Domain Names and Redirects

Owned by Melissa Chavira
Last updated: Jun 14, 2023
2 min read

Purpose

Internet addresses, including domain names, are an important part of the NMSU web presence. A domain name — the address of the site — becomes a trademark asset of New Mexico State University.

Domain names are part of the identity of the university and communicate the university’s image and reputation to the public. Consistent domain usage may also be a tool for users to better locate services; thus, domains should be assigned in an easily recognizable and predictable structure. To ensure that domain names are assigned and used appropriately and in alignment with institutional goals, the university has established standard operating guidelines for governing domain names. These domain guidelines apply to websites and any person who wishes to assign a domain name to computer resources associated with NMSU and/or hosted on the NMSU network.

Requirements

Websites under the  nmsu.edu domain will follow an established naming convention that web visitors understand intuitively and can remember. 

Domain Naming Conventions

Domain names used for institutional and academic websites should reflect their relationship with the University. All administrative and academic websites on University servers should use nmsu.edu  domain names in the form of xxxx.nmsu.edu for public facing websites and inside.nmsu.edu/xxx for non-public facing websites.

Standard Criteria

  • Domain names should accurately reflect the department, program, or activities to which they refer.

  • Your site name should be short and memorable. You will probably need to publish the address in print and visitors will need to manually type the address.

  • Your site name must be unique. (One name cannot point to two different sites.)

  • The name should not be confusing or similar to another name that easy-to-make errors lead visitors to the wrong place.

  • The name must not be obscene or considered obscene.

  • The name must not conflict with or cause confusion with the name of another site — or potential site — at NMSU.

  • Avoid abbreviations or acronyms that are four letters or less, such as ece.nmsu.edu or chem.nmsu.edu unless your audience knows your organization or topic by that abbreviation, contraction, or acronym. 

Domain and Domain Redirect Management

ICT will manage all domain names. All requests regarding official university web sites shall use domain names within the nmsu.edu namespace.

Standard Criteria

  • MARCOMM reserves the right to issue .com, .org and .net names as needed to protect the NMSU brand or for specific marketing purposes. Users must obtain prior approval from MARCOMM to use any non-nmsu.edu domain name, including names ending in .org, .net, .com, etc.

  • ICT will create temporary redirects for a maximum duration of 6 months. For a permanent solution, an alias can be assigned to your website.

  • Permanent domain redirects are not permitted. 

Domain Exceptions

Technical or business reasons may sometimes necessitate non-nmsu.edu domain names for units or program websites, especially in cases of co-branded partnerships or vendor-hosted services. In such cases, whenever possible, ICT will create temporary web redirects under nmsu.edu  for promotional purposes in consultation with MARCOMM.