UW Colleges Web Page Guidelines

These standards apply to World Wide Web pages published at or for University of Wisconsin Colleges.

All thirteen colleges and central administration web pages created after official UW acceptance must comply with these standards and all web pages hosted by the Colleges must comply by July 1, 2002.

Electronic publications should follow the same university policies and standards as print publications. Applicable issues include nondiscrimination, academic freedom, proper use of computer resources, copyright laws, and authorized use of the university's logo and other graphic elements.

All pages, documents, images and other material referred to in this document include everything posted on a UW Colleges web server that is accessible from the Internet by a direct or indirect link. This includes but is not limited to material about academic departments, functional units, student organizations, as well as faculty, staff or student postings.

1) All publications and World Wide Web pages are subject to copyright law. Permission is required from the author and/or the source when using copyrighted material, including information, photographs, or graphic images. When using copyrighted material with permission, written credit must be given to the author or source.

2) All UW Colleges World Wide Web pages, are subject to:

a) Copyright, "fair use," and intellectual property rights

b) Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act - which restricts access to personally identifiable information from students’ education records.

c) Federal Computer Abuse Amendment Act

d) Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act

e) UW Colleges Computer and Networking Usage Guidelines http://www.uwc.edu/cio/iitc/Usage.htm

f) Policy On Use Of University Information Technology Resources – http://www.uwsa.edu/rpd/rpd97-2.htm

g) University of Wisconsin System Policies Governing Advertising and Sponsorship on the Internet

3) Any university unit may post information to the WWW provided it supports the mission and purpose of the university, and complies with the content and technical guidelines as specified in this document.

4) All web pages should conform to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (World Wide Web Consortium), or in case this is not possible, provide a text alternative. Bobby Priority One should be maintained on all pages and priority two and three should be attempted.

5) UW Colleges reserves the right to remove, without notice, any web page or file from any computer which is owned and operated by the UW Colleges or its affiliated units which does not comply with UW Colleges policy and/or procedure.

6) Campus web page guidelines can augment but not supercede UWC guidelines.

Guidelines

1) Web pages should be built on the principal of simplicity; the objective should be to direct users clearly and directly to the information they seek

2) The use of FRAMES is discouraged; if you must use FRAMES, create a viable alternative for non-FRAMES enabled browsers

3) Initial web pages should begin with indices that are broad and cover all lower level documents; subsequent pages should have more precise indices referring to greater detail. Graphics should be used sparingly on upper level pages to facilitate quicker access to lower level information

Individual Campus Web Sites

1) Colleges must include these elements:

a) Campus address (complete with city, state and zip) phone (including area code), fax, e-mail

b) About the college (paragraph describing college, its mission, etc.)

c) A consistent look on all top level campus web pages; that would include consistent button design, backgrounds, etc. Each of the thirteen colleges can have a different look.

d) Campus Web page should be reviewed and revised often enough to keep up with current technology and compliance with the UW Colleges standards.

e) All main pages must have a link back to the campus home page.

f) Provide a link to the parent home page ("Return to xxx department home page") on all supporting local pages

2) Recommended sections for colleges

a) Departments

b) Advising/enrollment

c) Transfer information

d) Dean's office staff

e) Student Services/Advising section

f) Library/Research Section

g) Continuing Education section

h) Faculty and staff

i) Email Directories for both faculty and students

j) Student organizations / sports

k) Catalog/Timetable

3) Optional sections for colleges

a) Honoraries, clubs, student organizations

b) Foundation/College alumni groups

c) Events calendar/announcements

d) Community/Resources (Could be Foundation page or local non-profit organizations.)

e) Campus Policies

4) Suggested links

a) DE Course Sites (Blackboard, Prometheus, Online Bookstore, etc.)

b) Applications

c) Catalog

d) Financial aid (applications)

e) Transfer admissions (Office of Admissions)

f) Student Handbook

g) Related off-campus web sites

h) Information for International Students.

Academic Department Web Sites

1) Departments must include these elements:

a) About the department (paragraph describing department, its mission, etc.)

b) A consistent look on all top level campus web pages; that would include consistent button design, backgrounds, etc. Each of the departments can have a different look.

c) Department web sites should be reviewed and revised often enough to keep up with current technology and compliance with the UW Colleges standards.

d) All main pages must have a link back to the department home page.

e) Provide a link to the parent home page ("Return to xxx department home page") on all supporting local pages

2) Recommended sections for departments

a) Departmental membership (including chair)

b) Curriculum

c) Research Section

d) Faculty and staff

e) Email Directories for faculty

3) Optional sections for departments

a) Events calendar/announcements

b) Resources

c) Department Policies

4) Suggested links

a) World Wide Web Resources

Colleges-wide Web Sites

1) Colleges-wide pages must include these elements:

a) About the program (paragraph describing college, its mission, etc.)

b) Address (complete with city, state and zip) phone (including area code), fax, e-mail

c) A consistent look on all top level campus web pages; that would include consistent button design, backgrounds, etc.

d) Page should be reviewed and revised often enough to keep up with current technology and compliance with the UW Colleges standards.

e) All main pages must have a link back to the home page.

f) Provide a link to the parent home page ("Return to xxx department home page") on all supporting local pages

2) Recommended sections for Colleges-wide sites

a) TBD

3) Optional sections for Colleges-wide sites

a) Events calendar/announcements

4) Suggested links

a) World Wide Web Resources

Helpful hints
This section provides suggestions that may make your web-page authoring easier.

1) Each department, unit, or site coordinator is responsible for its own web pages and the pages they link to. University Relations will send you periodic reminders for you to update your site information or for you to provide University Relations with updated information so the site can be updated. Sites with outdated, inaccurate information are at risk of being dropped from the campus website.

2) Remember that departments and units should link to information in other areas rather than recreate it. This is especially true of policies and procedures that are posted on the College’s Central web site.

3) If you don't have experience with graphic design or electronic page design, consult with the campus UR or Webmaster. He or she might be able to find you students with design, WWW, or technology experience.  The UR or Webmaster could then give direction so your page fits with the goals of the campus website in terms of design, ease or finding information, etc.

4) Consider how to organize your information and how to link it. If you need some pointers, University Relations will consult with you.

5) Only publish what you can maintain.

6) Whenever you provide links to images, sounds, movies, or any potentially large file, be sure to include a comment to the link stating the size and format of the file that will be transferred if users click on the link.

Campus Web Servers should NOT Contain

1) Copyrighted materials in any form without the consent of the original copyright owner.

2) Audio, pictures (i.e. photographs, paintings or other derivatives thereof), videos or movies of people without their written consent. 

3) Commercial, for-profit activities or advertisements in any form. 

4) An individual Home Page or information about an individual without the individual's consent. (No person, organization or entity at UW Colleges should upload to the server a homepage for someone without his/her consent.)

5) Confidential information 

6) Any images or data that would be abusive, profane, harassing or sexually offensive to the average person.