[nsuser3]

Real example of why this is a bad idea: www.cs.usfca.edu is not cs.usfca.edu. The latter doesn't even have a DNS entry set up..

A screenshot of the browser will not show the www, making it more difficult to find the website.

[shadowgovt]

How, in the 21st century, has USFCA not gotten the memo to redirect HTTP requests to a root domain to a default subdomain instead of black-holing them?

At this point, That's just sloppiness on USFCA's part.