Official College Web Policy

The web site hosted at http://www.heidelberg.edu is an official publication of Heidelberg University. Since the Heidelberg web site may be the first college publication seen by many looking for information about the school, including prospective students and their parents, friends of the college, academic colleagues and potential employees, it is important that the web site maintain a consistent visual presence that clearly indicates to guests that they are viewing official College content. Visual consistency refers to both the general layout and organization of pages and the appearance of graphics used to represent the University.
To that end, the Web Site Advisory Group (WSAG) has developed the following operational policies and procedures:

1. Although WSAG realizes the importance of the creativity and individuality of the campus constituents who seek to publish information on the site, it is important that all pages provide some consistent elements to assist guests in their e-visit to the college. These elements include, but are not limited to, a consistent font style, appropriate title and header information identifying the page as part of the College site, accurate contact information, and appropriate site-wide navigation elements. To these ends, WSAG has developed a template and set of coding guidelines that should be followed during construction of college web pages. Use of this template not only helps maintain these organizational elements, but also allows the visual appearance of the entire web site to be updated quickly to meet changing requirements and newly identified needs. (More detail about this template is available from CNIT.)
2. Graphical images representing the college (e.g. logos) must conform to the Heidelberg University Graphic Identity Guidelines, available under separate cover from the Office of Communication and Marketing. Per the aforementioned Heidelberg University Graphic Identity Guidelines, the Office of Communication and Marketing must approve all logos.
3. Material classifiable as "new release" content should be developed by or in conjunction with the Office of Communication and Marketing.
4. Departments and entities wishing to add or update content on the web site should submit that content in electronic format to the Web Site Content Analyst. Such content should be proofread before submission. The analyst will work with the department liaison to ensure that the material reflects that content within the framework described above. In addition, the analyst will work to make certain all major campus entities have at least minimal, accurate representation on the site. While the analyst will be a key resource for the department, it is the department who bears ultimate responsibility for the accuracy and currency of its content.
5. All site content must obey copyright law.
6. Images, while potentially the most attractive elements of a web page, require special consideration. Improperly formatted or bloated images can cause guests to end their visit prematurely, and can even cause browser software to crash. Line art images should be stored in GIF format, and photographs should be saved in JPEG format. Graphics should be reduced to 8-bit color at a 72-dpi resolution, and should use only those colors commonly regarded as "browser safe." In addition, images should be used sparingly on each page, to minimize download time for guests with slower Internet connections. Regions whose main content is graphical should provide thumbnail graphics on the main page. Those thumbnails can provide the guest with links to the full-size images, downloadable separately.
7. Heidelberg University has designated a photo as part of its directory information. Photos of Heidelberg students may be included on the web page without prior written consent unless the student has notified the Office of the Registrar in writing during the first week of the academic year of his or her objection to the release of directory information. It is expected that any photos will be appropriate for viewing by visitors to the site. The college reserves the right to remove a photo judged to be inappropriate by the WSAG.
8. Links are often an integral part of a web site. Permission should be sought to link to external sites before such links are placed on pages uploaded to the web server. In addition, CNIT will routinely scan links within the Heidelberg web site and will remove broken or dysfunctional links.
9. Official academic and student organizations (as registered with an academic department or the Office of Student Activities) may request to publish content on the Heidelberg college web server. Such content may not exceed 10 MB (megabytes) in size. The organization's faculty or staff advisor will be informed of the request and must serve as an official contact person, to be clearly identified on all content. Each page must include a required link to a standardized disclaimer, making it clear that the page does not represent official college policy or content. CNIT will conduct an annual review of all links and organization pages; links and pages must be accurate as of September 30 each calendar year or they will be removed. Contact the Web Site Content Analyst for further information and loading instructions.
10. A web site requires significant hardware and software resources. In order to allocate these resources fairly, and to ensure that requirements do not place undue burdens on this infrastructure, CNIT and WSAG may carefully analyze resource requirements before agreeing to implement specific features. Storage and resource requirements will be subject to periodic review.
11. The web site consists of thousands of pages representing many different offices, individuals and departments. While every represented entity is important, at times CNIT and WSAG may be required to prioritize content updates.

These policies have been developed with the best intentions in mind. As the web site is an official College publication, it should be maintained as such. The University owes its guests an easy-to-use, informative web site that presents a pleasing visual appearance with consistent organization and layout. This does not mean individual areas of the site cannot successfully reflect the unique aspects and individuality of their departments/organizations. Groups should work in concert with the Content Analyst, the Webmaster and WSAG to develop pages that meet the requirement of consistency without sacrificing the creativity of the groups involved.'

The web site is a continuously growing and evolving entity, and WSAG welcomes all constructive comments and criticism. WSAG and CNIT reserve the right to update and change these policies and procedures as the need arises.

Approved by President's Council, April, 2002; revised April, 2003