An ITS project several years in the making is scheduled for completion this summer. When W&L originally implemented its campus email environment, the university adopted multiple Microsoft tenants (e.g., Undergraduate, Law, and Staff), which was a common recommendation at the time. This approach helped simplify licensing and aligned with the early limitations of cloud‑based identity and collaboration tools. Today, modern Microsoft 365 governance, security, and identity capabilities make these separations unnecessary. Multiple tenants now introduce added complexity, while a single tenant enables stronger security, simpler administration, and a more cohesive campus experience.

What Improvements Can Users Expect to See?

• Microsoft Teams is one of the areas that benefits most from consolidation. Student collaboration with staff happens both inside and outside the classroom through advising, research projects, student employment, internships, campus jobs, and more. In a single tenant, Teams meetings, chats, and shared workspaces can be created without workarounds, allowing staff and students to collaborate naturally and securely. This reduces confusion, eliminates access issues, and can improve continuity when students change roles or graduate.
• A single tenant also improves how we use Outlook and calendaring, scheduling, and address books across campus. Shared calendars and meeting invitations work more reliably when everyone is in the same tenant. Staff can more easily coordinate with students for advising, support services, and campus events, without worrying about cross‑tenant visibility or delivery issues.
• Administrative and support processes also benefit from tenant consolidation. Tools like Microsoft Forms, Bookings, WhiteBoard and OneNote work best in a single tenant, enabling smoother workflows for things like student requests, approvals, scheduling, and notifications. These tools can be shared and reused across departments without technical limitations.
• Finally, a single tenant strengthens security, compliance, and identity management. With one account per person, the university can apply consistent security policies, auditing, and lifecycle management. This reduces risk and makes it easier to manage transitions as individuals move between roles such as student, employee, or alumnus.

In short, moving to a single Microsoft tenant allows the university to operate more cohesively. It removes unnecessary technical barriers, enhances collaboration between students and staff, and enables Microsoft’s collaboration tools to better support teaching, learning, and business processes across campus.