Table of contents
Your UMD account
Your can access your UMD account and all associated services with a Directory ID and Passphrase. An Identity Verification needs to be completed before creating a Directory ID and passphrase. You can then activate your UMD account at the New Account Activation page.
There are two official University of Maryland email systems: UMD Gmail and TERPmail.
University of Maryland provides one institutional email platform for employees and graduate students (UMD Gmail) in order to securely promote communication and collaboration, allow for business continuity and maintain effective handling of institutional data. Staff, faculty and graduate students receive UMD Gmail accounts.
In addition to UMD Gmail, the University of Maryland provides TERPmail, an email platform that all registered students may use.
If the email in your contact information in Testudo or ARES/PHR is already set to one of these email systems (UMD Gmail or TERPMail), it cannot be changed. One exception to this is when a student becomes an employee, the email address in ARES/PHR may be set to @umd.edu only if you have a Sponsored Student Account.
Employees
University employees must use a UMD Gmail account to send and receive business emails. University personnel are prohibited from transferring, forwarding or sending UMD business email to or from a TERPmail or personal email account. For more information, read IT Standard Institutional Email (IT-14) and UMD Email Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) in the IT Library.
Employees set contact information in the ARES/PHR system. if the email address field is set to @umd.edu (which is only allowed if a UMD Gmail account exists for that employee), the email address field is not editable. To properly protect UMD business and comply with regulatory requirements such as FERPA, UMD faculty and staff should not forward their email. To ensure your email address is set to the University email system, employees and graduate students can update their contact information in ARES/PHR.
Students
Undergraduate Student email is automatically set to @terpmail.umd.edu. Graduate Student email is automatically set to @umd.edu. Students who wish to forward university email messages to a third-party provider must set up forwarding from the TERPmail settings. To ensure that you receive university email in your TERPmail account, visit Update Your Student Contact Information in Testudo. To manage your email settings, visit Testudo to update your contact information. Students can also use the TERPmail to Send email as your TERPmail account using your personal Gmail account.
Student employees
Student employees must use a UMD Gmail account sponsored by their supervisor. As university employees, you are prohibited from transferring, forwarding or sending UMD business email to or from a TERPmail or personal email account. For more information, read IT Standard Institutional Email (IT-14) and UMD Email Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) in the IT Library.
Student employees must access ARES/PHR contact information and set their forwarding to @umd.edu. Once this is set, the field is no longer editable, until the UMD Gmail account is deleted (i.e. sponsorship revoked), at which point, the field may be modified back to @terpmail.umd.edu.
NOTE: These restrictions do not apply to other UMD campuses (i.e. UMES, et al.).
Managing your email address
To manage your email settings, students should visit Testudo to update your contact information. Employees and graduate students should update contact information in ARES/PHR.
Unit-specific email system
This section is for Payroll and Human Resources (PHR) creators for a UMD unit or department that is approved to maintain a unit-specific email system. Employees with active appointments in your unit or department are permitted to maintain a unit-specific account. Employees will not be able to update their email accounts themselves, instead, error messages on the PHR screen will instruct the employee to contact their unit or department PHR creator. PHR creators in these approved units will be able to update the email to the specific unit account using the PHR email address screen.