Policies and Procedures

Policy Categories

Guides and Agreements

SharkLink Group Policies

The NSU Portal software allows recognized student, faculty, and staff groups to interact and communicate through the group studio application. Recognized groups are able to create and manage home pages for their respective group.

Group Criteria

The following criteria must be met in order for a group to be created within the NSU Portal.

  • Student Groups
    Student groups may be created only if they are a sanctioned organization, recognized by NSU Student Affairs. Student groups are composed primarily of student members and are associated with sanctioned student organizations on campus. Each student group must have an active University employee (faculty or staff) identified as a group leader/sponsor.
  • Alumni Groups
    An Alumni group may be created for a recognized alumni chapter with an active alumni president who attends the annual alumni chapter presidents’ training. The chapter president will serve as the group leader and ensure there is professional appropriate communication between members. Each group will be approved and monitored by the Office of Alumni Relations.
  • Faculty and Staff Groups
    Faculty and staff may request groups for official university business and/or to share information and ideas. Faculty and staff groups can be composed of student employees, faculty, staff, and university administrators. The individual requesting the creation of a group, upon its approval, will become the group leader. Creation of faculty/staff groups is subject to NSU Vice President and/or Dean’s review and approval. The group function is not for dissemination of course work or faculty-led instruction, posting of grades, test keys or test scores.

Groups must govern themselves in accordance with current NSU policies, and must not be in violation of any local, state, or federal laws.

Instructions for Requesting a Group

Recognized student, alumni, and employee groups may submit their group request via the Group Studio Request Tab in the Group Studio Application.

To become a recognized group:

Group Leadership Responsibilities

Group leaders are responsible for moderating group content to assure that all applicable University policies and guidelines are followed. If Portal group tools are used in a manner that conflicts with University policy, the Group Leader should take appropriate actions in coordination with respective approval authorities.

Group leaders who need to delegate or transfer leadership authority should contact his/her respective approval authorities for change of status authorization. Group leadership can only be transferred to individuals who willingly accept the responsibility.

The following list contains examples of situations where group leadership should be transferred:

  1. The group leader is leaving the university and the group needs to continue.
  2. The group leader no longer has an interest in leading the group and a new leader has been identified.
  3. The group organization may choose to have group portal leadership change periodically as part of their group protocol.

Group Types

  • Public groups. Public groups are open for anyone to join.
  • Membership in restricted groups is subject to certain criteria. For example, to access a group home page for an academic or social fraternity, an individual must first be accepted as a member of that organization.
  • Hidden groups.Hidden groups are not displayed in the group category index and do not have a guest view page. Hidden groups are typically used to publish and discuss sensitive information that should not be available even in a restricted group.

Group Tools

These tools are provided to all group members.

Homepage: Allows you to return to the group or course homepage from any sub-page.

News: Allows you to read all articles that have been written by other members and to submit articles for potential posting.

Photos: Allows you to view all of the photos that have been posted and to submit photos for potential posting. Each file or photo must be in gif, jpg, or jpeg format only. Each group can have no more than 500 photos in their Album.

Links: Allows you to view all of the links that have been posted and to submit links for potential posting.

Files: Allows you to view all of the files that have been posted and to submit files for potential posting. Each group can have no more than 500 files total.

Message Board: Allows you to enter a dedicated message board where you can read and post messages and replies.

Calendar: Allows you to access your group calendar.

Send Announcements: Allows you to compose and post announcements to the homepage.

E-mail: Allows you to send e-mail to group members.

Chat: Allows you to enter a dedicated chat room where you can participate in real time discussions with other members.

Members: Allows you to view a list of other group members and information about each, including any homepages that the member might have. You can also post your own homepage link.

Group Restrictions

There can be no more than 3000 members in any group and a member cannot join more than 300 groups.

Disk Storage Capacity

Each group has a maximum of 1 GB of disk storage space for photos and file sharing.

Maximum Per File Upload Size
File Share – 50MB
Photos – 5MB

Related NSU Policies