Student Organization Subdomain Moratorium

Campus wants to rename your website and email addresses

March 1, 2023

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TL;DR: The university is revoking all existing *.berkeley.edu domains for student organizations, and mandating migration to *.studentorg.berkeley.edu. All new allocations are put on hold until this occurs and will subsequently also be provisioned as *.studentorg.berkeley.edu.

If you'd like to voice your feelings on this subject, please direct your comments to:

• Patrick Holmes: pholmes@berkeley.edu
  Executive Director of the Department of Marketing and Digital Communications
• Jeff Woods: jeff.woods@berkeley.edu
  Director of Fraternity & Sorority Life

If you have questions for the OCF (or would like to CC us on communication with the two aforementioned university representatives), please contact: subdomains@ocf.berkeley.edu

Final Statement

The Open Computing Facility (OCF) is deeply dissapointed in the proclamation made by the UC Berkeley Department of Marketing and Digital Communications today. It displays a concerning lack of attention, care, and respect for the student body from administrators who are purportedly here for the benefit of the students. We also condemn the use of the OCF name in this announcement. The OCF's (and by extension the student body's) concerns were not "carefully considered", instead they were wholly ignored. Furthermore, the responsibility of migrating the websites of hundreds of student groups has now been thrust onto the all-volunteer staff of the OCF - seemingly without clear guidance or instruction from those making this decision. We appreciate the vast amounts of support from the ASUC and many other student organizations during this process and are grateful to have formed new partnerships with our users through this experience. Thank you.

Read the university's announcement here:
https://brand.berkeley.edu/news/top-level-sub-domain-name-changes-student-organizations

General Overview

Since 1998, the Open Computing Facility has hosted websites for UC Berkeley students, faculty, and staff. Currently we host websites for 633 student organizations. As an integral part of the UC Berkeley community, student groups until recently were allowed to register a subdomain of berkeley.edu for these websites (i.e. group.berkeley.edu). Sites must be pre-approved by both the OCF team and the university hostmaster (who allocates the subdomains). The OCF constantly monitors these sites for violations of university policy after their release, and resolves each issue in a timely manner.

Recently, the UC Berkeley Department of Marketing and Digital Communications has decided that no registered student organizations shall be allowed to have a berkeley.edu subdomain. Their main concerns are (1) that student websites are not accessible to the standard required by the WCAG 2.0 (AA) Success Criteria and (2) that this then places liability on the university for the use of its brand image by student groups. Notably, however, student groups are exempt from the WCAG 2.0 (AA) Success Criteria.

Despite several attempts to explain the importance of a berkeley.edu subdomain and massive impacts of removing this service (as well as providing suggestions for compromises), the marketing department has not changed their plans. As of today, this is the official policy of UC Berkeley - student groups may not hold berkeley.edu domains. All existing subdomains must be changed. As far as we are aware, there will be no exceptions to this rule.

The OCF recently conducted a survey of all hosted student organizations. Almost 90% of these groups responded that they oppose the change and nearly all feel it is a negative step for the university.

Mainly, this change will break all links pointing to all student sites. Every flyer, poster, document, and more produced over the last 20 years will have to be reprinted at the expense of the student group. Each and every industry contact at every student organization will have to be told to change their contact - otherwise the contact will be lost forever.

Groups may then favor a shorter .org or .com domain. Since we do not provide these domains, we cannot regulate them and ensure they comply with campus technical, legal, and marketing requirements. Not to mention the price that groups would have to pay to purchase and continually renew an external domain.

The OCF, in response to this, is committed to opposing the change on behalf of the student body. An attempt like this was made in 2013, but was successfully repealed by the OCF with the support of students, staff, and faculty. Students are what makes UC Berkeley a world-class educational institution, and should be afforded the technical tools required to maintain that reputation. Questions, comments, or support should be directed to subdomains@ocf.berkeley.edu.

Historical Timeline

Below is a list of the major developments that have occurred since we were made aware of this issue. Between each of these landmarks, the OCF has been meeting with relevant entities to attempt to resolve this issue.

• 06/24/2022: The university requires all new *.berkeley.edu domains requested by student groups to submit responses to new screening questions
• 09/29/2022: The first domain is rejected by the university
• 11/03/2022: After a long chain of communication with various campus entites, the OCF makes contact with the Department of Marketing and Digital Communications
• 11/15/2022: The Daily Cal reports on the "surprising and frustrating" subdomain changes
• 11/12/2022: OCF sends out a survey to student organizations that have a *.berkeley.edu domain to gather feedback on the change
• 03/01/2023: OCF & ASUC Office of the CTO launch an ASUC Senate resolution opposing the change publicly
• 03/15/2023: The ASUC senate resolution SR 22/23-041 passes with a resounding majority and is co-signed by 148 organizations
• 05/26/2023: After ignoring the senate resolution and further input from the OCF, the university publishes a document mandating all student organizations migrate to *.studentorg.berkeley.edu domains

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The Open Facility for Computing is an all-volunteer, student-run organization. It was founded in 1989 to serve the interests of the UC Berkeley campus community.

Questions or comments about this change? Please reach out to subdomains@ocf.berkeley.edu.