Account Information
Larner College of Medicine accounts, commonly known as a “COMIS Account,” are one of several different ways to access information at the University. Faculty, staff, and students have an account, known as a NetID, which is used for all University communications, HR tracking including paycheck information, and to renew your campus parking permit. COMIS accounts, UVM accounts, and The University of Vermont Medical Center accounts are managed separately.
COMIS accounts are created to allow users access to
The Larner College of Medicine's Email System
The Larner College of Medicine uses Microsoft Outlook/Exchange. The electronic address associated with that account is typically in the format firstname.lastname@med.uvm.edu though it is strongly recommended that everyone uses their uvm.edu address (noted below) to avoid confusion with outside users.
LCOM Baselined Computers
Desktop and laptop computers with a LCOM baseline have been loaded with software available to all Larner College of Medicine users that the COMTS group has purchased on behalf of LCOM users. This includes Microsoft licenses and similar licenses that are available at either the College or University level.
Personal Server Space
When logging into a
LCOM baselined machine, the user’s OneDrive account will be automatically
connected. The user’s Desktop, Documents, and Pictures folders will also be
backed up to their OneDrive location. This is a location where only the user
who is logged on has access to the contents there in. (Various technical staff have access to server files but only use that access in the course of their job duties. The only other way to gain access to personal storage contents is to have the Chair, Director or Dean authorize as noted.)
Shared Server Space
When logging into a LCOM baselined machine, the L: drive will be automatically mapped for users who have access to a shared space. This is a location where a select group of users (i.e. members of an administrative department) can store and share files common to their group.
Larner College of Medicine Web Based Applications
Many services are offered via the web and will need valid LCOM or University of Vermont Medical Center credentials to access. These include but are not limited to: VICPortal, online reporting, VICManagement, and PeopleManagement/Bio Builder.
NOTE: The University of Vermont Medical Center users do not necessarily need a COMIS account to access web applications or a network drive can be mapped to the computer they are using.
Account Responsibilities and Management
Only a Content Owner (usually a chair, director, dean, manager or principal investigator) of a particular group can give permission to shared resources. Those resources can be shared folders, course content or similar. The Content Owner may grant this authority to a chosen designee but that authority must be granted in writing and held on record in the COMTS offices.
Only the Content Owner or his/her designee may request for accounts to be created or terminated, may grant specified users access to department/group resources.
Should an extraordinary problem occur with a COMIS account – termination of individual, unexpected outage of individual, extraordinary and unusual circumstances that require access to an individual’s account – only the Chair, Director or Dean has the authority to request any changes or access to that account. This request must be in writing to the COMTS Director or, in the Director’s absence, the Assistant Director and must be generally known and approved of by the College’s Human Resources staff.
Non-extraordinary circumstances will not warrant access to an individual’s account and must be solved between the individual and their supervisor.
Integrating UVM, The University of Vermont Medical Center and COMIS Accounts
UVM and COMIS
Many users have multiple accounts. Users at the Larner College of Medicine may have a University account (referred to as a NetID) and/or a The University of Vermont Medical Center account (typically referred to as an M# or similar).
The email address associated with a NetID is typically* in the format firstname.lastname@uvm.edu. If this same individual also has a LCOM electronic mailbox, it is recommended that forwarding is set up from the University mailbox to the College mailbox so that only one email account needs to be checked for University wide messages and only one email address has to be give out or “advertised” on business cards and the like. To set up forwarding from UVM to LCOM, take note of your LCOM email address and go to the University’s account page at http://www.uvm.edu/account/.
Though your LCOM account and UVM NetID will have the same username, the password is and will remain separate and unique. The LCOM credentials need to be changed every 120 days, the password to a NetID needs to change once a year.
COMIS and The University of Vermont Medical Center
Staff and faculty who have a dual role between the medical college and the hospital may have two sets of account credentials. Generally speaking, the two institutions have agreed that if your primary office location is in the medical school buildings, you will be a LCOM user. If your primary office location is in a hospital building, you will be a The University of Vermont Medical Center user.
Microsoft Outlook/Exchange is the email platform for both the medical school and the hospital. The two institutions share a global address book and free/busy calendar information. To be sure there is no confusion, even if you have credentials at both college and hospital, only one mailbox will be listed in the shared email Global Address Book.
The University of Vermont Medical Center credentials can be used to access many LCOM resources. So someone with The University of Vermont Medical Center credentials can likely get to most COMIS resources that they need access to (see the above section on web apps and file servers) and may never need LCOM credentials.
LCOM credentials, however, will not work on any The University of Vermont Medical Center systems or applications. If a LCOM employee needs access to any clinical systems, they will have to have a set of The University of Vermont Medical Center credentials to access those systems.
The University of Vermont Medical Center and UVM
It is possible that a user can have The University of Vermont Medical Center credentials and University credentials without having a LCOM account. If this is the case, it is strongly recommended that users like this set up their UVM forwarding to go to their The University of Vermont Medical Center address. The University uses its institutional email addresses for all business-related correspondence. If you are not regularly checking the UVM mailbox you will likely miss out on many key communications related to topics like benefits and other business and HR topics. To check your email forwarding settings on your UVM account, go to http://www.uvm.edu/account/.