Website Decommissioning FAQs

The Office of Information Security conducts regular security reviews and vulnerability scanning of Northeastern services including websites. The server that was hosting your website was identified as an operational risk and must be retired. 

The infrastructure that houses these sites cannot be maintained to NU standards and presents a significant risk to the individual sites living on it as well as other parts of the network. For that reason, we are expediting the migration/retirement process. 

The operational risk was identified recently, so there was not a previous issue to alert to website owners.

We recommend using the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine which provides history of most webpages that are on the internet.  Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that your website will have a record on the Wayback Machine as it is a free and open-source service not directly affiliated with Northeastern. 

Note: This service does have limitations as to what is available to users and when the last snapshot was taken. Using Wayback Machine requires manual copying of content over to a new website. 

Given that these sites and underlying infrastructure have not been maintained to security or operational standards for some time, there is a concern that vulnerabilities, malicious files or unknown risks within the site’s content may exist. Given this concern, the recommendation is to rebuild the site in its entirety on a supported platform built to current Northeastern standards. This will reduce the risk of reintroducing vulnerabilities onto the newer platform/site.

We recommend utilizing Northeastern’s self-service WordPress platform Sites at Northeastern powered by CampusPress. This platform is a managed hosting service for WordPress websites that provides a secure, university-branded, accessible hosting solution for approximately 80% of migrated Northeastern sites. 

All our CampusPress WordPress websites utilize the Flex theme and WordPress block editor which helps streamline and create pages and posts with ease. 

Site owners are responsible for rebuilding their websites. 

There are many benefits to utilizing CampusPress that include but are not limited to: 

• No cost to Northeastern faculty, staff, and students 
• Technical maintenance and updates handled by our vendor CampusPress 
• Built with Northeastern University brand standards in mind, including the global header and footer 
• Allows for unlimited pages to be created 
• Includes prebuilt Northeastern templates for reference or to build your site quickly 
  • Portfolio Template 
  • Lab Template 
  • Business Unit Template
  • Conference Template
  • Campaign Template
  • Club Template

• Modular and easy to use page builder to customize content 
• Predesigned components available to streamline site creation 
• Distinctive features like: 
  • Blog/news platform
  • Media library
  • Social media integration

Yes. CampusPress is secure. All maintenance of the platform, WordPress, plugins, and underlying technical features are handled by the vendor. No technical maintenance is needed from website owners.

Yes. Visit the Flex Quick Start Guide for more information. 

For more detailed information, check out the CampusPress Resource Guide or the Flex Theme Pattern Library.

Free, ongoing training sessions with small groups cover the basics of Flex. To enroll, submit a Web Solutions Consultation request and indicate interest in training. 

CampusPress also offers 24/7 support to help build a site, troubleshoot, and more. Submit a support ticket or email at contact@campuspress.com. 

Websites are restricted to using one of the six pre-built templates. You can’t use other templates.

Yes! We highly encourage users to change the pre-built templates to best suit their specific website needs. The pre-built templates are meant to be a starting point. Northeastern has also provided optional pre-designed patterns to each template to help you get started. These patterns are described in the Theme Library.  

Yes. As the site owner, you can submit a Request Website Administrative Access ticket and include multiple Northeastern users in the request along with the role for each user. Only users with @northeastern.edu email accounts can be added.  

Yes, but there are limitations. Only CampusPress approved plugins can either be installed by website administrators or by ITS.  

Website owners and administrators are limited to the WordPress dashboard to update their sites and will not be able to use SFTP or SSH. There is no direct access to the code or servers where the website is hosted. 

While we highly recommend using CampusPress to rebuild your website, there are two other options that Northeastern offers for hosting.  

WP Engine – WP Engine allows for full customization of WordPress and provides web owners the ability to build whatever they want.  WP Engine enables website owners to:

• Build the website from scratch. There are no pre-built templates to start from. 
• Build their website using a GitHub repository linked to the account. 
• Adhere to Northeastern’s branding, accessibility, and security guidelines.  
  • Before a website can be published to Production, the website must undergo and pass a branding and accessibility review. 
• Maintenance and upkeep of WordPress core, plugins, themes, and PHP versions. 

WP Engine Note: There is a cost associated with using WP Engine and it will require a consultation with Web Solutions to understand your specific needs.  

Netlify – Netlify allows for full customization of a static website providing web owners the ability to build whatever they want. Website owners will need to: 

• Build the website from scratch.  
• Build using a GitHub repository linked to the account. 
• Adhere to Northeastern’s branding, accessibility, and security guidelines.  
  • Before a website can be published to Production, the website must undergo and pass a branding and accessibility review. 

Netlify Note: There is no database available for the website. Netlify only allows for static websites with limited dynamic content. There is also no direct access to the Netlify platform or servers. Updates and maintenance of the website will need to be done through GitHub commits.  

In transitioning to our new hosting platforms, Northeastern has moved away from hosting websites and applications using a subdirectory format (e.g., www.northeastern.edu/xyz) to utilizing subdomains.  

All CampusPress websites use the following URL format: xyz.sites.northeastern.edu. 

Yes. Once a custom domain request is submitted, it will be reviewed by the branding team to ensure it adheres to Northeastern’s domain guidelines. Implementing the custom domain should take place after the new site is fully rebuilt and ready to go live. 

Note: Custom domain implementation can take up to one week.

Yes. Once the new website is ready to go live, submit a redirect a website request with a note including where traffic will be redirected from, for example, www.northeastern.edu/xyz to xyz.sites.northesatern.edu. By default, all URLs are redirected to the home page of the destination site, but you can also request one-to-one page redirects in the ticket and attach a spreadsheet of the source and destination URLs. 

The Web Solutions team is available for consultation to discuss any questions regarding website rebuilds.