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Rule 4-003E Domain Name Requests

Effective date: April 9, 2019

  1. Purpose and Scope

    1. The purpose of this rule is to outline the process for authorizing and granting third level and Fourth-level Domain Names. The rule ensures that public Domain Names protect the University brand, mission and reputation; optimize search engine rankings; provide consistency to web visitors; enable individual units to have a global and local identity and to comply with trademark agreements.

    2. The scope includes all third and Fourth-level Domain Names in the public utah.edu domain space, including administrative, research, health sciences, patient care and academic units, which must be registered with University Information Technology which provides Domain Name services. Fourth-level and higher Domain Names are considered extensions of Third-level Domain Names governed by this rule.

    3. This rule supports section E, Domain Name Management, of the University of Utah World Wide Web Policy 4-003.

  2. Definitions

    1. “Domain Name” is a unique name in the hierarchical Domain Name System (DNS). A Domain Name may be used as the owner of DNS resource records. Depending on its resource records, a Domain Name serves a variety of purposes such as a hostname, an alias, or a subhierarchy used to group together other related Domain Names.

    2. "Domain Name Registrar” is an organization that manages the reservation of internet Domain Names. The University of Utah is the registrar for the utah.edu Domain Name.

    3. “Fifth-level Domain Name” is a Domain Name consisting of five labels, such as m.lib.med.utah.edu.

    4. “Fourth-level Domain Name” is a Domain Name consisting of four labels, such as lib.med.utah.edu or www.business.utah.edu. The www is counted as a domain level.

    5. “Redirect (URL Redirection, Domain Redirection)” is a technique for using a web page address that subsequently directs the web browser to deliver content from a different address. Redirection takes place on an HTML page-by-page basis, via server-side scripting, or on-demand from redirection services.

    6. “Second-level (root) Domain Name” is a Domain Name consisting of two labels, such as utah.edu.

    7. “Subdomain” is a Domain Name that falls under a parent Domain Name in the DNS hierarchy; for example, law.utah.edu is a subdomain of utah.edu.

    8. “Sub-directory” is a directory or folder that is served under the Domain Name; such as utah.edu/students or it.utah.edu/leadership/committee.html.

    9. “Third-level Domain Name” is a Domain Name consisting of three labels, such as umail.utah.edu or business.utah.edu.

    10. “Top-level Domain” is the highest level of Domain Names on the internet, such as com, net and org.

    11. “Uniform Resource Locator (URL)” specifies the location of a particular web resource and is referred to as a web address.

  3. Rule

    1. Organizational Units may request a Third-level Domain Name (e.g., it.utah.edu, honors.utah.edu, continue.utah.edu) from University Information Technology (UIT).

    2. Organizational Units may request a public-facing Fourth-level Domain Name (e.g., nutrition.health.utah.edu or marketing.business.utah.edu) from University Information Technology (UIT).

    3. Domain Name requests will be evaluated against guidelines for appropriateness; if approved, UIT will set up the Domain Name service.

    4. Public-facing Third-level Domain Names and Fourth-level Domain Names should enhance the web presence of the University of Utah. Domain Names should also:

      1. Minimize ambiguity

      2. Protect the brand and name of the University of Utah

      3. Avoid acronyms (exceptions may be made for highly recognizable institutional acronyms)

      4. Avoid clever names

      5. Avoid abbreviated names (full-word Domain Names improve search engine results)

    5. The use of Ute, Utes, or Swoop is reserved for Athletics only and must comply with legal agreements such as those signed with the Ute Tribe.

    6. Individual names (such as John) are not allowed as a Third-level Domain. Organizational Units may decide the structure for faculty pages, staff directories, lab pages, etc.

    7. Organizational Unit Domain Names. UIT will grant Third-level Domain Names and public-facing Fourth-level Domain Names that meet the guidelines for appropriateness based on the type of Organizational Unit. Domain Name assignments for organizational units will use the following criteria:

      1. Colleges/Departments – Colleges and schools are granted Third-level Domain Names upon request. Departments and programs may be granted Third-level Domain Names if prior permission and approval is obtained from the cognizant dean. Alternately, departments and programs may be hosted at a sub-directory level of the college or school domain (e.g. health.utah.edu/nutrition), or may be hosted on a Fourth-level Domain Name (e.g. nutrition.health.utah.edu).

      2. Business Units/departments – Business units are granted Third-level Domain Names upon request. Business departments and programs are typically hosted at a sub-directory level (e.g. hr.utah.edu/wellu), but may be granted Third-level Domain Names if prior permission and approval is obtained from the cognitive vice president. Business departments and programs may also be hosted on a Fourth-level Domain Name (e.g. wellu.hr.utah.edu).

      3. Centers and Institutes – Centers and Institutes may be granted a Third-level Domain Name if approved by the cognizant vice president.

      4. Interdisciplinary Programs – Interdisciplinary programs which may not be administered by a single college, school, or business unit may be granted a Third-level Domain Name if approved by the cognizant vice president.

      5. Central University Functions – Central University functions that are used by multiple audiences at the University such as Kronos, CIS, Umail or central enrollment functions such as admissions or tuition may be granted Third-level Domain Names.

    8. Non-organizational unit Domain Name requests. Certain non-organizational Domain Names may be requested using the policy exception process below.

      1. Special campaigns or events - Requests for Third-level Domain Names for special campaigns or events may be requested through the policy exception process.

      2. Multiple Domain Names - In rare cases, multiple Domain Names may be granted which resolve to the same Web Site (e.g. financialaid.utah.edu and scholarships.utah.edu). In such cases, requests should follow the policy exception process.

      3. Home page functions - All main utah.edu home page functions should be served from a subdirectory of utah.edu (e.g. utah.edu/events or utah.edu/news). Third-level Doman Names may be requested through the exception policy, such as search.utah.edu.

    9. All approved domain requests will be granted versions both with and without www (e.g. https://www.utah.edu and http://utah.edu).

    10. Grace Period - Existing Domain Names as of December 2018 will be maintained for a period of two years; by December 2020, all Domain Names must be registered and meet the requirements of this policy or the Domain Name will be deactivated.

    11. Any new Domain Name that is granted but not actively used within a one-year period will be deactivated.

    12. The Chief Information Officer will be responsible for purchasing the utah.edu domain and related Domain Names to protect the brand (e.g. as new top-level domains become available; .tv, .biz, etc.).

    13. Policy exceptions and appeals – If an administrative, research, health sciences, patient care or academic unit wishes to request a Domain Name outside of the policy, an exception may be granted. Requests for exception must be signed by the appropriate dean or cognizant authority and presented to the Office of the CIO. An exceptions/appeals committee consisting of the Deputy CIO, the Chief Information Officer and the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer or their designees will approve or deny the request and notify the requester within 10 working days. All decisions of the committee are final.

  4. Rules, Procedures, Guidelines, Forms and other Related Resources

    1. Rules

      1. TBD

    2. Procedures

      1. Domain Name request

      2. Domain policy exception requests TBD

      3. Domain policy decision appeals TBD

    3. Guidelines

      1. TBD

    4. Forms

      1. TBD

    5. Other Related Resources

      1. University Branding & Identity

      2. University Trademarks & Licensing

  5. References

    1. TBD

  6. Contacts

    The designated contact officials for this Policy are:

    1. Policy Owner (primary contact person for questions and advice): Deputy Chief Information Officer, 801-581-3100

    2. Policy Officer: Chief Information Officer, 801-581-3100

      These officials are designated by the University President or delegee, with assistance of the Institutional Policy Committee, to have the following roles and authority, as provided in University Rule 1-001:

      "A 'Policy Officer' will be assigned by the President for each University Policy, and will typically be someone at the executive level of the University (i.e., the President and his/her Cabinet Officers). The assigned Policy Officer is authorized to allow exceptions to the Policy in appropriate cases. "

      "The Policy Officer will identify an 'Owner' for each Policy. The Policy Owner is an expert on the Policy topic who may respond to questions about, and provide interpretation of the Policy; and will typically be someone reporting to an executive level position (as defined above), but may be any other person to whom the President or a Vice President has delegated such authority for a specified area of University operations. The Owner has primary responsibility for maintaining the relevant portions of the Regulations Library. [and] bears the responsibility for determining -requirements of particular Policies. " University Rule 1-001-III-B & E

  7. History

Current version: Revision 1, effective date: April 9, 2019

Approved by Academic Senate: April 1, 2019

Approved by Board of Trustees: April 9, 2019

Rule: 4-003E
Date: July 1, 2019
 
Last Updated: 12/18/24