The University of Louisiana at Lafayette is disconnecting one of its web domains at the end of this week: ull.edu.
Of course, the University is retaining Louisiana.edu, its official domain name.
For the past few years, both URLs had worked to access the University’s website, though only Louisiana.edu had been promoted.
“The secondary ull.edu domain is not compatible with the University’s name and nickname policy,” said Aaron Martin, director of Communications and Marketing. “Removing it is a significant step to further our brand.”
The University's name policy is available at http://tinyurl.com/No-ULL.
“Affirming the single Louisiana.edu domain will not only strengthen the University’s brand, it also will enhance our website’s search engine optimization,” Martin said.
The University launched a new website design in April 2013 and expects to update some 200 college, department and center websites during the next three years, according to Aimee Bullinger, associate director of web communications.
“We've received an overwhelmingly favorable response to the new website. We credit its success to the input from our campus community during the development process,” Bullinger said.
Preparing in June for the URL’s retirement, the Office of Communications and Marketing began sending messages to campus members who had been using ull.edu for email addresses and to websites with links to ull.edu URLs. During the summer, ull.edu Web pages had been redirected to respective louisiana.edu pages to prime users.
Effective Aug. 30, email messages sent to ull.edu addresses will not be deliverable. Senders will receive a bounce message explaining that the destination address does not exist.
The ull.edu URL will stop redirecting to individual pages. It will redirect to the Louisiana.edu main page. Later in September, it will no longer redirect to Louisiana.edu at all.
Campus users who need assistance with an email account or website should contact the IT Help Desk at ithelp@louisiana.edu or 337-482-HELP (4357).