Box Frequently Asked Questions

Box is a cloud content management tool, allowing you to access your content securely anywhere, on any device.

Box enables you to collaborate and share content between multiple departments in one simple tool.

Active Oberlin faculty, staff, and students are eligible to use Box. Departmental or group accounts are not eligible.

Upon graduation, you will receive an email notifying you that Oberlin will be migrating your account to a personal account. We recommend adding a secondary non @oberlin.edu email address on your account before your account migrates to a personal account. 15 days after you receive this email, your account will be automatically migrated to a personal account with a 50 GB quota. If your account contains more than 50GB, it will become read-only until you delete enough content that you are below this quota or you purchase additional space from Box. After your account has been migrated, we recommend changing the primary email address so that you continue to receive notifications from Box. For further questions, please contact the CIT Help Desk at 440-775-8197.

Upon leaving the college, you will receive an email notifying you that the contents of your Box account will be transferred to your immediate supervisor on your departure date. This data will stay with Oberlin. For further questions, please contact the CIT Help Desk at 440-775-8197.

You should be able to access your Box account anywhere you have full access to the internet. In countries where internet access is restricted Box may not be available. In restricted areas, using VPN (Virtual Private Network) may enable you to access Box.

Oberlin Box accounts:

•  Unlimited storage in the cloud
•  Maximum upload size of 15 GB for a single file
•  File versioning
•  Password protected sharing

Box Free accounts:

•  50 GB of free cloud storage 
•  250 MB maximum upload size for a single file
•  You cannot do password protected sharing
•  No detailed file version history

Box is intended for institutional data only. If you are a faculty or staff member, you should not store any personal content in Box. Upon your departure from the college, all content of your Box will be transferred to your immediate supervisor. 

If you are a student, you are encouraged to use Box primarily for school-related work, but you may also store personal content in Box.

Box is both FERPA and HIPAA compliant. You may store:

•  Data secured on PCI-DSS (Credit Card Info)
•  Digital Health Records
•  Federally Protected Research Data (e.g., CUI)
•  Sensitive personal info (e.g., SSN, driver’s license)
•  Sensitive financial info (e.g., tax records, student loans, bank info)

If you have any additional questions about what data should be stored in Box, please contact the CIT Help Desk at 440-775-8197.