Content Standards for Official Rensselaer Web Sites

Division of Strategic Communications and External Relations

Introduction

In the higher education marketplace, a professional Web presence is essential to mission, to strategy, to service and to success. The Web has become a key resource for all universities. Prospective and current students use it as a primary means for acquiring information about, and services from, the institution. Alumni, the media, and prospective faculty and staff are also regular customers at university Web sites.

Web design and production at Rensselaer traditionally have occurred in a decentralized environment. While there is value in the broad creativity of cross-divisional endeavor, it is important for our ongoing Web presence to be unified, professional and strategic. The development of common Web content standards helps to accomplish these objectives.

This policy document is being developed by SCER to improve the quality of the Institute’s Web presence by establishing basic content standards for official university sites that represent the Institute to external audiences.

In general, the use of these policies and standards will serve to promote and maintain:

Institute Identity (proper Institute branding allows visitors to recognize immediately a Web page's affiliation with Rensselaer, and works in concert with official printed publications and integrated marketing programs).

Consistency (the Institute is committed to maintaining a high level of consistency in messaging, positioning, and audience communications across all Web pages in the different areas of the official Rensselaer Web presence).

Accuracy and Currency (page content must be accurate and up-to-date).

Rensselaer seeks compliance with its Web standards across all Web sites officially associated with the Institute. A wide range of pages and sites are not covered by this policy, including faculty, course, and student sites.

Scope

The Web presence of the Institute is made up of pages and sites that serve a broad range of purposes and audiences. This policy recognizes that an attempt to apply a single set of standards to such a diverse collection would be inappropriate and ultimately ineffective. Therefore, for the purposes of this policy document, Institute Web sites have been grouped into levels and the standards are written specifically to each individual level. Official Web sites, as defined by the four levels below, are all considered to be Institute-sponsored communications.

Level 1. RPI Home Site – The Home site (Metasite) is the front door of the Institute on the Web, and consists of the Rensselaer Home page (www.rpi.edu) and a large collection of supporting sub-sites and pages. The Metasite will adhere to the strictest application of the Web Standards outlined in this document.

Level 2. School and Primary Central Administration Sites – This level is made up of all the School sites, the President’s site, each of the Vice Presidential-level sites, and select Administration sites (e.g., Public Safety, Parking, Purchasing).

Level 3. Department and Unit Sites – This level is made up of all the campus units below the School or Vice Presidential-level, including academic departments, research centers, libraries, and programs.

Level 4. Publicly Accessible Application and Resource Sites – This level is made up of the Web-based resources and applications that provide services from a college or unit, but which exist as sites separate from the sponsor/owner site. Some examples of such applications and resource sites include:

• Self-Service Applications (e.g., Parking Registration)
• RPInfo
• Campus Tour
• Email/Phone Directory
• Academic Catalog
• Institute Calendar
• Collections and Academic Resource Sites
• Institute Sponsored Conferences

Other Web Sites Within the Institute Web Space

There are many other levels of Web pages and Web sites within the University Web space. Some examples from this other level include:

• Individual faculty sites
• Student sites
• Student group sites
• Course sites
• Secure internal (intranet) sites

Content Standards

Policy on Electronic Citizenship:

All Web sites hosted on Rensselaer servers must comply with the provisions of the Policy on Electronic Citizenship of the Institute.

External (Public) vs. Internal content:

Official Rensselaer Web sites are considered, by definition, to be externally focused; i.e., the content published is intended for public use by external audiences, exclusive of the internal Rensselaer community.

Internal content, intended for exclusive use by faculty, students, and staff, is not to be published within the pages of official Rensselaer Web sites. Examples include student rosters and contact information, faculty or staff meeting minutes, internal room schedules, lab fees, course materials, employee announcements, etc. Such content should be maintained in a separate, access-restricted Web site (intranet), or posted to department file servers as shared files within the department or group.

Required Page Content Elements:

The following information must be readily accessible on the main (home) page of an official site and each page within a site:

• The name of the division, unit or department represented by the page;
• Means of contacting the person(s) responsible for maintaining the page content (e-mail and campus phone). Generally, this is the dean, department head, program director or unit head rather than the Web Producer for the site.

Institute Identity:

For the short term, any use of a discontinued Rensselaer logo needs to be replaced with the current logo. The size of the elements need not be changed if such a change would require altering other aspects of the site or page layout. However, the relative proportions of the logo (height to width) may not be altered, even if the previous version of the logo had been distorted to fit.

Note: The Institute seal may be used in the design of a Web page or Web site, but it cannot be used as a substitute for the Rensselaer logo.

Navigation:

The only navigation element currently required is that each page in a site must provide a link to the University home page (http://www.rpi.edu). Links to the home page must be easily identifiable and labeled as such.

Page Title:

Defined as the text set by the HTML <title> tag. For most browser software (Netscape, Internet Explorer, etc.), the Page Title information appears at the very top of the browser window in the window name area. The page title is a critical element in the indexing of a page by search engines.

For the short term, the page title on every page in a site must include the text, “Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,” preferably at the end of the title text. Example page titles:

            Department of Biology - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

            Our Faculty - Department of Physics - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

            Public Safety - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Copyright notice: 

On all pages in a site, a copyright statement must be included with the text “Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute” as a link to the RPI home page. The preferred location for the copyright statement is at the bottom of the page. The copyright statement must use the following format:

© Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 2009. All rights reserved.

The year must be included with the copyright statement and should be the year of the last material alteration of the site. The exact measure of material changes in a web site is somewhat vague. Minor copy changes (such as updating a faculty list) do not represent a material change. A visual or organizational overhaul of the site, however, does represent material change.

If the site is new and has not had any overhaul, the year should be when the site was first published.

Elements NOT to Include:

The publication of private, personal information referring to faculty, students, or staff (SSN, DOB, etc.) is not allowed on official RPI Web sites.

Individual dates or other specifically time-sensitive information on web pages, unless you are thoroughly prepared to update them EVERY day, or unless you have an automated method for daily updates. It is important to maintain completely updated information.

Any files or data of any kind that are not directly and currently a part of your official RPI Web site (even if they are not linked to on the site).

Content Accuracy and Currency:

All content published on official Rensselaer Web sites must be accurate and up-to-date. It is the responsibility of the ‘local’ content manager to ensure that this standard is maintained through consultation with SCER.

Content Replication (Single Source Rule):

Information maintained elsewhere on the Web by the Institute (another division, school, department, administrative body) should not be copied and replicated elsewhere. Instead, link to that official information. For example, admissions information is maintained by the Division of Enrollment Management, job listings are maintained by Human Resources, News is published by SCER Media Relations, Alumni information is published by Institute Advancement, the online Academic Catalog is published by SCER.

Existing pages that ‘replicate’ such official content must be replaced by links to the official source page(s).

Copyrighted Materials:

While it is easy to download and copy files (text, photographs, graphics, sound, movies, etc.) from the Web, you must have permission from the copyright holder to use them on Rensselaer Web pages. Without such written permission, copyrighted materials may not be republished on RPI Web pages. Under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Institute is obligated to take appropriate action if it receives a complaint that copyrighted material is being published on a Rensselaer Web site without permission from the copyright holder.

Commercial Links and Credits:

Official Institute pages may not link to commercial sites that advertise/sell products or services, and may not accept sponsorship from commercial entities in exchange for advertising and/or links to commercial sites.

Specific exceptions may be allowed if the commercial links support the university's missions and/or provide an essential service to the RPI community.

Credits such as "Site powered by..." or "Site created by..." are prohibited.

Endorsement of non-University Services or Products:

Official Institute Web sites should strictly avoid endorsing, or giving the impression of endorsing, non-University services and products. Endorsements can include the placement of outside logos or advertisements in an official site, providing testimonials about a product or service, or recommending the use of a service or product. The acknowledgment of a third-party relationship, however, is acceptable as long as no recommendation or endorsement is made.

All such links on official home pages are subject to review by SCER.

Other:

A department, school, program, or administrative entity may allow the development of additional Web standards requirements, as long as they do not conflict with Institute Web standards.

Web page publishers at RPI are responsible for the content of their pages. Content must be up to date and follow all Institute policies.

Standards Under Development

These standards will include detailed requirements and guidelines for:

• Accuracy and Currency of Content
• Consistency of Messaging, Voice, and Style
• Institute Identity, Branding, and Positioning Elements
• Navigation Elements (including standard Institute banner and global navigation)
• Institute Colors
• Institute Text CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)
• Use of Institute Home Site (Metasite) Graphics and Styles
• Use and Adaptation of Standard Web Site and Page Templates/ Elements
• Design Patterns for Forms and User Input
• Publication of PDF documents as content
• Publication of Audio and Video content
• Accessibility Standards