Emails that are retained forever aren't free. There are storage, network and administrative costs associated with an email service. Services like GMail aren't free. Google sells the everloving sh*t out of your personal data to not only cover the costs of providing you an email survice, but they also profit off of it handsomely. UF doesn't do this. There is no revenue model associated with your UF email account. The expense of providing you with a university mail service is associated with your tuition. If they allowed access to UF email for everybody for eternity, this expense would compound with no way to cover the costs.

UF email should be treated like professional email. I have email for work and I treat it as such. I have absolutely no expectation that my employer will provide me access to that email after I've left the company. None of my friends know it. It's used strictly for work. I use GMail for anything outside of work. When a professional relationship transitions to a personal one, I encourage them to keep in contact via my personal email address, not my professional one. If your UF email allows for mail forwarding, I'd recommend forwarding to your "forever" account. This way, when you reply, your friends will naturally transition to using your personal email, not your "professional" one long before you're at risk of losing your UF email account.