User websites reside in your public_html directory and answer to URLs of the form:

     web.cecs.pdx.edu/~user/path

This is an old tradition and part of web standards.  However, due to a dramatic increase in non-technical users coupled with a rise in mobile computing, the presence of that tilde (~) has been a problem for some users.

While we are not in a position to perform any fundamental changes to our web server architecture, we have been able to set up a slight modification that allows user websites (using web.cecs.pdx.edu) to be advertised without the tilde.

For example:

web.cecs.pdx.edu/~batesn/ME416-answers/

can now also be reached with:

web.cecs.pdx.edu/batesn/ME416-answers/

This will only work for user websites using web.cecs.pdx.edu.  Old transitional aids for user websites under departmental websites will not be able to use this short-hand notation.  And the URLs will display in your browser with the tilde regardless. This is mainly for advertising a slightly more mobile device friendly URL (and reduce the time you spend on the phone trying to help someone find the tilde their keyboard).