This doesn’t come up too much, and when it does it is a hot topic! So that we are all on the same page, here is a run-down of how we use college domains / URLs. Use of the umn.edu domain is covered on the University brand site.
Academic / Administrative Unit
Use cehd.umn.edu/unit
This shows relationship to the college and University.
Collegewide Centers
Use cehd.umn.edu/unit
This shows relationship to the college and University.
Level 4 Center or Project
Use cehd.umn.edu/unit/project or cehd.umn.edu/project. This shows relationship to the unit, college and University.
When the center or project involves University units outside of the college a custom umn.edu domain may be more appropriate. Such as project.umn.edu.
Do keep in mind, the college may not be able to support a site off the cehd.umn.edu domain so have a solid plan in place to build and maintain any site hosted outside the college.
Common problems to watch out for are as follows:
- Student who built the site graduated, no one knows how to update the site.
Make sure more than one person can maintain the site. - No one remembers who registered the domain name or how to login.
Make sure multiple people have this information. - External vendor developed site, wants more money for basic edits.
Make sure to budget for general maintenance such as content edits, or adding sections.