Newcomers: Your virtual identity

Medical ID

In the physical world, your UMSM ID badge permits you to enter Medical campus facilities.  Every employee and student also needs a virtual ID -- called the Medical ID -- that, in combination with an associated password, allows access to the Medical campus information network and to many of its resources.

Supervisors request Medical IDs for new employees.  Students receive their Medical IDs via requests from academic departments.  (Physical ID badges are obtained from the Department of Security, and requested via a separate process.)

If you have problems obtaining a Medical ID, or trouble logging in with the one you have, contact the Help Desk.

Other virtual IDs

In addition to your Medical ID you will need to secure other virtual IDs for full access to the University's information technology resources.  That includes:

  • a C-number (a.k.a., your "employee number" or "student number"),
  • a CaneID (used for utilities like MyUM),
  • a global email alias, and
  • login credentials for particular applications. 

In most cases, these IDs already exist for you.  Unfortunately, discovering them -- and, where necessary, setting passwords for them -- is not a one-stop process.  For information about where to go and what steps to take to obtain each one, click here.

IDs of the future

The need to have multiple IDs (and passwords) is one of the more frustrating aspects of using information resources today.  We are working to establish a single identification credential that will allow secure access to all (or at least most) systems.