A People Listing Page can be configured to allow website visitors to filter Person Details Pages using Employment Type, Area of Expertise, Area of Study, College and Department.
Area of Expertise tags are website-specific and can help prospective students explore areas of expertise of a college’s or department’s faculty. These also can be used by media looking for experts to speak on a news topic. Area of Expertise tags should not be so specific that filtering an event listing page to the type narrows the content down to just one person; tags should be higher-level bucket labels where possible. These should also be consumer-friendly labels; avoid jargon and acronyms. Area of Expertise tag options will only appear in a website’s Area of Expertise filter if they’ve been applied to a published Person Details Page.
It is a best practice to limit the number of actively used Area of Expertise tags on a website to 10. This ensures that the drop-down Area of Expertise filters are usable on a mobile device. If using more than 10, test on a mobile device and use best judgment regarding a quality user experience.
To add a new Area of Expertise tag in Content Editor:
To edit an existing Area of Expertise tag in Content Editor:
To deactivate an Area of Expertise in Content Editor:
Employment Type tags describe the general category of employee at Michigan State University. Employee Types are a global taxonomy, designed to meet the needs of all job classifications on campus while serving the user needs of MSU’s website audiences.
It is a best practice to limit the number of actively used Employment Type tags on a website to 10. This ensures that the drop-down Employment Type filters are usable on a mobile device. Employment Type tag options will only appear in a website’s Employment Type filter if they’ve been applied to a published Person Details Page.
University Communications and Marketing worked with MSU Human Resources to develop the global taxonomy framework offering many options for Employment Type. Expand the accordion tab below to view the available options.
Units should choose up to 10 Employment Type tags for use:
*MSU Human Resources definition of the Faculty and Administrative Staff role includes: Academic Specialist, Archivist, Executive Management, Fixed-Term Academic Staff, Tenure System Faculty, Fixed-Term Faculty, FRIB/NSCL Continuing Appointment Academic Staff, FRIB/NSCL Faculty, Research/Senior Research Associates, Health Programs Faculty, Librarians and MSU Extension staff. Within the context of this Employment Type taxonomy, Academic Specialists who are Advisors have been elevated to their own tag in recognition that students and prospective students need to easily find these individuals in a directory. Additional user research to validate this approach is planned.
If a unit has questions about available Employment Type tags, please contact Katie Kelly to discuss.
In Content Editor:
Area of Study tags align to the career-based interest tracks used by Career Services and the Office of Admissions. These tracks are designed to help prospective and current students explore academic programs based on a career interest area. Person Details Pages also can be tagged to these Area of Study tags to assist prospective students with exploring the faculty who may be teaching courses of interest. Areas of Study are a global taxonomy.
Area of Study tag options will only appear in a website’s Area of Study filter if they’ve been applied to a published Person Details Page.
University Communications and Marketing worked with the Office of Admissions to support the adoption of this Area of Study taxonomy framework. Expand the accordion tab below to view the available options.
Units should select all relevant Area of Study tags from the available list:
If a unit has questions about available Area of Study tags, please contact Katie Kelly to discuss.
In Content Editor:
Backend Tags and Department (i.e., Unit) Tags are used to further tag and categorize events, news and people within a website. These tags are referenced by Sitecore Search when delivering search results within the page. In the future, website managers may be able to use these tags to control a pre-filtered view of news, events or people on a page. University Communications and Marketing is documenting use case requests to see if this functionality is needed.
Units interested in using these additional tags to create prefiltered People Listing pages should contact University Communications and Marketing.
Documentation updated: June 10, 2026
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In Content Editor:
Most units associated with an MAU have been created in the system under the Departments field. A unit tag may be nested under another unit tag.
If a content author believes that a tag is missing and would like it added to the system, contact Katie Kelly to discuss the need. Katie will provide guidance on if the tag exists (and where), if it is an appropriate candidate for an Offices and Centers tag, or if it can be added to the global taxonomy.