Faculty and Staff Profiles

Not the Campus Directory (and More Than “Just the Facts”)

On our Drupal site (www.grinnell...), we create user profiles (Profiles), to share detailed information about faculty, staff, and others. Styled with the College in mind, these display names, photos, and titles, along with  short biographies, contact information, curriculum vitae and publications, personal websites and twitter usernames, academic interests, etc.

What We All Need to Understand About Profiles

Profiles Aren't Automated
Site profiles are independent of the Campus Directory, Colleague, or other systems. There is no automatic process for adding or removing them from the site.
Departments and Offices Are Responsible for Their Employees’ Profiles
Each department and office is responsible for their employees’ profiles and should arrange to have the profiles add, updated, or removed from the site as needed.
Employees Can Update Their Own
Each employee can update their own profile after one as been added.If any employee does not have a profile, they can ask their website editor or Communications to add one for them.
Website Editors Have the Power
Website editors can add and disable profiles for any employee. This gives you the flexiblity to add a new employee, disable the account for one who’s left the College, or change someone’s job title and location.

What Website Editors Need to Know

Because we're using Drupal's People function to create our profiles, you won't find them with the rest of your content. 

When you add a person, you'll click on People in the black Admin menu and then click Add a new user. In our case, however, a "user" may never actually log in.

You can control most profile information on our site.

  • You can add, edit, cancel, and reinstate profiles.
  • You choose what types of lists they appear on.
  • You choose which groups they'll show up for, like anthropology, GWSS, or student affairs, for each type of list.

Working with Profiles

Screen shot showing message with a link to the new account

To add a new person:

  1. Log in to Drupal.
  2. Select Admin Tools in the admin toolbar.
  3. Select People, and then click Add a new user.
  4. Fill out the profile fields.
  5. Click Create new account.

Drupal will clear the fields and display a message at the top of the page with a link to the new account

Important: If someone has opted out of the campus directory, do not add a profile for them without getting their express permission.

To find a profile:

  • Browse to or search for the profile the way you normally do, or
  • Enter www.grinnell.edu/user/networkid where networkid is their Grinnell network id.

To edit the profile:

  1. Log in to Drupal.
  2. Go to the profile and click Edit (near the bottom of the page).
  3. Edit the profile fields.
  4. Click Save.

If someone still works at the College, do not cancel their account. Simply edit their profile to reflect their current position.

Removing a Profile

To remove the profile of someone who no longer works at the College:

  1. Log in to Drupal.
  2. Go to the profile and click Edit (near the bottom of the page).
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Cancel account.
  4. Check Disable the account and keep its content.
  5. Uncheck Require email confirmation to cancel the account.
  6. Click Cancel account.

This leaves their profile available in case they return to the College (happens more often than you think) and makes sure we don't lose any important information.

Warning!

  • Do not not select any of the other options. That can cause all sorts of problems and can be very difficult to fix.
  • Do not cancel the account of anyone who still works at the College without checking with us. Edit the profile to reflect their current position, instead.

Reinstating a Profile

If someone returns to the College, you can reinstate their profile.

  1. Log in to Drupal.
  2. Click Admin Tools in the black admin bar.
  3. Click People in the black admin bar.
  4. Search for the profile and click Edit next to their user name.
  5. Check "Active" under Status.
  6. Make any additional updates needed.
  7. Scroll to the bottom and click Save.

A person’s profile will show up on a department’s faculty list if:

  • On their General tab, Faculty is checked under Show my user profile in these lists, and
  • On their Faculty tab, the department is listed under Faculty department.

A person’s profile will show up on an office’s staff list if:

  • On the General tab, Staff is checked under Show my user profile in these lists, and
  • On the Staff tab, the department is listed under Staff department.

To remove someone from a list, edit either or both of these as appropriate. If they no longer work for the College, cancel their account instead.

Example:

Say you had someone who was a professor of biology and GWSS, as well as the director of a center. They are going on senior faculty status and will no longer teach GWSS or work as a director of the center, but will continue to teach biology.

They're currently tagged to show up in faculty and staff lists, with bio and GWSS set as faculty departments and the center as a staff department.

To update their profile, you’d:

  • On the General tab:
    • Uncheck Staff under Show my user profile on these lists, since they will no longer have a staff position.
    • Leave Faculty checked, as they are still a member of the bio faculty.
  • On the Faculty tab:
    • Unselect GWSS from Faculty department. 
    • Update their Faculty position.
  • On the Staff tab:
    • Remove the center from Staff department.
    • Delete their Staff position.
    • Select - None - in Department head.

Warning: Faculty and staff department fields are multiselect fields. Press CTRL (PC) or CMD (Mac) while selecting these to make sure you get the results you intended.

If you knew who the new department head will be, this would be a good time to change their profile, as well.

You indicate who is in charge of a department or office through the person's profile using fields on the Faculty or Staff tab.

When someone is tagged as a department's chair (faculty) or head (staff):

  • They appear at the top of the appropriate staff or faculty list and are labeled as the chair/head.
  • Their profile displays their status as the chair/head of that department.

When someone is tagged as a chair on their Faculty tab, and the department’s group info page Group field displays a matching group, their contact information will appear in a department chair block at the bottom of the group info page.

Department chair block with heading, chair name and email

When we cancel a profile, it remains on our site to ensure we don't lose data and have a historical record of the profile.

You can see cancelled profiles, but the public cannot and they will not appear in searches.

To check the current status of a profile, you can either:

  • Navigate to the profile and click Edit, then check the Status checkboxes.
    • If Active is checked, the profile is visible to the public.
    • If Blocked is checked, the profile is not visible to the public and will not appear in faculty and staff lists.
  • Open a new new private/incognito browser window and try to open the profile. Since you won't be logged in, if you can see it, the profile is active.

Profile Fields

See the instructions for the fields for tips and standards.

Top of page:

Email (Required)
Enter their Grinnell College email.
Username (Required)
Enter their Grinnell network ID (everything in front of "@grinnell.edu" in their email address)
Password and Confirm Password (Required)
For new accounts, create a unique password and enter it in both spaces. This is used to secure the account as you create it. You don't need to remember it and it will not be used by anyone.
Status (Must be active to show up in faculty or staff lists)
Leave as is. Active means the user account is active. Blocked means the account was in use once, but no longer is. This is set automatically when you follow the steps to remove a profile.
Notify user of new account
Leave unchecked.

Bottom of page:

Locale settings
You can ignore this
URL Alias and Generate automatic URL alias
Leave box checked and URL alias blank.
First Name and Last Name (Required)
Enter their preferred first and last names
Show my user profile on these lists (Must be checked for profile to show up in the indicated type of list)
Check the appropriate list(s). Do not check "Trustee" unless you have permissions from the president's office to do so.
Campus phone
Enter the full phone number, not the extension. Grinnell College style for phone numbers, as noted in the AP Stylebook, is 641-269-9999. (AP Stylebook requires access from the campus network.)
Image
Images display as a square on both the profile itself and faculty and staff lists. Load them at a minimum of 235x235 pixels. Place the focus on their nose. See Images for more information. The Center for Careers, Life , and Service has a self-service booth where they can get a professional headshot.
Image's Alt Text
Enter their name.
Bio
Enter a short bio. Bios often include areas of expertise, experience, etc. Departments sometimes have a format they choose to follow.
On-Campus Address
Select a country to get the fields to add the address.
Personal Website
Enter the URL for their personal website.
Twitter username
Office hours
Education/Degrees
CV/Resume
Make sure the document is accessible before loading it.
Publications
Enter publications with citations, if possible. Many people also link to a location where the publication can be found.
Expert Keywords
You can ignore this unless told otherwise.
Media Mentions
Faculty department
Important: Press CTRL on a PC (CMD on a Mac).
Start to type the department and select from the drop-down list when it appears.
Repeat for additional departments as needed.
Faculty position(s)
Enter the person's academic position, such as professor, associate professor, or instructor.
Then enter senior faculty or emeritus/a if appropriate.
Note: If the faculty member’s position doesn't fit in one of the pre-populated categories — for example, a postdoctoral fellow — you can leave this field blank and enter the position in Endowed chair or additional title.
Department chair
If the person is the department chair for an academic department, select the department here.
  • They will appear at the top of the selected department's faculty list and be marked as the department chair.
  • Their profile will display "Department chair of [selected department]".
Make sure you include the same department in the Faculty department field as well.
Endowed chair or additional title
Enter the full name of the endowed chair or title.
Staff department
Important: Press CTRL on a PC (CMD on a Mac).
Start to type the department and select from the drop-down list when it appears.
Repeat for additional departments.
Staff title
Enter the person's staff position, such as director, administrative assistant II, etc.
Department head
If the person is the head of an office or team that has a staff listing, select it here.
  • Include the office in the Staff department field. (Note: If they are the chair of an academic department, set that under the Faculty tab, not here.)
  • On office's staff list, they will appear at the top and be marked as the department head.
  • Their profile will display "Department head of [selected department]".

Some people have both an academic role and an administrative one, so you'll have to decide what information goes on each tab.

Say you have someone who is an associate professor in two departments and the head of a center. They also have a named professorship.

  • They are an associate professor.
    • Mark that on the Faculty tab.
  • They are the head of a center.
    • On the Staff tab, select the center in the Department Head field.
    • They are not the department chair of an academic department, so do not use the chair field on the Faculty tab.
  • They should appear on the faculty lists for the departments they teach in.
    • Select the academic departments on the Faculty tab.
  • They should appear on the staff list for the center.
    • Select the center on the Staff tab.
  • They have a named professorship:
    • Enter the named professorship on the Faculty tab.
    • This isn't a named staff position, so do not include it on the Staff tab.

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