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The Eastern Echo Friday, June 19, 2026 | Print Archive
The Eastern Echo

A grid of Google app icons with Gmail in the middle. All of the surrounding icons, such as the ones for Google Calendar, Drive, Docs, Photos and Sheets are blurred.

Eastern Michigan University's IT department releases Google alumni account update before deadline

Eastern Michigan University alumni are set to lose access to all non-Gmail Google services and files associated with their emich.edu accounts starting July 1, 2026. An extended deadline was initially announced in January in light of changes to Google's Workspace for Education licensing model.

EMU's division of IT released an FAQ June 12, 2026, with new details about how these changes will be rolled out. 

"The process to apply the new license will BEGIN on July 1, 2026 and will continue over several weeks," the statement said. "It will take a few weeks before the change is fully applied to all alumni accounts."

Despite the rolling timeline, the division of IT advised that alums should be prepared for the change by the start of July in case of uncontrollable circumstances.

The division of IT has recommended that impacted users export their data using Google's Takeout tool and calendar export feature. According to the FAQ, future graduates will have 30 days to export their data after their respective graduation dates and alumni who are employed by the university or enrolled in new classes will retain full access until they leave the university.

Google has written guides for importing and exporting data with Takeout and Calendar, and third-party tutorials are also available on YouTube.


Laura Meriweather

Laura Meriweather is the managing editor of operations at The Eastern Echo. She started as a news reporter in the fall of 2025, covering local politics, technology and culture. She is a senior majoring in media studies and journalism and minoring in entrepreneurship.

For her, the best part of her job is being connected to the community and finding new aspects of life in Ypsilanti to explore.

She can be contacted by email at managing@easternecho.com.