University Marketing and Communications

SIUE Web Guidelines

• Purpose
• Roles and Responsibilities
• Organization Sites
• Personal Sites
• External Website Management (secure access)
• Online Payments
• URL Design
• External Links
• Rules and Regulations

Purpose

The purpose of the Web guidelines is to ensure consistency and provide direction for the advancement of Web development within the University. All University Web pages must adhere to these guidelines.

SIUE's Website represents the University within the context of the World Wide Web. All pages must be

1. easily accessed,
2. intuitive to use,
3. timely in their content, and
4. complimentary to the image of the University.

While comprehensive in content, the website should be dynamic, both in content and style, and evolve continuously.

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Roles and Responsibilities

University Marketing and Communications (UMC) is responsible for the direction, navigation, and overall look and feel of the entire University website including the University's home page. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is responsible for system administration, maintenance, technical support, and training in regard to the use of the Cascade Content Management System (CCMS). All content managers along with OIT will have a dotted-line relationship, working cooperatively with the director for web strategy within UMC.

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Organization Sites

Organization Sites consist of the following: Student Organizations and University Affiliated Organizations.

• Student Organizations: A student organization wishing to have an online space must work with the Kimmel Student Involvement Center. The Kimmel Student Involvement Center will develop the student organization online space through CollegiateLink. CollegiateLink is an online organization and involvement management tool.  Each student organization will have a personalized website through this program which will allow them to communicate among members in an efficient way.  This will be the primary means of communication from the Kimmel Student Involvement Center for student organizations.   All student organization sites will have a vanity url developed (siue.edu/organizations/[foo]).  For more information about setting up a student organization website contact the Kimmel Student Involvement Center.
• University-Affiliated Organizations: University-affiliated organization Web sites may be hosted on the SIUE server at the discretion of Marketing and Communications. All affiliated organization Web site hosting must reside on the University servers with a University-related URL (www.siue.edu). In addition, all University-affiliated organization Web sites must be monitored by the appropriate site manager. For not-for-profit Web sites, an officer of that organization must be employed by SIUE. Once approved, not-for-profit sites will be hosted only for the length of time during which the employee is serving in the capacity of an officer of that organization.

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Personal Sites

SIUE faculty, staff, and enrolled students may have personal home pages which may be referenced through the online directory search results. Such home pages are subject to these guidelines but do not represent the University or any unit(s) within it. Personal home pages may not contain any symbol of or reference to the University other than employment and/or student status and the URL (siue.edu/~username). The following element is required on all personal Web sites.

• Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by SIUE.

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Online Payments

Security of our customer credit card information is of paramount importance to SIUE and therefore all online payment systems must be reviewed and authorized by Information Technology Services and the Bursar's Office before being made available through the SIUE website. Contact the Bursar's Office at bursar@siue.edu if you need additional information.

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URL Design

URL Naming

All URL design conventions for the SIUE University website will be determined by Marketing and Communications. Subdirectory vanity URLs off the Institutional Site (www.siue.edu/foo) may be requested for marketing purposes by filling out the online vanity url request form. Vanity URL requests pointing to a domain other than siue.edu will be denied. See below for more URL design requirements.

• All URLs...
  • will be lower-case. No mixed cases are to be used.
  • should be as short as possible with a two-word maximum. If the URL in question is two words but the first word can act alone use just one word. Abbreviations may work as an alternative for 3 or more words or when the result of running two words together would be very long and/or difficult to spell. 
  • will avoid special characters only using letters, hyphens(where applicable, see below) and digits. This is to ensure consistency.
• Subdirectory URLs (siue.edu/foo/file-name.shtml)...
  • will use short, full, and commonly known, easy to spell words separated with hyphens. 
  • without hyphens may only be used and created in instances where the URL must be read aloud, such as with radio advertising. 
• Subdomain URLs (subdomain.siue.edu)...
  • should be limited to only one word. If multiple words are absolutely necessary the recommendation is to run the words together without a hyphen.
  • are limited to online systems unless otherwise approved by University Marketing and Communications

Tips: It is difficult to use a 0 (zero) or an O (upper-case o) in URLs because users often confuse the two. The lowercase o is less of a problem.

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External Links

The following has been developed to help guide users on whether or not an external website link is appropriate for placement on the siue.edu domain. The following does not apply to personal sites. All external website links are subject to removal by University Marketing and Communications if they fail to meet these requirements.

Appropriate external website links:

• Legal requirements from state or federal mandates
• Sponsors supporting SIUE initiatives and/or events
• Social networking sites with direct affiliation to SIUE, such as a department, person or organization.
• Companies that contract with SIUE where external link placement is the result of a product or contract.

Inappropriate external website links:

• A website used to promote a business, person or organization not associated with the University.
• Sites that support a political affiliation, and/or furthers the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office
• Content that a reasonable person may not consider to maintain the dignity and decorum appropriate for an educational institution

Rules and Regulations

• Individuals are responsible for their respective Web sites and agree to comply with applicable federal, state, and local laws; ordinances or regulations, including copyright and licensing; and obscenity laws. Individuals also agree to abide by the terms of the Electronic Information Systems Privacy Policy (as adapted from Policies of the SIU Board of Trustees, Chapter 5, Section J). Individuals must agree to indemnify and hold harmless the Board of Trustees of Southern Illinois University, its agents, employees, and representatives from any and all liabilities arising out of the information submitted by the individual and any other use of the system by the individual.
• Copyright laws apply to electronic publishing as well as to print publishing. Homepage owners must have permission to publish the information, graphics, or photographs on a page if they are not the author or creator.
• The inclusion of personal addresses, telephone numbers, etc., on Web pages, may not violate the right to privacy for those individuals who have specifically indicated that their directory information is not to be made public. Therefore, photographs or personal information about an individual may not be included without the express permission of the individual. The inclusion of personal information should be carefully weighed against personal safety issues, particularly with regard to student organization Web sites.
• Web pages are expected to conform to general socially acceptable principles of taste, civility, and decency and to serve the University's best interests.
• All page owners are responsible for keeping their Web directory and their home pages up-to-date by reviewing and revising home pages at least each academic year and removing old content from the server immediately. Directories may not contain content which is not actually linked from the unit's home page. Page owners will be notified by the Web Administrator when their site has been found to contain information that is out-of-date. Upon receipt of such notification, page owners will be given 30 days to bring their site up-to-date and/or remove old content from the server. Sites not brought up to date within 30 days will be subject to deletion.
• The use of the home page to promote a business or organization not associated with the University or approved by the University is prohibited.
• Information and/or actual Web content from another University department may be incorporated into a department or student organization Web site only via links to the Web site of the department responsible for said authoritative content. At no time are application forms, policies, or other authoritative content documents to be copied to another directory for incorporation into another department's Web site.
• Redirects for Web sites that have been moved will be permitted to sit on the server for up to one year, after which time the old directory and its contents shall be removed from the server.
• All Web sites must meet the Illinois Web Accessibility Standards http://www.illinois.gov/iwas/. Tools for checking the accessibility of Web sites can be found at: http://fae.cita.uiuc.edu.
• All Web sites must comply with the SIUE Web Privacy Notice.
• In the event that Web pages fail to meet these guidelines, such Web pages will be disabled by the Web Administrator on behalf of University Marketing and Communications. 

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