1. Approval and Enforcement

1.1 This policy was developed by the Web Management Committee, revised and approved by the UCTC, and is enforced by Academic Technology Services (ATS).

1.2 Should a website's inclusion in the CSUSM Official Website be in question, due to compliance with this policy, final approval or rejection will be the responsibility of the Director of ATS, as advised by the UCTC.

1.3 ATS shall maintain a list of designated individuals from each department who are responsible for the information and materials published in their respective areas of the Official Website. It is the responsibility of these individuals (Website Administrators) to ensure their department's adherence to this policy and fulfill the tasks outlined in Section 3.

1.4 Web pages may be suspended from public viewing during the course of an investigation, but shall not be revoked without formal review with campus administration. See Section 5.7 for further details.

1.5 Violation of this policy may result in the loss of publishing privileges to the CSUSM Website. See Section 5.7 for further details.

2. Definitions and Descriptions

2.1 CSUSM Official Website:
The Official Website is provided for publication of information and materials of use to the campus community. To ensure that published materials are representative of the responsible parties and that information is reasonably current, website administrators will be charged to apply the stipulations of this policy to all web pages contained within the Official Website.

2.2 CSUSM Unofficial Website:
Unofficial websites contain pages that are "in development", "in process", "archived", or simply do not meet the guidelines of "Official" pages as outlined in this policy. These unofficial websites do not require approval for inclusion on our server besides ownership by a valid user account and initial web space from ATS. The unofficial websites mentioned herein are not to be confused with websites in the "public" space (space found on non-primary web servers). Websites in the "public" space only require a valid user account within our system, and they are only bound by the general computing policies found at http://www.csusm.edu/iits/policies The unofficial websites referenced in this policy reside on the primary web servers and are thus subject to additional requirements for archiving, labeling, etc. An unofficial web page has the possibility to reflect poorly on the campus and to confuse web visitors, because the pages are still found through search mechanisms and old linking structures. Because of this fact, even unofficial pages may be subject to review and removal as discussed in Section 5.7.

2.3 Website Administrators:
A designated individual from a "Unit" who has a current, valid user account within our system. Typically this individual has a faculty or staff account, but exceptions for student or other accounts may be made through consultation between the Dean/VP of a unit and ATS. See Section 3 for more definition and responsibilities.

2.4 Unit:
Any department, division, organization, or individual that is recognized by ATS to be a legitimate publisher on one of the campus' primary web servers. A Website Administrator is associated to this unit, and they must have a current, valid user account within our system.

2.5 Website:
A collection of web pages under a centralized organization structure, typically related to a unit and under one Website Administrator.

3. Website Administrator's Responsibilities

3.1 Each unit publishing information on the Official Website shall designate an individual to be responsible for the content, review, and maintenance of the materials published therein. These individuals shall be known as Website Administrators and their identity will be recorded by ATS. Official web content will be associated to these individuals for review/authorization rights and only these registered web pages will be considered "Official" in context of this policy. This list of administrators will be reviewed by ATS each semester, but it is the responsibility of the unit to inform ATS of a change in designated Website Administrators.

3.2 Adherence of web pages in the Official Website to the stipulations set forth in this policy shall be reviewed by the Website Administrators at regular intervals, as specified when registering pages with the ATS website management database. Web pages containing information or materials that have not been reviewed within the specified time intervals will be deemed "expired" and consequently removed from public viewing or no longer be considered "Official."

3.3 Web Administrators may be required to attend web training courses in order to maintain these positions. These courses will primarily cover legal issues like ADA compliance or required elements/design guidelines for "Official" pages.

4. Publishing on the Primary Web Servers

4.1 Creating, registering, and maintaining a web space:
Once a unit identifies their Website Administrator, web space for publishing their content will be created by ATS on one of the primary web servers; the type of server depending upon the technology needs of the requesting Website Administrator. The global-level website location, label, purpose, review cycle, and responsible parties for this web space will be registered in the ATS website management database at the time of creation. Updates and registration of individual pages within the website are the responsibility of the Website Administrator and reviewed by ATS through an automated system.

4.2 Regulations and guidelines:
All web pages found on the primary web servers are required to meet baseline guidelines as provided by ATS in their published design/content guidelines (located on the IITS website). Web pages designated as "Official" have extended guideline requirements to meet, in addition to those found in Section 5 of this policy. The design/content guidelines published by ATS will change over time, and best efforts will be made to inform Website Administrators of new editions. It is also the Website Administrators responsibility to check the IITS website and stay current on the latest requirements. Websites failing to adhere to requirements (even new requirements), within a specified time allotted for compliance, will be subject to removal. Additionally, Website Administrators may lose their responsibilities as such if they are found negligent or ignorant of published guidelines within a reasonable time from publishing updates to the guidelines. See Section 5.7 for further details.

4.3 Agreement to Terms of Use:
During the creation and registration process outlined in Section 4.1, Website Administrators are required to login and acknowledge their acceptance of the terms of this and other computing use policies. If a unit designates a change of Website Administrators, the new administrator must also login and acknowledge their awareness and compliance to the terms of these policies. Failure to acknowledge this policy does not excuse any website content from being subject to its requirements and enforcement in cases of non-compliance.

5. Official Website Purpose & Guidelines

5.1 The Official Website SHOULD contain information and materials of use to the campus community, and that information has been verified for quality assurance by the responsible departments. Here is an example of the type of information that would be located in the Official Website:

• Any publishable materials developed by departments or programs.
• Summary information about the university as a whole
• Policies and procedures for CSUSM students, faculty, and staff. This is information that:
  • helps faculty and staff get their work done
  • provides benefits and employment information for faculty and staff
  • informs students about the admission process, tuition expenses, registration, life at the CSUSM, degree programs and more
• Administrative and support services available to the CSUSM community
• Programs and events
• Information and services provided for the public

5.2 The Official Website SHOULD NOT contain information or materials that would be deemed "personal", "recreational", "provisional", or generally unsanctioned by a department (or Website Administrator as described in Section 3).

5.3 In order for a web page (or collection of pages in a website) to be considered "Official," it must be registered within a central website management database maintained by ATS. These pages are associated to a Web Administrator and set with a periodic review schedule depending on the content type (i.e. review once a month, semester, year, etc.). These registered, "Official" pages must adhere to WMC stipulated guidelines for cataloging information, content for users, and general design. Design guidelines are developed and maintained by ATS and can be found online at the Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS) website.

5.4 "Official" web pages shall be identified by an Official CSUSM Seal (acceptable versions/usage can be found online at the Instructional and Information Technology Services (IITS) website). It is the responsibility of the Web Administrator to ensure that the seal is used in an unaltered manner on the appropriate, registered pages. Use of the seal for pages that are not registered may be grounds for loss of web publishing privileges on CSUSM servers.

5.5 "Official" web pages may be linked to from the campus' primary web pages in any manner that the campus webmaster (ATS staff) deems necessary, including labeling of the links with alternate text than destination page headings/titles.

5.6 All websites and web authors developing on CSUSM servers must adhere to the general computing policies found at: http://www.csusm.edu/iits/policies/ and http://www.csusm.edu/policies -- in addition to this and any other official policy of governance with regard to web development on the campus.

5.7 In cases where registered "Official" pages do not meet the needs of the campus community, do not meet the design/content guidelines published by ATS, or where review of pages is not done in a timely manner, the following steps will be taken (not necessarily in this order or complexity):

• The Web Administrator for the pages will be contacted regarding the issue at hand, and a compliance date will be issued.
• Higher management for the department/area will be contacted to inform on the issue at hand and compliance dates that have passed.
• The web content in question will be temporarily removed (taken offline) while the issue is being resolved.
• In cases of dispute, review of the issue and ATS design/content guidelines will be conducted by a third-party.
• Web content that is found to not meet reasonable guidelines, as reviewed by a third-party, and is not modified to be in compliance, will be archived (taken offline) for an indefinite period, and the associated Web Administrator may lose their administration rights over registered "Official" pages.