Skip to Main Site Navigation Skip to Content Skip to Footer
Back To Top

Web Policy and Review Committee

The committee’s roles are to (1) recommend policy regarding the University’s website, including the development of best practice standards and guidelines; (2) develop procedures to ensure adherence to the University’s web policies and standards; and (3) serve as a sounding board to review website design and content issues.
 
Meetings:
The committee shall meet at least once each semester during the academic year. Reports should be made through the chair to the President or his/her designee.
 
Reporting:
Committee meetings shall be recorded and minutes distributed to members on a timely basis. Committee reports, including an annual report, shall be submitted to the President or designee. 
 
Role of the Office of University Relations:
The Director of University Relations and his/her staff are responsible for managing the overall look and navigational structure of the Eastern website, working collaboratively with Information Technology Services, other academic and administrative departments, and external contractors as required. The Office of University Relations is also responsible for providing technical support to academic and administrative departments; monitoring department websites to ensure currency and compliance with the University’s web policies; and sharing industry best practices with the campus community. In addition, the Office of University Relations is responsible for designing and/or maintaining:

  • Academic Majors
  • Academic Department Home Pages
  • Administrative Department Home Pages
Role of Information Technology Services:
The Center for Instructional Technology will provide training on the website’s content management system. Information Technology staff will also provide technical support and consultation on IT-managed apps and other technical issues, including those involving Eastern’s website contractors as appropriate.
 
Role of Academic and Administrative Departments:
Academic and administrative departments will designate a person (“Contributor”) to maintain their web pages, along with a backup. They are responsible for building and maintaining their department web pages (with the exception of home page/index pages). Student workers may be assigned as backup “contributors,” but cannot be the primary department contributor.
 
Membership:
  • (2) faculty members from the School of Arts and Sciences
  • (2) faculty members from the School of Education and Professional Studies
  • (1) member of the faculty from the Library
  • (1) member of the staff in the Office of Continuing Studies
  • (2) members of the staff of Information Technology Services
  • (1) student selected by the Student Government Association
  • (1) representative from the Division of Student Affairs
  • (1) Representative from the Division of Institutional Advancement
  • (1) Representative from the Division of Finance and Administration
  • (1) Additional member of University Relations web team (rotate)
  • University’s Website Manager
  • Director of Admissions
  • Director of University Relations; Chair

Web Policy and Guidelines

    1. The website is the University’s most important marketing tool and serves as a transactional and informational resource for faculty, staff and students.
    2. The design and functionality of the website should be user-friendly, both for site visitors and for the people who manage and maintain the site.
    3. The site must be mobile friendly.
    4. Best practices in higher education website design and navigation should be used to ensure positive and effective end user experience. Eastern’s web practices should reflect End user needs/interests, Search Engine Optimization, and Page load time.

    1. No dead pages or out-of-date PDFs and other files
    2. No broken links
    3. No blank pages
    4. No “page under construction”
    5. Avoid using website as a historical archive (Recommended: current year only)
    6. If you use the blog to archive content, it must be maintained
    7. No “site within a site” (recreating the entire Eastern website on your department page)
    8. No links to commercial enterprises other than for educational purposes or as partners.
    9. Permission controls by role and site are managed by University Relations
    10. Frequent review (review dates; activity reports) to ensure standards are maintained
    11. Home pages are managed by University Relations; lower pages are managed by departments
    12. Personal pages must be maintained by individual faculty/staff
    13. Each page of the Eastern website must have the University’s header (calls to action, main menu) and footer (affirmative action statement, disclaimer, contact information)
    14. Policy Enforcement: Issues not resolved by the Website Manager or Director of University Relations will be brought to the Web Policy and Review Committee for discussion and recommendation.

  • Three roles are used on Eastern’s website; all are further explained in the Contributor Guide:
    • Administrators: web developers in the Office of University Relations. Maintain home page/index pages and provide technical support to department contributors.
    • Approvers: Department heads who have the responsibility of approving their site content
    • Contributors: Department-level site editors; maintain their department’s sub-pages

    1. University Relations will develop an outline for department index pages.
    2. University Relations staff will create each department index page, including banner images, side menu, and other elements. Depending on the department, University Relations staff may also assist departments in building lower-level pages.
    3. Department contributors are trained in Cascade so that they can add appropriate content and maintain their department web pages.
      1. New Cascade Contributor will need to fill out the Web Publishing Authorization Form before obtaining access to edit their department web pages.

  • See Eastern’s Cascade Contributor Guide for details on site management, permissions, content/design standards, best practices, and other aspects of Eastern’s website.

  • Print and online resources for Web Administrators and Contributors are available from the Office of University Relations and on its website, as follows:
    • Developers Guide (for University Relations staff only)
    • Contributors Guide for Department Contributors (UR website)
    • Videos (on various aspects of Cascade and Eastern’s website design/CMS)
    • Quick Start Summaries (to use with videos)
    • Web Authorization Form (UR website)
    • Social Media Guidelines
    • Web Policies

    • Maximum image size: 2MB
    • Maximum image dimensions: 1920 x 745
    • Acceptable image types: .bmp, .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .tiff
    • Maximum document size: 15MB
    • Acceptable document types: .doc, .docx, .rtf, .txt, .pps, .ppt, .pptx, .pdf, .xlr, .xls, .xlsx (Word documents, rich/plain text documents, Powerpoint/slideshows, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets)
    • Maximum number of side menu items: 10 (does not include nested content)
    • Maximum depth of side menu levels: 2 (folders inside of your folder)
    • Maximum number of slideshow (decorative) images: 4-5
    • Max number of photos on a gallery page: 18 (recommended maximum)
    • Maximum length of image's alt text: 150 characters
    • Maximum number of content rows: 6-8
    • Limited to one (overall) table style per page