The Provost’s Office has developed a new website that provides faculty and staff with quick and easy access to a wide range of information regarding the operations, services, policies, and procedures of the University.

The Faculty and Staff Resource Guide provides brief information in handbook style, with links to appropriate websites of the University that have more detailed information.

For example, the topic “Administration and Governance” provides, among other information, a brief description of the University’s chief administrative officers, the University Senate, and various student government entities. The topic “Instruction” has a wealth of information on sub-topics from academic advising and exam procedures to scheduling of classes and how to submit grades.

The Resource Guide was conceived as a way to provide faculty with information regarding the risks they face daily and how to handle them, including liability laws, bringing undergraduates into a research lab, or what to do when an emergency occurs during a class. The idea was brought to a focus group “and it just snowballed,” says Nancy Bull, vice provost for academic administration.

When the group decided to add resources for UConn staff to the guide, it grew still more, and now includes links to 49 topic areas, many of which have dropdown menus of subtopics. Additional focus groups with faculty, staff, and administrators added to the expansion of the site, and resulted in site improvements, such as a site-specific search engine.

Each topic and subtopic offers clear, concise (not more than three brief paragraphs for most) explanations and appropriate links for more detailed information.

“It’s a work in progress,” says Bull. “We wanted it to be a topical guide more than an organizational guide. There are more topics that could be added, and this will expand over time.”