An Engage community is as successful as those who are managing it - but where do you start when it comes to making sure your users have the level of access they need? In this article, we'll help you break down the various levels of administrative access you can assign to users in your community to help set you up for long-term success.
Community-Wide Administrators
A community administrator is defined as any user who has access to the Admin view when opening up the Engage Switchboard. Community administrative tools allow you to manage users and organizations in your community, export reports, and oversee your community’s involvement. Community admins are also able to see and manage information about each user in the community.
All-Access Community Administrators
All-Access Community Administrators have access to every tool in the Admin view. They are also able to manage every administrative branch and every organization in the community. These, in short, are super-users in your community, and have the highest level of power. You will likely want to be selective with who you assign as a All-Access Community Administrator because these users can see sensitive user information, approve all types of requests and submissions, and create, change, or delete any content in the community.
Limited Community Administrators
Limited Community Administrators have access to the Admin view in the Switchboard, but may not see every tool. For example, a limited community admin may only be able to manage one specific dropdown menu, such as users or paths, in the community admin view. You would likely make someone a limited community administrator if you need them to have access to a particular tool in the Admin view, such as elections or involvement imports, but do not need them to be am all-access community administrator.
Depending on the configuration, a limited community admin could also have universal access to some branch tools or organization tools, regardless of their own membership in those organizations. For example, a limited community admin might be able to view all event submissions in every branch, or all documents in every organization, without holding membership in those orgs.
Read more about assigning community administrative access.
Branch Administrators
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 a single branch Engage community, the branch administrator role can be an efficient way to provide users access to managing processes like event request review and registration, without providing them access to sensitive user data.
You will likely assign someone as a branch administrator if they need to have access to branch administrative tools, such as positions, organization registration, and event submissions, but do not need to have access to the Admin view. In some cases, you might make a user both a Branch Administrator and a Limited Community Administrator to give the user access to certain features in the Admin view in addition to their branch capabilities.
Organization Officers/Leaders
Apart from your administrative staff, you will also have organization officers, leaders, or managers who have management access over organization pages. These users do not manage any administrative functionality, but have control over the content and rosters of their organization pages. Organization managers can be assigned "All Access" or "Limited Access" to granularly define which tools are able to be accessed.
You can read more about levels of management access within an organization and about assigning positions within an organization.
Submission Reviewers
In some cases, you might have a user that does not need any level of administrative or management access to manage processes in the community, but you need them to serve as reviewers on either event submissions or forms. You can give these users only access to the submissions of one form or process without making them an administrator in the community.
Event Submission Reviewers
Event submission reviewers provide feedback on event submissions within one administrative branch. Reviewers can be configured to review every single submission, or only certain submissions based on conditions. Read about making a user an event submission reviewer.
Form Reviewers
You can also choose to add reviewers to form submissions, for an individual submission or all submissions of a form. These users will have access to review and comment on submissions before they are approved or denied. Read about making a user a form submission reviewer.
Putting it all Together
Knowing about all of the different types of administrative and management access users can hold in an Engage community is an important part of community management. With this information, we encourage you to think through who might need to have varying levels of access within your community. Below, you’ll find a list of tasks, processes, and tools that are commonly used in Engage, along with the varying levels of access needed to accomplish that task. Use this chart to determine the levels of admin and management access your team needs.
| Tool/Task | All-Access Community Administrators | Branch Administrator Only |
Limited Community Administrators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reports | Can access all reports | Cannot access reports in Admin | Need View or Full access to the resource being reported on. For example, to view an Event related report, they would need Events Full or Events View access. View our reports article for more information. |
| Customizing the CCT | Can customize the CCT | Cannot access CCT configuration in Admin | Need Customization Full access to customize the CCT |
| Edit Event Submission Process | Can edit the process for any branch | Can edit the process for only their own branch(es) | Need Events Full access to edit the submission for any branch |
| Approve Event Submissions | Can approve event submissions in any branch | Can only approve events submitted by organizations in their branch(es) | Need Events Full access to approve submissions in any branch |
| Edit Registration process | Can edit the process for any branch | Can edit the process for only their own branch(es) | Need Registration Forms Full access to edit registration processes in any branch |
| Approve Registration Submissions | Can approve registration submissions in any branch | Can only approve registration submissions housed in their branch(es) | Need Registration Forms Full access to approve submissions in any branch |
| Manage Organization Pages | Can manage content for any organization or branch in the community | Can manage content for only organizations housed in their branch(es) | Need Organizations, Roster, Photo, Profile, Wall, News, Service Hours, Documents, and/or Elections "FULL" to manage various content within all organizations |
| Edit and review organization accounts, funding & purchase requests | Can manage all aspects of the Organization Accounting tool | Cannot access any Organization Accounting tools | Need Finance Full access to manage Organization Accounting tools |
| Community-Wide Messaging | Can access community-wide messaging tools in Admin | Cannot access community-wide messaging | Need Organizations Full access to do community-wide messaging |
| Create Alerts | Can create alerts | Cannot create alerts | Need Customization Full access to create Alerts |
| Edit All Additional Fields | Can edit all types of Additional Fields | Cannot access Additional Fields in Admin view | Need Customization Full access to edit Additional Fields |
| Access Tools in the "Configure" Dropdown in Admin View | Can access all tools in the Configure dropdown | Cannot access Admin view | Need Customization Full access to manage tools in Configure dropdown |
If you have any questions about how to best assign access to your staff and students, do not hesitate to contact your Consultant.