U.S. Department of Commerce and EDUCAUSE Announce New .EDU Management

The U.S. Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and EDUCAUSE today announced the award of a five-year cooperative agreement to EDUCAUSE for managing the .edu Internet domain name for the higher education community. The agreement implements an understanding reached last April about facilitating policy development and technical operations of the .edu domain by a single responsible entity and providing a framework for the administration of the .edu domain.

The mission of EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit association of more than 1,800 colleges, universities, corporate partners, and other related associations, is to advance higher education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology. Serving the nation’s top technology leaders and a diverse membership of IT professionals in higher education, EDUCAUSE programs include strategic policy initiatives, research, professional development activities, print and electronic publications, awards for leadership and exemplary practices, and a wealth of online information services. EDUCAUSE, with offices in Boulder, CO, and Washington, D.C., will provide stewardship for the .edu domain in order to protect the reliability and integrity of the .edu designation for institutions of higher education.

A key element of the agreement that EDUCAUSE requested is to make an important segment of the higher education community-regionally accredited degree-granting U.S. community colleges-eligible for .edu domain names for their Internet addresses. Previously, only four-year colleges and universities were eligible for the distinctive .edu tag. EDUCAUSE will accept applications for new registrations during a 60-day Sunrise Period when newly eligible institutions can apply for a .edu name without the rush of a first-come, first-served process.

Eligibility criteria, guidelines for avoiding duplicate domain name requests, related policies, timelines, and technical requirements are explained in greater detail on the EDUCAUSE .edu domain Web site at www.educause.edu/edudomain.

As stated in the Commerce Department’s Notice of a Cooperative Agreement (Federal Register, April 6, 2001), “EDUCAUSE has the requisite technical and organizational capability as well as the educational community support to appropriately administer .edu … [including] the support of the American Council on Education, Association of American Universities, National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, American Association of State Colleges and Universities, Council of Independent Colleges, and the American Association of Community Colleges. EDUCAUSE is committed to and has demonstrated that it will represent the interests of .edu stakeholders while administering .edu through a transparent and open policy development process.”

Information about EDUCAUSE can be found at www.educause.edu and about the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration at www.ntia.doc.gov.