While Northeastern will continue to use sponsored accounts as its way of granting temporary accounts for those in certain roles, the university has updated its policies on who can initiate a sponsored account request and who can sponsor these accounts.

Effective Sept. 22, 2023, only full-time, benefits-eligible employees who are managers may sponsor individuals. At the same time, it is also the responsibility of the sponsor, not the interim employee who needs the account, to open the request for the account.

As a result, changes to the sponsored account process are being rolled out in phases over the course of the fall 2023 semester. The first changes, involving new sponsored accounts, launched on Sept. 22. Additional releases and enhancements will launch in October and beyond.

These policy updates will help improve Northeastern’s security posture. They also account for advances in technology that Northeastern will leverage to reduce the need for sponsored accounts in the future, a part of the university’s multi-year roadmap for modernizing identity and access management.  

Sponsors must use a new request in the Tech Service Portal beginning after Sept. 22, 2023 for any new accounts. The link to the new request is published on accounts.northeastern.edu.

As a result of the new policy, existing sponsors may no longer be eligible to sponsor accounts. These existing sponsors will need to have an eligible sponsor name them as a delegate before extending, terminating, or updating a sponsorship. Learn how to assign a delegate.

Non-managers cannot sponsor accounts, but managers may delegate some of the related tasks to non-managers. Through delegation, non-managers can request or manage accounts on behalf of sponsors. A manager must still be named as a sponsor for all accounts and accept individual responsibility for all transactions conducted using the credentials assigned to individuals whom they sponsor.

Visit knowledge article on managing account delegation.

A manager is a full-time, benefits eligible employee with a full-time employee reporting to them in Workday. If an employee’s only direct report is a temporary employee or student employee, that employee is not eligible to sponsor an account.

Any account set up prior to Sept. 21, 2023 will not expire automatically before March 15, 2024. Sponsors and delegates may update these accounts to end earlier.

The link to the new request is published at accounts.northeastern.edu. Sponsors need to provide basic information about the temporary employee, such as name and contact information, as well as the nature of their role with the university, such as job title. If any sensitive and personally identifiable information (PII) is required to process the account request, the account applicant will be notified and asked to supply it in a secure manner.

Read the knowledge article about requesting sponsored accounts.

Sponsors and delegates can manage sponsored accounts from the dashboard on the Tech Service Portal.

Beginning Nov. 20, 2023, sponsors and delegates can expect to receive weekly email reminders of any upcoming sponsorships that are scheduled to end. This reminder provides sponsors and delegates with the notice to extend the sponsorship or offboard the sponsored account holder as necessary.