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About the Sponsor System

For more detail about the concepts behind, and terminology for, sponsorship, see MCommunity Sponsor System Overview (R1458). That document includes information about uniqname types, identity types, sponsorship lengths, minimum data requirements, notifications sent by the system, what happens when a sponsorship expires, who can reset passwords for sponsored individuals under what circumstances, and more.

To use the Sponsor System, you must be an authorized sponsorship administrator. To learn how to become a sponsorship administrator, see MCommunity Sponsorship Administration Policies and Agreement (R1459).

Departments can also request sponsorships from the ITS Accounts Office by using the MCommunity Sponsorship Application forms.

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Connecting to the Sponsor System

• Be an authorized sponsorship administrator. To find out if your department has a sponsorship administrator and who it is, contact the ITS Accounts Office.
• Have a uniqname and UMICH Kerberos password.
• Have an MToken. (You'll need to use your MToken when you log in.)
• Be on a U-M network. If you need to connect from a non-U-M network, you can use a U-M Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection.
• For best results, we recommend that you use Firefox as your web browser. If you use Internet Explorer, you may notice some irregularities. The MCommunity Team is working to correct the situation, but for now you may want to use Firefox when using the Sponsor System.

The MCommunity Sponsor System is at this URL:

• https://mcommunity.umich.edu/sponsor/

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Sponsoring an Individual

1. Log in to the Sponsor System.
2. In the Sponsor People box, fill in the appropriate information, then click the Begin Sponsoring button.

   IMPORTANT! Pay special attention to the expiry date. The sponsorship will expire on the end date, and the sponsored person will lose access to computing services and be unable to log in to U-M systems. (See Sponsorship Expiry in MCommunity Sponsor System Overview (R1458) for details.)

   TIP: For details about the sponsorship reasons, see Sponsorship Business Reasons in MCommunity Sponsor System Overview (R1458).

   
3. You'll be prompted to search MCommunity to see if the person you want to sponsor is already in the system. This step is critical in helping to prevent creation of duplicate entries. See Appendix A. Tips for Searching the System to Prevent Duplicates at the end of this document for tips on effective searching. Enter as much information as you can to aid in the search, then click the Search button at the bottom of the window.

   If you are setting up a sponorship with a strong identity, you will have the opportunity to enter a variety of information.

   

   If you are setting up a sponsorship with a weak identity, you can only search by first and last name.

   

4. If the person you wish to sponsor is not yet in MCommunity, there will be no match to your search. Click Add a New Person to continue. If you get a number of matches, see See Appendix A. Tips for Searching the System to Prevent Duplicates at the end of this document for tips on examining the available information to identify which, if any, entry matches the person you are sponsoring.

   

   TIP: You can add a sponsorship to someone who is already in MCommunity. See Adding Sponsorships to an Already-Sponsored Person below for details.

5. Next, enter the required information about the person you wish to sponsor. The amount of information required depends on the relationship the sponsored individual will have to the University.

   For contractors, incoming faculty/staff, temporary staff, and visiting researchers/scholars, you must provide the minimum data required by M-Pathways because an M-Pathways entry will be created for the person. The sponsored person will receive a regular uniqname.

   

   For associates and VIPs, only a name and a non-UMICH e-mail address are required. The sponsored person will receive a regular uniqname.

   

   For conference/program participants, wireless users, and other short-term guests, only a name and a non-UMICH e-mail address are required. The system generates a temporary uniqname for the sponsored person.

   

6. Scroll down to the bottom of the window, and click the Add Person button.

   

7. You will see confirmation that the individual is now sponsored. It is important that you write down, or copy and paste, the password. This is the only opportunity you will have to do so.

   

   The requester will receive an e-mail confirmation message providing the uniqname (but not the password). That message will instruct the requester to contact the ITS Accounts Office if computing services are needed for the newly sponsored individual. Either you or the requester can request computing services by filling out the Computing Services for Sponsored Persons Request Form, which is available on the ITS Accounts Office web page.

   The sponsored individual will receive an e-mail notice (sent to the non-UMICH address you provided) of the new uniqname.

   It is your responsibility to convey the password to the sponsored individual in a secure manner.

8. Click Finished Sponsoring to return to the Sponsor System home page. Or, click Create another sponsorship if you want to sponsor another person with the same sponsorship information (that is, the same sponsoring department, business reason, and requester).

   

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Adding Sponsorships to an Already-Sponsored Person

IMPORTANT! If a person has a temporary uniqname, you cannot add sponsorships that result in a regular uniqname. You must instead create a new identity with a new regular uniqname. The identity with the temporary uniqname, and the temporary uniqname itself, can be allowed to expire.

1. Follow Steps 1-2 above to log in and enter information about the sponsorship (sponsoring department, reason for the sponsorship, and so on), then search MCommunity for the person for whom you want to add a sponsorship.
2. On the page showing your search results, click the radio button next to entry for the person for whom you want to provide an additional sponsorship, then click the Use Selected button.

   

3. If you are prompted for additional information, provide it. In this example, the sponsorship being added (for an incoming staff member) requires more identity information than the sponsorship the person already has (that of guest student).

   

4. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save Information.

   

5. You'll see confirmation that the new sponsorship has been added. An e-mail confirmation notification will be sent to the requester you listed, as well as to the sponsored person. An M-Pathways entry is created only if one does not already exist.

   

6. Click Finished Sponsoring to return to the Sponsor System home page. Or, click Create another sponsorship if you want to sponsor another person with the same sponsorship information (that is, the same sponsoring department, business reason, and requester).

If you'd like to see how many sponsorships a sponsored individual has, you can search for and display that person's Sponsor System entry. See Searching for and Editing an Individual Entry below.

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Sponsoring Multiple People by Importing a File

IMPORTANT! The file import method can only be used for sponsorships that result in temporary uniqnames. This includes conference/program participants, wireless users, and other short-term guests.

Preparing a File to Import

IMPORTANT! The maximum number of identities you can upload at a time is 50. If you need to sponsor more than 50 people, you will need to upload more than one file.

TIP: Do not include people who are already members of the U-M community in your file. People who already have uniqnames do not need to be sponsored for wireless access or conferences.

1. Download this Excel template (forImport.xls) and open it.

   

2. Fill in the spreadsheet with the appropriate identity information about the people you want to sponsor. (Do not enter the sample data shown below.)

   

3. Save the file in Comma Delimited/Comma Separated Values (.csv) format. We recommend that you save the file to your computer desktop so that it is easy to find when you upload it to the Sponsor System.

   

4. The file is ready to be imported into the MCommunity Sponsor System.

Importing the File

1. On the Sponsor System home page, enter the general information about the sponsorship in the Sponsor People box. Then click the Begin Sponsoring button.

   IMPORTANT! Pay special attention to the end date. The sponsorship will expire on the end date, and the sponsored person will lose access to computing services and be unable to log in to U-M systems. (See Sponsorship Expiry in MCommunity Sponsor System Overview (R1458) for details.)

   

2. On the Sponsor People page, click Upload Identity File.

   

3. Click the Browse button. Note that some web browsers may display a different button name. Safari users, for example, will see Choose File instead of Browse.

   

4. You'll be prompted to navigate among the files on your computer. Select the appropriate file. Then click Upload File.

   

5. If all has gone well, you will see a list of the people uploaded from the file. Click Finish.

   If there are problems with any of the data you provided, such as missing information, you'll be prompted to resolve those issues before finishing. See Troubleshooting Import Problems below for details.

   

6. You will see confirmation that the people whose information you uploaded have been entered into the Sponsor System as sponsored individuals.

   IMPORTANT! Copy this information and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet. This is the only chance you will have to record the information. After you have copied and pasted the information, click Finished Sponsoring. Or you can click Continue Sponsoring to sponsor additional people with the same sponsorship details.

   

7. It is your responsibility to convey the passwords to the sponsored individuals in a secure manner. We recommend that you convey passwords either by phone or in person. We also recommend that you tell each person to change the password to something easier to remember that only he or she knows and direct him/her to the Password Reset Page at https://accounts.itcs.umich.edu/kpasswd-bin/kpasswd.cgi.

Troubleshooting Import Problems

• You uploaded a file that is not in .csv format. For example, if you upload a .doc or a .xls file, you will see the Invalid File Format error.
• You inadvertently typed something outside the columns in the file for data entry. Check your upload file to make sure that nothing was typed outside the labeled columns.

If there are problems with the data in the file you uploaded, the Sponsor System will list them for you and prompt you to fix the errors. For example, if the information in the file is incomplete for some of the people listed, this is what you will see and what you will need to do.

1. If there are problems, you will see a list of errors to fix immediately after you import the file. Click the first Fix Error button in the list to begin fixing the errors.

   

2. You'll be prompted to enter missing information or correct invalid data. Do so, then click Save.

   

3. The entry just corrected is now listed with the other entries that were imported without problems. Click the next Fix Error button to continue fixing data problems.

   

4. You'll be prompted to enter missing information or correct invalid data. Do so, then click Save.

   

5. Continue fixing errors until they have all been fixed. Then click Finish.

   

6. You will see confirmation that the people whose information you uploaded have been entered into the Sponsor System as sponsored individuals.

   IMPORTANT! Copy this information and paste it into an Excel spreadsheet. This is the only chance you will have to record the information. After you have copied and pasted the information, click Finished Sponsoring. Or you can click Continue Sponsoring to sponsor additional people with the same sponsorship details.

7. It is your responsibility to convey the passwords to the sponsored individuals in a secure manner. We recommend that you convey passwords either by phone or in person. We also recommend that you tell each person to change the password to something easier to remember that only he or she knows and direct him/her to the Password Reset Page at https://accounts.itcs.umich.edu/kpasswd-bin/kpasswd.cgi.

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Searching for and Editing an Individual Entry

Searching the Sponsor System for an Individual

1. From the Sponsor System home page, in the Quick Search text box, enter a name or uniqname. You can use these formats:
   • lastname
   • uniqname
   • firstname lastname
   • lastname, firstname

   Then click Search.

   

2. If the person is not a sponsored individual, no entry will be found.
   HINT: When you use the View/Modify Sponsorships box to search, you are searching only the Sponsor System. You will not find people who have other relationships with the university (such as faculty, staff, and students) but who do not have any sponsorships.

   

   If one or more people match your search, you will see them listed.

3. In the list of search matches, check the checkbox next to the person whose sponsorship(s) you wish to see, then click View/Edit Selected.

   

4. The person's active sponsorship(s) will be listed.

   

Editing an Individual Entry

1. With the entry displayed, click the Edit button.

   

2. Make your editing changes. You will need to scroll down to see all the information that you can edit. Then click Save Information.

   

3. Click Finished.

   

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Searching for and Editing a Group of Related Individuals

1. On the Sponsor System home page, under View/Modify Sponsored People, click the Advanced Search tab, then enter the shared information about the group of people you want to find. For example, to find a group of conference attendees, you might search by Reason, Requester, Administrator, Department, and/or Start Date. (In the Start Date box, you can either enter a date or click the calendar icon next to the box to select one.)

   

2. On the View & Modify Existing People page, select the people whose sponsorship information you want to edit by clicking the checkboxes next to their names, then click Edit Selected. In this example, all the individuals attending a meeting for which they need wireless acess were selected.

   

3. Select a sponsorship to edit, and click the appropriate Edit Sponsorship button. If the people you selected share more than one sponsorship, all those sponsorships will be displayed. In this example, the selected people share only one sponsorship, so there is only one that can be selected.

   

4. You will then be able to edit the shared sponsorship information. In this example, we want to extend the end date of the sponsorship for an additional week, so we change the End Date, and then click Save.

   

   TIP: Notice that you cannot change the business reason for the sponsorship. If you want to sponsor people for a different business reason, you must create an additional sponsorship.

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Resetting Passwords for Sponsored Individuals

TIP: You can reset passwords using the MCommunity Sponsor System only for people

• Who have weak identities in the Sponsor System. This includes associates, VIPs, conference/program participants, wireless users, and other short-term guests. (See Identity Types—Strong and Weak in MCommunity Sponsor System Overview (R1458).)
• Who are sponsored by the department(s) for which you are authorized to do sponsorship administration.

  Password resets for sponsored people with strong identities must be done by the ITS Accounts Office. This includes contractors, incoming faculty/staff, and visiting researchers/scholars.

1. Search the MCommunity Sponsor System for the person whose password needs to be reset.

   

2. Check the checkbox next to the name of the person whose password you want to reset, then click View/Edit Selected.

   

3. Click the Reset Password button.

   

4. The password will be reset. Click the Show Password button to see the password. Click Finished after you have either saved the password or provided it to the sponsored person. Please handle the password securely.

   

TROUBLESHOOTING TIP: A grayed-out Reset Password button indicates that you cannot reset the person's password (most likely because the person has a stong identity). Direct the person to the ITS Accounts Office to have his/her password reset.

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Additional Resources

MCommunity Overview (R1457)

MCommunity Sponsor System Overview (R1458)

MCommunity Sponsorship Administration Policies and Agreement (R1459)

MCommunity Sponsoring Authority Policies and Agreement (R1460)

We welcome your comments; please send e-mail.

ITS's Online Help Desk provides a variety of computing help resources.

For further help with the MCommunity Sponsor System, contact the ITS Accounts Office.

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Appendix A. Tips for Searching the System to Prevent Duplicates

You do this to prevent the creation of duplicate entries and the creation of multiple uniqnames for one person. Duplicate entries and multiple uniqnames create confusion, interfere with access to computing resources, and take many staff hours to correct. You can prevent these problems by conducting a thorough search to see if the person you want to sponsor is already in the system.

The Sponsor System's search tool searches data in MCommunity that comes from these data sources:

• M-Pathways (the HEPROD database) for all faculty and staff and for Ann Arbor students. The Sponsor System interacts with the M-Pathways SMBIO search-match tool.
• MCommunity, which consolidates identity information from M-Pathways as well as from
  • MCommunity Sponsor System for sponsored individuals.
  • Dearborn Banner System for Dearborn students.
  • Flint Banner System for Flint students.
  • Donor Alumni Constituency (DAC) for alumni.

When searching,

• Find as many potential matches as you can.
• Examine the potential matches carefully.

Tips: Find as Many Potential Matches as You Can

• Try searching by the first few letters of the person's last name to help you catch possible mispellings of the name. If you get too many results, add more letters to your search.
• Try searching by likely mispellings of the person's name (for example, Smith and Smyth, Lee and Li, Mitchell and Michell).
• Try searching on common nicknames or variations of the first name (for example, Jim, James, Jimmy).
• Ask if the person has a former name, such as a different last name because of marriage or divorce, and search for that former name. The person may already be listed in the system under that name, and you can then update the entry and add your sponsorship.
• Try switching the first and last name if the person is from a country where family name or surname is traditionally listed first.
• If you have information such as Social Security Number, birth date, and so on, use it in your search.

Tips: Examine the Potential Matches Carefully

1. Review the search results to see if the person you are sponsoring is already in the system.

   

2. Use the info, or i, button to get more detail about a particular entry. Within the identity record, you can click different tabs to see data from different sources:
   • M-Pathways tab. Shows data, if any, from M-Pathways.
   • Alumni tab. Shows data, if any, from the Donor Alumni Constituent (DAC) database.
   • Sponsor tab. Shows data, if any, from the MCommunity Sponsor System.
   • Dearborn tab. Shows data, if any, from the Dearborn Banner System.
   • Flint tab. This tab does not yet exist, but work is under way to add it and include data from the Flint Banner System.

   

3. If you find a match, select it and use it. You will then add your sponsorship to the existing entry.

   

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Appendix B. Communicating Passwords Securely

Conveying Passwords One at a Time

If the sponsored person is right there with you, you can write the password down on a piece of paper and give it to her or him. Do not write it down anywhere else.

In addition:

• Do not send a password via e-mail.
• If you are on the phone, be sure you are speaking to the right person.
• Do not leave the password in voicemail that someone other than the sponsored person might be able to access.

Inform the sponsored person that the initial password is intended to be temporary. The sponsored person should visit the Password Reset Page (https://accounts.itcs.umich.edu/kpasswd-bin/kpasswd.cgi) as soon as possible to change the password to something private that he or she can remember.

If you must convey the password to a requester, conference organizer, or other such person in your department, follow these same guidelines in getting the password to that person—and be sure that person knows and follows these guidelines in conveying the password to the sponsored indivdual.

Conveying Multiple Passwords Within the University

We recommend that you copy the list and paste it into an Excel file, as described in the instructions above for sponsoring multiple people using file import.

Print the list and hand it to the person who will distribute the passwords to the sponsored individuals, preferably along with a copy of these instructions for conveying passwords securely. Ensure that the printed list is not left on a printer or elsewhere where anyone else could see it. Delete the file from your computer as soon as you no longer need it. Once the passwords have been distributed, shred the paper list.

If you need to get the list to the requester electronically, we recommend that you do so by uploading the file to a secure location that only you and the requester have access to. Do not send the file via e-mail as an attachment.

You can use MFile via the web to create an appropriately permitted folder in your IFS home directory and upload the file there. We recommend that you create a Drop Box folder in your home directory. You can then create folders inside your Drop Box for each person to whom you need to convey password files.

1. Log in to MFile (http://mfile.umich.edu/) with your uniqname and UMICH Kerberos password. You will see a list of the folders in your IFS home directory.
2. Click the Create New Folder link.

   

3. Name your new folder Drop Box, then click Create.

   

4. Check the checkbox next to your Drop Box, then click the Set Permissions for Folder link.

   

5. Make sure permission checkboxes are checked appropriately:
   1. system:anyuser should have lookup rights only
   2. Your uniqname should have all rights.
   3. No other user should be listed. If another user is listed, uncheck all that user's rights checkboxes, then click Save Permissions.

   

6. You now have a Drop Box folder that any IFS user can see, but only you can see and work with what's inside it. Open your Drop Box folder by clicking its name.

   

7. Inside your Drop Box folder, click the Create a New Folder link.

   

8. In the Create a New Folder box that opens, give your folder a name, and click Create.

   

9. Check the checkbox next to your new folder, then click the Set Permissions for Folder link.

   

10. Your new folder will have "inherited" the same permissions as your Drop Box. In the Permissions Manager box,
    1. Uncheck the lookup checbox next to system:anyuser.
    2. In the text box at the bottom of the rights list, type the uniqname of the person you want to receive the file with the passwords.
    3. Check the lookup and read boxes next to that person's uniqname.
    4. Click Save Permissions.

    

11. You will see the new permissions that you just set. Click the X in the upper right corner of the Permissions Manager box to close it.

    

12. Open your new folder by clicking its name.

    

13. Inside your new folder, click the Upload File(s) link.

    

14. In the Upload Files to AFS box, click Browse.

    

15. Navigate among the files on your computer and select the appropriate one.
16. Click Upload File(s).

    

17. You will see the file listed inside your new folder. Copy the location information and paste it into a document or write it down. You will need to give this location information to the person who needs to retrieve the file.

    

18. Logout when you are finished using MFile. Once the requester has downloaded the file, be sure to delete it from your IFS home directory. (See instructions for deleting files in the mFile documentation.)

You can provide these instructions for retrieving the file to the person who requested the information. Also, be sure that person knows these guidelines for conveying passwords securely to the sponsored individuals. Each sponsored person should be directed to the Password Reset Page (https://accounts.itcs.umich.edu/kpasswd-bin/kpasswd.cgi) to change his or her password as soon as possible to something that he or she can remember.

1. Log in to MFile (http://mfile.umich.edu/) with your uniqname and UMICH Kerberos password.
2. Click the Change button that appears to the right of the location information.

   

3. Paste or type the location of the file to be downloaded in the Location box, then click Go.

   

4. Click the download icon (a small rectangle with a red arrow above it) next to the file name to download the file.

   

5. Log out from MFile when finished. When the file you downloaded is no longer needed, delete it from your computer's hard drive. While it is on your computer, ensure that no one else has access to it.

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Information and Technology Services