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Institutional Shared Drives

LC refers to our managed Shared Drives as Institutional Shared Drives. These Institutional Shared Drives will hold data that the college will own long term, beyond any departures of individual stakeholders. These Institutional Shared Drives can be requested by end users and are created by IT, while the management of each individual drive is performed by the assigned individuals in the Shared Drive. Read below to learn more about the Approval Process and details of Standard Institutional Shared Drives.

These Shared Drive managers may be department heads, department chairs, research leads, or special project stakeholders. Multiple managers can be assigned to an Institutional Shared Drive, although only 1 is recommended, with other team members holding a different access level. IT will only assign 1 manager, although that manager can assign co-managers. Students should NEVER be assigned a manager role.

Shared Drives

In general, Google Shared Drives are Drives that exist within Google Drive with the purpose of team ownership, rather than individual ownership. The files stay in the Shared Drive so your team can keep sharing information and work anywhere, even if the member that created the file leaves. Each Shared Drive has a Manager that can manage the content, people, and settings. Within Shared Drives, Managers can assign access levels such as Content Manager, Contributor, Commenter, and Viewer. Individuals or Google Groups can be assigned an access level within the Shared Drive, with a maximum of 600 members and 100 groups. Shared Drives can be accessed through the web, mobile device applications, or desktop applications.

Standard Institutional Shared Drives

LC will create Institutional Shared Drives for certain user groups or categories based on storage usage and needs. Some of these Institutional Shared Drives have already been created, while the rest will be created as a result of conversations between IT and stakeholder groups. Below, you can review a list of these Institutional Shared Drives. These Shared Drives will have a default 25GB capacity.

Academic Departments
Academic Research (300GB default capacity)
Operational Departments
Student Life (1 provisioned drive for all student groups)

Extended capacity is available on a case by case basis. To request an extended capacity, please contact your department head to submit a request to IT.

If you have a need for an Institutional Shared Drive that is not fulfilled by your Department Shared Drive, please submit a Shared Drive Request. Details on the Shared Drive Request and use cases are below.

Institutional Shared Drive Request

Institutional Shared Drives can be requested and approved on a case by case basis. Institutional Shared Drives are not meant to be used in lieu of your LC account Google Storage. Shared Drives should not be requested for use by a single individual. Shared Drives should meet the needs of a research team, group, or department. Institutional Shared Drives are to be used for data owned or created for the college, with the purpose of collaboration with other members of the college. Using Institutional Shared Drives ensures that important work remains with the college beyond any personnel changes.

Below are some examples of Shared Drive Requests that are likely to be approved.

Research projects
Multimedia storage that requires active collaboration
Collaborative work with students
Hiring committees that require confidentiality
Special request from the department director
Confidential matters or projects for groups that have privacy and sharing concerns
Requests from the President of the college

To submit an Institutional Shared Drive request, please fill out this form with details.

Approval Process

IT will be the first point of contact for reviewing the request. The request will be reviewed using the guidelines that have been set above, as well as the guidelines setup by the IT Council.

If IT does not approve your request, you will receive a response with further details, as well as the process to work with your direct supervisor to appeal the decision. Not all requests may be approved, if there is no direct need for an Institutional Shared Drive or if alternative solutions exist.

Institutional Shared Drives