financial aid, regardless of the situation or any personal connections that may exist.

5. Students and student groups must contact the CAA to inquire about inviting alumni to speak at or attend their events, or other outreach related to alumni engagement and support regarding School or student club-related events and projects.

6. By signing into the Community, students are opting in to receive important updates and notifications regarding the Community platform.

7. Students who do not follow these guidelines will lose all access and privileges related to the Community.

IV. Liability and Indemnity

Participation in the Online Alumni Community is a privilege.

The reliability of the information available through the Community is largely dependent upon the actions of Community registrants. The CAA can make no representations about the accuracy, reliability, completeness, or timeliness of the information stored within the Community.

The CAA does not warrant that the Community website will operate error-free or that the site and its server(s) are free of computer viruses or other harmful material. To the fullest extent permitted by the law, the CAA disclaims all warranties, including the warranties of merchantability, non-infringement, and fitness for a particular purpose. In no event shall the CAA or the University be liable for any damages whatsoever, including, without limitation, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, resulting from the use of or inability to use information or materials available on the Community website.

By using the Community, you agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the CAA, the University, and their respective agents from and against any and all losses, claims, damages, costs, and expenses that may arise from your use of the Community website or your breach of these policies. The CAA will provide notice to you of any such action or claim, and reserves the right to participate, at our expense, in the investigation, settlement, and defense of any such action or claim.

Please note that the CAA may revise these policies at any time and your continued use of the site constitutes your agreement to comply with such modifications. You should review these policies periodically to ensure you are familiar with them.