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UM Website and Email Administration

The public website of the University of Missouri System is maintained by Strategic Communications. Please contact us for public questions or requests for information.


Requesting updates

When making requests, please make note of the following.

Please include the full URL of the page to be changed along with any attached documentation and specific instructions including:

  • Full URL or URLs of the page or pages to be changed
  • Detailed instructions on what needs to be changed, including the location on the page (such as paragraph numbers) of the changes
  • Any supporting documents or files

One convenient way to submit changes to copy and paste the text of the page you would like changed into Word and then mark up the document using the "track changes" feature.

The following turnarounds and timelines apply:

The UM website support team will strive to make all reasonable updates within 24 hours or less. Updates that include the creation or editing of more than a few pages will be scheduled individually. Timelines can vary from several days to several weeks depending on the extent of the content. Dynamic pages including forms, automation or database features will be scheduled at a project level.

All updates can be requested via email at updates@umsystem.edu.


Style policies

The University of Missouri System uses Associated Press style on all pages, with the exception of specially-indicated styles that pertain to the university. These exceptions can be found in the Strategic Communications Style Guide.

While all content is reviewed prior to posting, submitters should proofread content for spelling, grammar and clarity before submission. Due to the specialized nature of much of the content found on our site, it is not always possible for us to identify or correct errors. Strategic Communications reserves the right to edit content for style, spelling and grammar.


Mass Emails

The University of Missouri System utilizes mass email software client, managed by the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing, to distribute emails to large audiences. When reading mass emails, as with any email, practice caution by avoiding hyperlinks or URLs that seem untrustworthy and by leaving suspicious emails unopened. When in doubt, independently search the internet for information referenced in an email, rather than clicking links contained within them. Get more tips for staying safe online from the University of Missouri Division of IT.

Please note that the University’s mass email software adds extra characters to all URLs in order to collect analytics (e.g., how many readers clicked on a hyperlink), so they may indeed seem odd to you. For example:

  • A link that usually looks like this: www.umsystem.edu/president-blog/031017_blog
  • Will turn into this in a mass email: https://umsystem.edu/president-blog/031017_blog&tempid=fe35fe486bef42ffa752eb6f30de375e&mailid=5b3490f7d91a7528b81cb615ec053b99

This is true of most mass email software clients (e.g., MailChimp or Constant Contact). If you ever worry about the trustworthiness of a hyperlink or URL provided in an email sent by the University’s mass email software, however, you may search independently for the information, as suggested above, or use the contact information in the email’s text to call or email the appropriate contact. Every hyperlink provided in a University email should be followed by a static version of the URL address in parentheses. Those addresses should always begin with a trusted university URL path, such as umsystem.edu, umurl.us (for UM’s tiny URLs), missouri.edu, umkc.edu, mst.edu or umsl.edu.

The mass email software client is reserved for disseminating the most time-sensitive, high-level mass emails, which are generally requested from the University of Missouri Board of Curators, the UM System president or UM System vice presidents. If you are a UM System employee and need to disseminate a mass email, please contact updates@umsystem.edu with questions or for a copy of the mass email policy.


SharePoint site request

Windows SharePoint Services allows teams to create websites that can be used for information sharing, document collaboration and team productivity. SharePoint Services is a great tool to create useable intranet sites (in most cases, users will need to have a UM-affiliated email address to access SharePoint sites).

A SharePoint site can be requested through Division of IT's MyServices resource. It is recommended that you first request a consultation via updates@umsystem.edu before making the request.

Enabling Pass-through Windows Authentication for SharePoint sites

For Internet Explorer:

Pass-through authentication will allow you to pass your login credentials to your SharePoint site automatically. This method will also reduce any instances of login prompts when opening up documents on a SharePoint site. To enable pass-through authentication in Internet Explorer:

  1. Click on TOOLS -> INTERNET OPTIONS
  2. At the top of the INTERNET OPTIONS window, click on the SECURITY tab
  3. Click on the LOCAL INTRANET icon and then click on the SITES button directly below
  4. When the LOCAL INTRANET window appears, click the ADVANCED button at the bottom
  5. Type in the web application (https://uminfopoint.umsystem.edu) URL and then click the ADD button to add the portal to the list (even if you type the entire address, IE will only paste in the domain portion of the address)
  6. When you have entered the URL, click on the CLOSE button at the bottom of the window
  7. Click OK on the small LOCAL INTRANET box
  8. When get back to the INTERNET OPTIONS window, click on the ADVANCED tab at the top
  9. Under the SECURITY category (not the SECURITY tab at the top; please scroll to the Security category in the middle of the window), make sure that ENABLE INTEGRATED WINDOWS AUTHENTICATION is checked. This is what makes pass-through authentication work
  10. When you are finished, click OK at the bottom of the window.

Caveats: this process works best when you are accessing the SharePoint site files on a domain computer. It is strongly recommended that content owners upload files in PDF format, as this will bypass any erroneous login prompts.


Other system sites

Please note the sites for individual campuses in Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla and St. Louis are maintained by those campuses; please contact the corresponding campus using the links provided for questions or requests for information.


Clearing your cache

When reviewing pages that have recently been updated, your may need to clear your cache in order to see the most recent version of the page.

Click here for instructions on how to do this.


Taking a screen capture

When troubleshooting Web pages and applications, the Web Communications team may ask you to see a screen shot of the page in question to help diagnose the problem.

To do this in Windows:

  1. Go to the site or page in question using your browser.
  2. Press the "Print Screen SysRq" key on your keyboard. This is usually in the upper right above the number pad or at the top of the keyboard above the arrow keys.
  3. Start a new email and press Ctrl + V.

To do this in Mac:

  1. Go to the site or page in question using your browser.
  2. Press Command + Shift + 3
  3. Start a new email and press Command + V.

Reviewed 2022-10-18