Home page of the new website, Navigate.

A new website called Navigate, launched Oct. 2, is designed to help Cornell faculty members and staff handle the operational complexities of off-campus teaching, research and engagement, domestically and internationally.

For example, Navigate can help faculty members teaching courses and leading trips abroad investigate health care issues and the need for vaccines; make travel arrangements and payments; investigate computing resources for traveling faculty and staff; locate resources such as translators; and handle risk management issues. With faculty active in educational and research collaborations across the country and around the world, such needs are common at Cornell.

The intuitive and easy-to-navigate website acts as a knowledge base and repository of necessary and useful information – legal, financial, human resources – previously held in units across campus. An easy-to-search feature on the Navigate homepage helps faculty and administrative managers find the information they need. Content will grow in the coming months to include planning checklists by activity type; banking, payments and taxes; export controls (laws that limit transfer of goods/information to people/places outside the United States); health and travel insurance; IT and computing; risk management; HR and staffing; and procurement, payments and vendor contracts.

The Navigate project was directed by Laura Spitz, vice provost for international affairs; Judy Appleton, vice provost; and Joanne DeStefano, executive vice president and chief financial officer.

“This website is a product of our mutual missions to align infrastructure in support of faculty and staff,” says Appleton.

“Whether it be for domestic or international engagement, we want our employees to feel confident in their off-campus activities,” says Spitz.

Administrators from Global Cornell, the Office of Engagement Initiatives, facilities and real estate, financial affairs, human resources, information technology, risk management and the university counsel’s office, among others, collaborated to collect and organize the information.

“Our working group is poised to answer questions and provide easy access to the information Cornell employees need to succeed,” says DeStefano.