Website Improvement

Follow UND's website improvements.

Where Are You?

Our people are our greatest assets. Our faculty are some of the most knowledgeable and accomplished individuals in their respective fields. Our staff are highly dedicated professionals who contribute to the campus community. So, where are our people?

UND Today highlights many stories but it isn’t feasible to tell everyone’s story. The retired Research Experts database attempted to house all faculty research expertise in one database but wasn’t fully adopted. Sometimes our faculty showcase their expertise on their own blogs, research websites and LinkedIn. Sometimes there isn’t any public information at all.

Coming Together

The new website will address this issue with a robust People Finder, an online searchable database of individual faculty and staff members.

The People Finder is very similar to the previous Faculty Finder. The main difference; however, is the People Finder will be the ONLY place on UND.edu where public faculty/staff bio information is housed. As each wave becomes live, there will no longer be bio pages on individual department or research group pages. All UND.edu sites will link directly to individual People Finder profiles instead of hosting their own bio pages.

Why Are We Doing This?

  1. Improve Organic Search – One central profile page will eliminate duplicate content and elevate profiles pages in the site architecture. This means search engines will have an easier time finding our people and we’ll stop competing against ourselves in search.
  1. Help Media – Journalists are always in need of experts to speak on current news topics. University faculty are a primary source for interviews, articles and quotes. The People Finder will make it easier for journalists to tap our faculty for media spots.
  1. Share Stories – We’re trying to tell better stories, and in particular, stories that demonstrate we’re ‘Leaders in Action’. Having our accomplishments stored in one location makes it easier to find and share these stories.
  1. Recruit Graduate Students – Many graduate students identify the faculty member they want to work with before making a school choice. They look for shared research interests, current publications and ways to contact the faculty member.
  1. Attract Prospective Faculty – Individuals looking for faculty positions follow a similar process, and want to know who their colleagues will be, what research they may collaborate on, and what opportunities they will have to improve their own standing once hired.
  1. Connect Faculty – Faculty need a space to show the world what they’ve accomplished, find research collaborators and record their work.

Update Your Profile

Only you can control the content in your online profile. Please start populating your own profile now by following the directory instructions. There is no need to wait for your wave. All data will automatically transfer to the new site during the launch of Wave 1 in April 2018. You won’t have to take any extra steps to get your profile information in the new site.

Check out some of these profiles to get ideas on how to update your own profile:

Use a Professional Headshot

Free professional headshot services are available to University faculty and staff. Visit the Office of Marketing & Creative Services website for more information.

Follow UND Writing Guidelines

UND has a standard writing guideline for all web and print materials. However, each unit may have a preferred style manual.