A branch administrator is a user responsible for overseeing the functioning of an Administrative Branch in an Engage community. Branches allow various departments, divisions, or areas of university life to operate independently within the system, running processes like the event submission processes and organization registration separately. Admin branches can also be overseen by different administrative users, allowing staff on campus to independently control various features within the site. In the diagram of the Engage structure below, you can see the different administrative branches highlighted, showing how different departments might oversee different types of organizations.
Branch Administrator Training
Are you a new branch administrator? We recommend reviewing our three part training series to get caught up on the most important things you need to know. The series begins by reviewing navigation, structure, and organization tools. Next, you'll get the run-down on organization management including registration. Lastly, you'll learn about overseeing the Engage events process and how you can design it for your branch's needs. If you only need a refresh, continue reading.
What Can a Branch Administrator Do?
By default, branch administrators are able to manage three distinct areas:
- All functions of the branch organization's public facing page, including news articles, forms, roster, documents, galleries, etc. for the branch's own organization page
- All functions of the organizations that are housed within that administrative branch; branch administrators can access the Action Center for any of the organizations within that branch and create, edit, or delete content on behalf of those organizations
- All Branch Tools for the department or area, including the event submission process, organization registration, and position templates
The Branch Tools are housed on the Home page of the Action Center for the branch organization:
The Branch Tools are comprised of the following capabilities (from left to right, if looking at the screenshot above):
- Managing the Event Submission Process
- Configuring custom fields for the branch
- Setting up event submission reviewers
- Having access to approve and deny all event submissions submitted by organizations in that branch
- Overseeing an Events List
- Managing event details for any event
- Creating events on behalf of any organization in the branch
- Overseeing an Organization List
- Being able to access the Action Center for any organization housed in that branch
- Reassigning organizations to new categories, types, and statuses
- Creating and Assigning Organization Types
- Creating and Assigning Administrative Position Templates
- Managing the Organization Registration Process
- Creating registrations
- Approving and denying organization registration submissions
Assigning a Branch Administrator
A branch administrator is any user who has been assigned to the Branch Administrator position within the administrative branch's Roster tool. A branch can have as many branch administrators as you would like. To assign a new branch admin (either as a community administrator, or as a current branch administrator), navigate to the Roster tool within a branch by selecting the Manage view and choosing the branch. Once in the Roster, you will see an automatically created position in the branch organization titled "Branch Administrator." You do not need to create this position; it will exist by default in all branches. Assigning someone to this position gives them full access over the branch admin tools.
Remember that you can allow other users to be members of a branch organization without giving them access to the branch administrative tools. For example, perhaps you have student staff who work with your department and need to be able to create News posts, Forms, or upload Documents for your department, but do not need to manage processes, such as organization registrations or event submissions. You can use the Roster tool to add these users into your branch and give them Limited or All Access to various organization tools. The All Access setting for positions within the branch only refers to having access over managing organization tools (News, Forms, Roster, Documents, etc.). The only way to give someone access to the branch administrative tools (registrations, positions, event submissions, etc.) is to grant that user the Branch Administrator position. See the chart below for a summary of each access setting.
Level of Access Granted | Capabilities |
---|---|
"No Access" | User cannot access any tools in the Branch Organization's Action Center |
"Limited Access" | User can manage certain defined organization tools for the Branch organization only, such as the Roster, News, Forms, or Messaging |
"All Access" | User can manage all organization tools for the Branch organization only, but cannot manage organizations housed in the branch or manage branch administrative tools |
Branch Administrator Position | User can manage all organization tools for the branch and all organizations housed within the branch, AND all branch administrative tools |