Frequently Asked Questions
Branding
Q. Will the new e-mail addresses cause confusion with 'uillinois.edu' addresses?
A. While it is true there is only one letter difference between the two addresses, there is very little overlap between the audiences with which University Administration (uillinois) and the University of Illinois (illinois) work and communicate. Those that do deal with both are mainly internal audiences and know the difference between the two. In addition, UA resources receive a virtual e-mail address for the campus with which they are associated. So UA resources here on our campus also have a NetID@illinois.edu e-mail address.
Q. Will the email address for the Chicago and Springfield campuses also change?
The email addresses for Springfield and Chicago will not change. The enabling of illinois.edu is applicable only to the Urbana campus.
Q. Will the email addresses for University of Illinois Foundation, the Alumni Association, and University Administration also change?
No. The illinois.edu email address is applicable only to the Urbana campus.
Q: Why is the campus moving away from UIUC?
A: The Urbana-Champaign campus has been branded as Illinois for most of the school's history. For example, "Illinois Loyalty" was first performed in 1906, "Oskee Wow Wow" (which refers to the campus as Illinois) in 1911, "Alma Mater Illinois" in 1912, "Illinois Forever" and "For Good Old Illinois" in 1914, "The Good Old Songs They Sing at Illinois" in 1915, "Illinois Seniors Greetings" in 1918 and "The Homecoming Song: Loyal Songs of Illinois" in 1921. It was not until the late 1980s that the term UIUC began to appear with any frequency on institutional documents.
School song lyrics
Q: But now, doesn't everyone know us as 'UIUC?'
A: No. We know ourselves as UIUC. The research data shows that our external audiences know the campus as University of Illinois and Illinois.
Q: Isn't the Urbana campus being elitist at the expense of the other two campuses?
A: Illinois was chosen out of respect for the other campuses, market research data, and tradition. The University Administration worked with an agency to conduct market research which showed that UIS and UIC are well-established, though vastly newer, brands. Returning to the traditional Illinois brand avoids confusion with the University of Illinois system administration and the acronyms UIC and UIS.
Q: We've always been known as uiuc on the Web. Won't we lose brand recognition among that audience?
A: While uiuc has been the URL, the brand name Illinois has been emphasized on the home page since the first professionally designed page was released. Examples of previous iterations include 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, and on the new home page.
Q: UCLA and USC both use acronyms, and they have great brand recognition. What's wrong with being known as an acronym?
A: Research shows that Illinois is the strongest brand we have. With Illinois, no one has to wonder for what the acronym stands. The top-ranked universities in the world, including Illinois, refer to themselves with the name of their state or with a single word. Key examples: Berkeley, Stanford, Northwestern, Michigan, Wisconsin, Virginia and even Harvard.
The Illinois brand has a much deeper tradition and is already being used by major initiatives, including: Illinois Alumni magazine, Illinois Research Information Services, my.illinois student portal, Illinois (varsity athletic teams), Illinois International (international programs), Illinois Harvest (library project), Illinois Master Gardeners, Engineering at Illinois, Business at Illinois, Illinois MBA (and many other academic programs/units). These are just some examples of the breadth of the Illinois brand approach.
Q: But illinois.edu is longer than uiuc.edu.
A: That's not a problem; it takes only thousandths of a second to type four more letters, but the clarity and image it conveys adds value to every unit and initiative on campus.
Q: Won't we just go from being confused with UIC to being confused with the state of Illinois?
A: Context makes the difference very clear. No one seeing a red and white sticker that says Indiana on the back of the car thinks the person inside is a Hoosier state employee. The URL illinois.edu indicates that this is an educational site.
Q: Why do you keep talking about the Illinois brand? We aren't a brand; we're a university.
A: A brand is a collection of perceptions in the hearts and minds of your audience and the consistent expression of your organizations promise to stakeholders. The strength of our brand is closely tied to our reputation. We have to market ourselves to attract the best students, the best faculty and the best staff, as well as to secure funding to fulfill our mission.
Q: Why didn't you involve the other campuses in this decision?
A: The push to return to our historic roots was the result of a system-level effort to identify the strongest brands for each of the institutions in the University of Illinois System. It was approved by President Joe White.
Q: But if Urbana is allowed to be Illinois doesn't that give it a competitive edge over UIC and UIS?
A. The three distinct campuses in the University of Illinois system are not in competition with each other. Allowing Urbana to strive toward greater national and international recognition will benefit all campuses within the University of Illinois system.
Q: My reputation will suffer as a result of this change. I'm known through my uiuc.edu e-mail address in published material.
A: The institution with which you're affiliated is a large part of your reputation. The stronger our university's image is, the better your reputation.
Q: Isn't this an unfunded mandate for the IT community?
A: This is part of the everyday duties of IT professionals. The Chancellor has put a high priority on this effort which should, in turn, prioritize your other work.
Q: Our e-mail address might be more meaningful if our NetIDs were more meaningful. Can't you fix that?
A: While it is true that NetIDs are limited by character length, changing the NetID system is actually much more complicated than one might think. Each of the three campuses uses NetIDs, which are not unique among the three campuses.
Q: The uiuc.edu domain name carries a lot of prestige among the original Internet community because it signifies that our campus was an Internet pioneer.
A: The number of people who recognize the historical significance of the UIUC address is very small. Research proves that the outside world recognizes us as "Illinois" while "UIUC" has very little meaning for them.
Q: Doesn’t 'UIUC' gets more Google hits than 'Illinois?'
A: A quick Google of "illinois" shows that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the fourth entry returned. However, research has proven that the majority of users find us by Googling "University of Illinois." And while UIUC appears to have more hits according to Google analytics, the reality is that the numbers are inflated because of our own community of users hitting our Web pages. Students, faculty, and staff are checking their e-mail, searching from the home page, bookmarking pages visited frequently, and the like. All these hits falsely inflate the hit numbers.
Q: What about the other universities and colleges in Illinois? Is the Urbana campus being elitist at their expense by using illinois.edu?
A: No. The Urbana campus is one of the original 37 public land-grant institutions created after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862. The Act called for land-grant bill to pay for a system of colleges, one in each state.
Communications
Q. What do I tell people outside of the campus with whom I communicate?
You can tell them that they can now reach you at illinois.edu. If they have your old email saved in an address book, they should update your entry with your new email address.
E-mail Configuration
Q. How do I configure my e-mail client for @illinois.edu?
A. CITES has documented the instructions for updating all supported e-mail clients in use on campus. Please follow this link ==> http://www.cites.illinois.edu/email/uiuctoillinois/updating.html
Q. How do I update my mailing list subscriptions?
A. CITES has documented the instructions for updating your mailing list subscriptions. Please follow this link ==> http://www.cites.illinois.edu/uiuctoillinois/mailinglists.html
Q. Will my old uiuc.edu email address still work?
A. Yes. All existing uiuc.edu email addresses will continue to work indefinitely.
Listservs
Q. How will listservs and other distribution lists be updated with the new email addresses?
A. For CITES listservs, a domain has been implemented that will eliminate the need to unsubscribe and resubscribe with the new e-mail address.
NetIDs
Q. Can I change my NetID?
A. Changes to NetIDs are not part of the scope of this project. You can contact the CITES Help Desk to find out more about how to change your NetID.
Print Materials
Q. Do I need to update my stationery? (letterhead, business cards, etc.)
A. With the opening of the new domain, departments can now begin the process of updating print materials after they have already enabled their new domain name.
Q. Should I use the new email address anytime I list an address in a publication or newsletter?
A. Yes.
Q. What will happen to papers that have already been published with my old email address or Web address?
A. In a mass mail dated 8/22/08, Chancellor Richard Herman stated that the campus will not relinquish the rights to the uiuc.edu domain name. While we continue to build the Illinois brand, we recognize that legacy addresses linked to historic e-mail addresses and URLs will continue to work.
Security/Logins
Q. Are there any changes to Bluestem logins or Nessie logins?
Because Bluestem and Nessie do not authenticate on email addresses, they are not affected by this change. Other applications that require your entire email address will be updated over time. Communications will be sent out prior to any changes.
Q. Will the UIUC Kerberos realms be moved to illinois.edu?
A. There are no plans at this time to move Kerberos realms to illinois.edu.
Updating your Web site
Q. What about Web sites that list uiuc.edu email addresses?
A. Campus Web sites that display email addresses or use links to email addresses should be updated with the new illinois.edu email addresses. Webmasters and department IT Pros will need to make these updates. The changes should be made in coordination with departmental email addresses being updated.
Q. What do I do about outside Web sites I have to log into using my uiuc.edu email address?
A. You can still log into external websites. However, we strongly encourage you to update your log-in information to reflect your new illinois.edu email address.
Q. When will the listing in PH of name@uiuc.edu be changed to name@illinois.edu?
A. The actual data that populates a Ph entry as seen in the people search from the illinois.edu home page will be updated with the implementation of the new CITES Central Registry. The e-mail hyperlink in the upper left corner has been updated.
Where to Get More Information
Q. Where do I go for more information?
A. There are two sources for information depending on what you need. Technical information is stored on a pubic Wiki ==> https://wiki.cites.uiuc.edu/wiki/x/OYV6AQ. More general project information is on a project Web site http://illinois.edu/goto/illinoisdomainproject.
