How to Sponsor a Guest

A sponsored guest is an individual who has an official business need for a PennKey, but is not a Penn faculty member, staff member, student or UPHS (University of Pennsylvania Health System) employee. Guests must be sponsored by a department. The process is usually initiated by a Business Administrator (BA) or Local Support Provider (LSP).

To request a Guest PennKey, Penn departments without a local PennKey Administration Station should download and print the guest PennKey form. The completed form should be faxed to ISC's PennKey Support Services, who will process the information and send the guest a PennKey Setup Code, which is needed in order to register a PennKey. If a department is associated with a PennKey Administration Station, please contact your local PennKey Administrator to process the guest PennKey request.

Penn employees with a UPHS affiliation, and members of Penn's biomedical community who want to sponsor someone for a PennKey should consult the PennKey page on the School of Medicine's Info Services web site for additional information. For CHOP affiliates new instructions made effective in January 2008 require that a sponsorship form be completed prior to making an appointment.

Other Penn faculty and staff who want to sponsor a guest should follow the procedure above for requesting a guest PennKey.

More information about Guest PennKeys

Each guest has an assigned affiliation based on their role while at Penn, such as Visiting Scholar, Volunteer, or Conference Guest. Although the generic affiliation of "Guest" is available, sponsors are encouraged to pick a more specific affiliation which closely matches the guest's role at the University. See a list of available affiliations and their descriptions in order to make the appropriate choice for your guest.

In addition, there are two types of PennKeys which can be issued to sponsored guests: Non-Persistent and Persistent.

Non-Persistent PennKeys are issued to individuals such as conference attendees and volunteers, who have a more fluid or shorter-term relationship to Penn.

• Non-Persistent PennKeys are not based on a guest's name, but take the form gNNNNNNN (where N is a numerical digit).
• Non-Persistent PennKeys always have a limited life-span and cannot be renewed.
• Individuals with Non-Persistent PennKeys cannot set a new password if they forget theirs. They need to obtain a new PennKey and a new PennID.
• US Social Security Number and birth date are not needed in order to create a Non-Persistent PennKey.
• Non-Persistent PennKey setup codes can be used to establish a PennKey username and password by visiting: http://www.upenn.edu/computing/pennkey/visitor.

Persistent PennKeys are issued to individuals who are expected to have a longer-term relationship to Penn.

• Persistent PennKeys are based on a user's name, just like the PennKeys issued to faculty, staff and students.
• Persistent PennKeys are renewable.
• Individuals with Persistent PennKeys can set a new password if they forget theirs.
• US Social Security Number and birth date are required to create a Persistent PennKey. (If a person has no US Social Security Number, only birth date is required.)
• Persistent PennKey setup codes can be used to establish a PennKey username and password by going here.