Web Publishing Policy: Official/Departmental Pages

1. Official pages on the Vernon College web site deal primarily with the college as a whole or give structure to the site. Typically, these pages include the kind of material found in the catalog Also included are the VC home page, schedules, policy statements, a site map, and links to resource materials. Announcements and link directories for personal, organization and department home pages are also official pages. Additionally, some information about programs and departments at VC may be on official pages.

2. Information Technology will create and maintain all official pages.

3. Official web pages will conform to a structure and appearance defined by the VC webmaster.

4. Departmental home pages may be created by any department. However, the responsible staff member must have taken an HTML class or be able to demonstrate proficiency in HTML. There can be only one official departmental home page per department. Departmental home pages may be linked to a series of secondary pages (i.e. separate pages for each discipline within the department).

5. Departments may wish to form committees to design their pages and decide on structure and content. Alternatively, this responsibility may be assigned to an individual. The decision should be made by the department chair in conjunction with the faculty.

6. Information in departmental pages should be limited to information about that department. Departmental pages should not include information about the college as a whole or about other departments. Overlaps in information will make it hard to keep VC's web site up-to-date.

7. Departmental pages should link to personal pages about the instructors in the department if such pages exist. Every departmental home page MUST have a link back to VC's home page. Departmental pages may have links to other VC pages as needed, i.e. schedules, costs, etc.

8. Personal pages about individual faculty/staff members are not part of the departmental page. The person maintaining a departmental home page is not responsible for the contents of personal pages belonging to other people, even if he or she created those pages.

9. Always remember that VC's support comes from the public. Our community is diverse, with differing opinions on what constitutes pornography and on what is offensive. Creators of web pages at VC should avoid controversy.

10. Copyright laws should be strictly observed. Do not place copyrighted material, including graphics, on the VC web server. Violations of copyright law are the responsibility of the creator of the page. In the event that VC discovers copyrighted material on a page, the page will be removed immediately from the server along with all copyrighted material.

11. Departmental pages and all secondary pages must be accessible to persons with disabilities. Information about accessibility is available at http://www.vernoncollege.edu/htmlaccs.html. VC's accessibility policy can be viewed at http://www.vernoncollege.edu/access.html. In addition to the recommended html practices for ensuring accessibility, graphics and videos must have text equivalents for the visually impaired and sound files must have text equivalents for the hearing impaired. Pages should have no priority 1 accessibility problems when tested with Bobby.

12. All official and departmental web pages must include the following:
    • "Vernon College" in the TITLE section
    • "Vernon College" in the META line if META is used
    • "Vernon College" on the departmental home page linked to the VC home page;
    • a link to VC's standard disclaimer (http://www.vernoncollege.edu/disclaim.html)
    • a link to the departmental home page
      (i.e. http://www.vernoncollege.edu/~thisdept) on every page except the home page, if multiple pages are used
    • a "last updated" date on every page (Remember to change this line whenever the page is changed. People DO check these dates to see if the content of the page is current. At some point this may be done automatically. Currently it is the responsibility of the page owner.)
    • an e-mail address to contact someone about the page or its contents. (This must be on the departmental home page but does not have to be on other pages which are linked to the home page.)

13. The amount of space on the VC server is limited. No audio or video files are allowed on departmental pages at this time except by special approval from the Director of Information Technology. Graphics are allowed, but should be used sparingly to improve the appearance of the page or to clarify its content. As you view the extensive departmental pages at major universities, remember that many of these departments purchase their own web servers, set up firewalls, and hire computer staff to maintain them. None of our departments are big enough to justify such an expense.

14. Departmental pages should be approved by a departmental committee or by the department chair before they are submitted to Information Technology.

15. Departmental pages should be reviewed regularly by department members for accuracy.

16. All departmental web pages will be reviewed by the VC webmaster for conformance to minimum standards. After approval, the pages will be linked to a directory of VC departmental pages.

17. Suggestions:
    • Read a style guide.
    • Remember that most web users will no longer waste time on slow-loading pages. As the internet gets busier, this trend will become even more pronounced. Since text loads much faster than graphics, try to develop nice looking pages with as few graphics as possible. JPEG files load faster than GIFs.
    • As a courtesy to visitors to a page, make it easy to read. Busy backgrounds conflict with text. Some combinations of background color and text/link colors also cause problems. Animated icons annoy many people, especially if there is more than one visible at a time. If frames are used, verify that the material fits nicely in the frames without excessive scrolling. "White space" on a page is as important in web publishing as it is in print.
    • Remember that pages with frames may not be adequately indexed by search engines such as altavista.
    • Be aware that all monitors are not created equal. Keep colors simple.
    • At VC, blue is always appropriate. VC official pages will use blue as a main color.
    • Keep in mind that content is what brings people back to pages for return visits.
    • If possible, test pages with both Netscape and Internet Explorer. Also use a validator to check for browser compatibility problems.
    • Validate your HTML.
    • Periodically test all links. Visitors to a page are frustrated by out-of-date links.
    • The web is a very public place. Departmental pages make a statement about VC to web users worldwide. Try to make the statement a positive one.
    • Keep a printed copy of all pages plus a backup on diskette.
    • Update the page regularly.

18. Do not submit your page to search engines such as altavista or indexes such as yahoo. Request Information Technology to submit the page(s) for you.

19. The VC webmaster may modify this policy statement at any time.

Comments?