Department Name Changes

If you are changing a VIU Department name it has to be changed within the Employee Database before it will show up on your Ticket System Profile.
You will need to contact HR and Finance when changing your department name, they will help you with this part of  the process.

For IT purposes, we discovered that the Finance Department is the only area that would update division attributes on the employee records. This is specifically managed by the General Accounting staff.

Once the Official Name Change process is complete, please submit a ticket to IT and  let us know what the new name is and what you decide to change.
Changing a department name can also include other considerations.   Some of these considerations require IT to make adjustments so access to resources stays accurate. 
The following IT related items are things to consider when changing the name of a Department:

Shared Mailboxes
If the Department name changes, you may want to change the name of your  shared mailbox account(s) This is a  relatively easy process:

  • Submit a ticket to IT and let us know what you want the mailbox name to  be changed to.
  • The IT Techs can  change the "display name" to the new name. 
  • We will leave the previous name as an "alias" so people can still send email to the old address if they do not know about the name change. 
  • It is up to your department to communicate the name change to your clients and staff.

Shared Folders
Most departments use shared network folders for their staff and faculty to access departmental documents.  Usually the main folder(s) start with the Department Name.

You need to decide if you want to change the folder name(s) to match the new Department name or not.  If you want to change folder names, this can be a more complex process that may require specific scheduling and coordination with IT.

If you want to know more about how Share Folders are organized and secured please read the following Article: Share Folders Explained

Considerations:

  • Usually,  department share folders are sorted alphabetically by the Department name and stored in a “root” folder with a letter of the alphabet that matches the first letter of the Department Names.
    • If the new name starts with a different letter, your shares may need to move to a new folder.  (For example, when Powell River changed to tiwšɛmawtxʷ the shared files moved from the P folder to the T folder.)
       
  • Even if the name change starts with the same letter as the old name, and no folder moves are required;  the IT department should be notified if you decide to change any folder names because of the following:
    •  there are security groups that manage access to the folders that will need to be changed to reflect the new name.
    • Also, if you change the name of a folder, it could “break” the link\shorcut to the folder for anyone who has “mapped” to the old name.   All users will need to re-map to the folder after the name changes.

If you DO want to rename and maybe move the Shared folders, then you need to submit a ticket to IT with the names and locations of folders you want to change.

  • IT techs will schedule a time with you to rename and move the folders( if this step is needed)
  • IT will supply a new path to the folder for re-mapping to the new folder name and location.
  • IT  will also rename the associated Security Groups so the access to the folders is maintained.
  • The IT department will also change the department name in the Ticket System database so the new name will show up on your IT Tickets.

If you are NOT going to rename your folders or mailboxes, then you still need to submit a ticket to IT so we can add the new name to our Ticket database. 

  • Provide the old name and new name
  • Date the change is taking place
  • Please indicate a note to say that only the Department name is changing, and you have decided not to change your shared resource names.
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