Always Illinois Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Always Illinois?
- Is there a fee for using Always Illinois?
- Why would I want to join Always Illinois?
- Who is included in Always Illinois?
- How do I access Always Illinois?
- What is my alumni ID number?
- Why do you need my e-mail address?
- Will my e-mail address ever be forwarded or sold for solicitation purposes?
- Can I use the same e-mail address as another UIUC alumnus in Always Illinois (a spouse, for instance)?
- How much information about me is available for others to see?
- Can I adjust who sees my information?
- I want to block a particular person from contacting me. Is that possible?
- I only want certain people to contact me. How can I choose my privacy settings?
- What should I do if my e-mail address changes?
- How do I get started?
- How can I use Always Illinois to find a job?
- How can I use Always Illinois to find a friend from college?
- What if I can’t find my friend?
- What does “My Network” mean?
- What do the black icons with waving people next to a person’s name mean?
- I invited a friend and she didn't respond to my invitation. Can I re-invite her?
- Always Illinois lists my prior or maiden name. Can I change this?
- My question isn’t answered here. Who can I contact?
What is Always Illinois?
Always Illinois is an online networking community that includes all ILLINOIS alumni, students, faculty and staff. Always Illinois offers all the basic functions of a social network with added levels of security and privacy.
You can invite your friends and colleagues to join your network or become your friend. Once you create your network, you are also linked to the networks of all the people you know, exponentially increasing the power of the ILLINOIS network. You’ll be surprised how many people you have a connection to—it’s like six degrees of separation!
Is there a fee for using Always Illinois?
No. Always Illinois is completely free to ILLINOIS alumni, students, faculty and staff.
Why would I want to join Always Illinois?
Always Illinois is easily the most powerful networking tool ever available to the ILLINOIS family—and ILLINOIS is on the leading edge of this technology among U.S. universities.
Always Illinois is versatile:
- It can expand your personal ILLINOIS network exponentially
- It’s designed to handle a variety of information and communication
- You have full control over the amount of information made available to others
- You can participate as much or as little as you prefer
Who is included in Always Illinois?
All ILLINOIS alumni, students, faculty, and staff are included if they register.
How do I access Always Illinois?
To access Always Illinois, you must have a one-time University-assigned Always Illinois ID number.
Click Here if you are a student, faculty or staff to get your Always Illinois ID.
Click Here if you are an alumnus/a to get your Always Illinois ID.
(This is a Personal Security Code provided by the UI Alumni Association.)
What is my alumni ID number?
Each UIUC alumnus has a unique ID number called a Personal Security Code. Click Here if you are an alumnus/a to get your Always Illinois ID.
Students, Faculty, and Staff authenticate through Blue Stem. Click Here if you are a student, faculty or staff to get your Always Illinois ID.
Why do you need my e-mail address?
After you register, your e-mail address will be your login name. It is the means by which you can access Always Illinois.
Will my e-mail address ever be forwarded or sold for solicitation purposes?
No. ILLINOIS protects the privacy of its family and does not share contact information (or any other information you might include in your personal profile) with anyone outside the University.
Can I use the same e-mail address as another UIUC alumnus in Always Illinois (a spouse, for instance)?
No. After you register, your e-mail address will be your login name. Thus, it must be affiliated with only one user.
How much information about me is available for others to see?
Each profile begins with very limited information — your name, college, and graduation year. No contact information is shown unless you include it in your completed profile. Then, once you activate and modify the privacy settings, only what you have entered will be accessible by others within the Always Illinois network.
Can I adjust who sees my information?
Yes. Once you register, you can modify your privacy settings under “My Profile” to reveal or hide as much information as you like.
I want to block a particular person from contacting me. Is that possible?
Yes. Search for the person and click on his/her name. To the left of their name, you will see Block User. Click on that and he/she will not be able to contact you.
I only want certain people to contact me. How can I choose my privacy settings?
This is one of the best features of Always Illinois. Just click on My Profile and then Privacy, and you will be able to choose who you want to see your information. You can share as much or as little as you want.
What should I do if my e-mail address changes?
Update your personal profile page accordingly, and your new e-mail address will appear immediately for communications within the Always Illinois network and become your new login name.
How do I get started?
Here are the things you should do when you first login to Always Illinois:
- Click on My Profile
- Update your Personal, Business, School and Social profiles by clicking on the appropriate links.
- You can choose to share as much or as little information as possible about yourself.
- Once you create your profile, click on Home and start inviting friends to join your network!
- To find friends, search for them in the keyword search box.
- Once you find your friends, click on Add NAME as friend. You will then see the e-mail message that will be sent to your friend. You are encouraged to add a personal message in the text field, especially if it’s someone you haven’t spoken with in a while!
- As your friends receive your invitation e-mails they will start responding and your network will start to grow.
- After you’ve invited friends, you can use Always Illinois to send messages to your network, make professional connections like making a contact at a specific company, get job leads, find tickets to an event—almost anything!
How can I use Always Illinois to find a job?
There are several ways!
- If you are targeting a specific company, you can do a search for that company name. Then search the results to see if anyone in your network works at that company. If someone in your network works at the company, then simply contact them directly. If an alumnus who is not in your network works there, you can still contact that person, introduce yourself as a fellow UIUC alumnus and ask for advice or insight into the company. You’ll be surprised at how helpful your fellow Illini are!
- Not sure what company you want to work for? Send a message out to your network with information about the type of job you’re looking for.
- Post your resume in your business profile.
- Look for alumni who have indicated they would be willing to talk to others about career information and use them as a resource.
How can I use Always Illinois to find a friend from college?
Simply look them up in the keyword search box. Keep in mind that some people change their names or go by a nickname. If you don’t have luck using the keyword search, try the advanced search function. With advanced search, you can look for someone by a number of criteria, including class year, major, city, etc.
What if I can’t find my friend?
Don’t give up! First, consider whether your friend goes by a nickname. For example, you won’t find Joe Blue if Joe’s full name is Joseph Blue. So, try searching by the full name or first or last name only (most effective if the person has a less common name). Still can’t find him or her? Use the advanced search function and use criteria like class year, major, city, etc.
If the person you’re looking for is a very recent graduate (within the last year), it’s possible the registrar hasn’t updated his or her record yet. In that case, you’re likely to find that person if you wait a little longer.
If you still can’t find a person, you might want to try using the Alumni Association’s Alumni Locator Service, which is free to alumni who are current members of the Alumni Association. You can find information about this service on their Web site.
What does "My Network" mean?
This measures how many people are in your complete network and counts friends, friends-of-friends and friends-of-friends-of-friends.
What do the black icons with waving people next to a person’s name mean?
These indicate how you know someone. One icon means it’s your friend (someone you know directly). Two waving people means it’s a friend-of-friend, and three people means it’s a friend-of-friend-of-friend.
I invited a friend and she didn’t respond to my invitation. Can I re-invite her?
Yes. In order to re-invite someone, click on My Network and then on Manage delete Friends. Next to the person's name you'll see their status. Expired means it's been more than 30 days since you invited her without a response. Before you can re-invite your friend, you must delete that invitation. Once the invitation has been deleted, you can invite them again using the process to add a friend.
Always Illinois lists my prior or maiden name. Can I change this?
For security purposes, you cannot manually change your name fields. If you wish to change your prior name, send an email to alwaysillinois@uiuc.edu with your request.
My question isn’t answered here. Who can I contact?
Please contact alwaysillinois@uiuc.edu