You may have recently noticed some changes to UNL Today. News Director Steve Smith explains more on the new look and arrangement of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s central news site.

In the Office of University Communications, it’s our mission to broadcast the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s stories as widely as possible. Through UNL Today, the university’s main news platform, we have steadily and successfully increased the reach of UNL’s message. Today, we are pleased to present a refreshed UNL Today design that will further the goal of effectively sharing the university’s stories with the world.

University Communications developed the new design to better blend our storytelling resources in photography, video and words. The result is a platform that effectively and attractively presents the university’s work, people, places and happenings. We hope you’ll agree that the new platform, which also is optimized for mobile, allows our reach to continue to grow.

While UNL Today continues its important role as the daily one-stop spot to navigate life on campus, the new design reflects our expanded reach beyond campus to external audiences, such as alumni, parents, prospective students and the news media. Links to web resources for journalists such as Campus Photography, UNL In The News, the UNL Experts database and other features help us connect our colleagues in the news media to the university’s people and expertise.

UNL Today is further organized into six subsections that reflect the university’s mission and its daily life:

Arts spotlights the university’s engagement and outreach in this area as well as the work and creativity of our faculty and students in the arts. We’re collaborating with campus arts venues, museums and the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts to present these stories in an effective, easy-to-use format.

Business & Law highlights the essential university research, expertise and scholarly activity in disciplines that affect our society in far-reaching ways – from expert commentary on the legal, political and social issues of the day to analysis and forecasts regarding the state’s and nation’s economy.

Life focuses upon UNL’s research and scholarly activity in the social sciences, education and human sciences, journalism, architecture and the humanities, as well as other programming that helps explain the world around us, how we got here, and where we are headed.

Science & Technology provides a one-stop platform for the university’s groundbreaking research in STEM fields. We’re working closely with the Office of Research and Economic Development, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Engineering to share this important and life-changing work.

Agriculture & Environment covers key research, scholarly activity and happenings involving the university’s unquestioned leadership in one of UNL’s and the state of Nebraska’s most important areas of focus.

On Campus offers important internal information, whether it’s the latest news from Canfield, messages from administrators, gift announcements from the NU Foundation or FYIs about campus construction. On Campus further highlights our continued focus on internal communications, keeping UNL faculty and staff informed on today’s campus events happenings and job-related news.

External news releases, formerly hosted on a separate site, will now come into the UNL Today fold, as well.

What does the refreshed design mean for the popular UNL Today e-newsletter? Don’t fear, it will continue to arrive in campus inboxes, as always, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during the spring and fall semesters. You can submit a story to be considered for the e-newsletter here, and, if you haven’t yet, subscribe to the e-newsletter here.

We want to know what you think – at University Communications, we’re always looking for ways to improve and we welcome your input. If you have thoughts or suggestions regarding the new platform, please feel free to drop me a note at ssmith13@unl.edu.

Best,

Steve Smith

News Director, Office of University Communications