If you've ever used Yahoo or AOL, you've used a portal. Think of the word "portal" in its Latin sense, and you have a good metaphor for what a portal is: a gate or gateway. When you go to Yahoo, for instance, you have a variety of gateways, or links: to email, to news headlines, to shopping, to topics of interest (which in turn lead you to additional links), and more -- more, in fact, than any single person will use. In all likelihood, however, all parts of Yahoo will be used by someone, the idea being to attract as many people as possible.

[ http://my.unc.edu ] MyUNC - The UNC portal- has the same general philosophy, but here the idea is to make the portal as useful as possible to UNC students, faculty, and staff rather than to all existing demographics. This means that though there are, for instance, many of the entertainment options you would find at Yahoo, the primary focus and purpose of MyUNC is to save you time and to make your life as a student/faculty member/staff member less complicated by bringing together onto one screen links to valuable information that would otherwise be far-flung and impossible for you to find without accessing many different local networks at UNC.

A great deal of the information on MyUNC is standard (which is to say that it is automically included for you) and much of it is customizable by you. Customization on the part of the user is covered in the document [ http://help.unc.edu/?id=2940 ] Customizing MyUNC .

The standard and customizable options for MyUNC available to you depend on your affiliation at UNC: student, faculty, or staff. When you [ https://my.unc.edu:4448/pls/portal/PORTAL.wwsec_app_priv.login?p_requested_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmy.unc.edu%3A4448%2Fpls%2Fportal%2FPORTAL.home&p_cancel_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmy.unc.edu%3A4448%2Fpls%2Fportal%2FPORTAL.home ] log in with your Onyen and password at [ http://my.unc.edu ] my.unc.edu , MyUNC "recognizes" your affiliation and provides the precustomized content.

Though it is not necessary to list here all of the options for each status type, the usefulness of MyUNC will quickly be made evident by an abridged review of your options.

If you are a student, you can see your entire class schedule as well as required books, electronic reserves, and online resources for your courses; links to a campus map showing the location of your classes are also provided. In addition, you will be able to check your grades, your transcripts, your GPA, and the availability of courses you are interested in.

Financial options include up-to-date tuition and housing bill information, library fees and fines, UNC One Card transactions, financial aid, and more. For your computing needs and questions, MyUNC features an extensive computing resources page with links to such services as help.unc.edu, the computer labs information page, and the CCI page, where you can find accessories for your CCI laptop computer.

The Buy@UNC page includes links to, among other places, the RAM shop, the Bull's Head Bookshop, and the Health Affairs Bookstore. From this page you can also transfer funds to your UNC One Card account.

Again, because the portal "recognizes" you when you log in with your Onyen and password, only you will have access to your own class schedule, finances, and other personal information. This is a good time to remind you, then, of the mantra given to you at orientation: make sure that only you know your password, as it, along with your Onyen, is your identity when you log in to the UNC network.

For UNC faculty, the MyUNC portal brings together links to teaching, research, and administration resources that previously could be found only on disparate departmental web sites.

Through MyUNC, students, faculty and staff can change their personal information. For students, this information includes such information as grades and billing address as well as the information that appears in the Student Information System.

Even though the MyUNC portal has gone live, it is not "complete." Suggestions for additional portlets are always welcome at <uncportal@unc.edu> , and it is expected that parts of the portal will be modified regularly to meet the changing needs of UNC students, staff, and faculty.