The KAUST Information Technology Department blog
01 December, 2025
Celebrating new opportunities while keeping our KAUST data tidy, secure, and accessible.
Change is a natural and positive part of life at KAUST. Colleagues grow, take on new challenges, join new teams, or move into exciting roles in other areas of the University. We celebrate their success and wish them the very best.
There is one small but important step that often gets overlooked when someone moves: their access to SharePoint sites, Microsoft Teams, and shared documents. When we forget to clean this up, it can quietly create security risks, confusion, and extra work for everyone.
Key reminder: when a colleague changes teams or departments, their job changes, but their SharePoint and Teams permissions do not automatically change. Someone has to update them.
When a colleague moves on but keeps their previous access, three common issues can appear.
A colleague might continue using synced SharePoint libraries or shortcuts on their laptop because they still appear in their file explorer. If those locations contain confidential documents, internal team discussions, or operational data, this becomes a data-governance and privacy risk if not reviewed and adjusted.
When someone still has access after leaving a team, they can unintentionally rename a folder, move a file, or update content that an active team is still working on. These small changes can disrupt projects, approvals, or reporting cycles.
If the person who moved was the only one managing access requests, the team may suddenly find itself unable to add new members, grant temporary access, or resolve permission issues quickly. Work slows down, and people lose time trying to figure out who can help.
No SharePoint site or Microsoft Team should rely on a single person to manage permissions. Having at least 2–3 owners is a simple but powerful way to keep things running smoothly:
| Role | Primary focus |
|---|---|
| Site / Team Owners | Manage membership and permissions, respond to access requests, and ensure the right people have the right level of access. |
| Librarians / Data Custodians | Organize content, maintain folder structures and metadata, and keep libraries, lists, and documents well structured and easy to find. |
| Members | Contribute to content, collaborate on documents, and use the site or Team in their daily work. |
Good practice: the people who care for content do not always need to be the same people who manage access. Separating content and access roles keeps your SharePoint environment healthier and easier to manage.
Moving into a new role, inside or outside KAUST, is a positive step. To support that transition and protect the team’s work, it is important to review their digital footprint on SharePoint and Teams.
Cleaning up SharePoint and Teams permissions is not about locking people out. It is about protecting the collaboration, trust, and knowledge that teams build over time.
When access is intentional and up to date, teams avoid delays, reduce risk, and make it easier for new colleagues to join and contribute. And when a colleague moves on to their next chapter, they can do so with confidence, knowing their former team’s information remains safe, organized, and in good hands.
A few minutes of digital housekeeping at each transition keeps our KAUST collaboration spaces clean, secure, and ready for whatever comes next.
