General Provisions
All Web pages published on the UW-Platteville web server(s) must comply with the criteria identified below for each category of user. In addition to these criteria, web pages will be consistent with the following existing laws and policies (non-inclusive):
Web accounts are provided for the purpose of academic, administrative, and personal use. University computing resources are property of the state of Wisconsin and, as such, commercial use outside the mission of the university is prohibited.
Web developers should design pages that are compliant with the W3C WCAG 2.x, minimum compliance Level A Accessibility standards, https://www.w3.org/ including preparing pages that are compatible with screen readers. Developers are also encouraged to create pages that are low bandwidth sites, to allow users without the latest technology and low bandwidth to use the site. For information regarding W3C Accessibility standards, please visit the W3C web site on Accessibility. The Brand Style Guide is also available for reference.
Ownership
Any content within the www.uwplatt.edu domain is representative of the university, and therefore must follow standards of appropriateness. There are two primary levels in which content may be published: University Pages, and Profile Pages.
University Pages
Official pages directly represent the university and its offices, divisions, and departments to the university's various audiences—potential students, current students, employees, friends, visitors and casual visitors—are considered University Pages. University Pages are not owned by departments or units; rather, they are guided by them as content experts. Therefore, these pages must conform to the design styles adopted by the university to give the site unity, coherence, functionality, and readability. They must also conform to specific levels of professionalism and appropriateness.
University Oversight
The Website Advisory Group (WAG) shall be made up of individuals from Communications; ITS; the Faculty, Academic Staff, and Student Senates; and administration.
Continued oversight is important as the web grows in functionality and ability. To help manage the changing needs of the university's website, a Website Advisory Group has been established to manage, advise, and oversee the overall appearance and functionality of the website.
WAG shall be made up of individuals from Marketing Communications; ITS; the Faculty, Academic Staff, Student Senates; and administration.
This group, shall meet as needed to evaluate the current state of our website and address requests and needs of university constituents.
Standards
### Images and Video
Whether manipulated or original, images and video should portray a positive image of the university and its intended actions, of its programs and activities, and of the faculty, staff, and students, and promote appropriate and tolerant behavior. Images should not be suggestive of discrimination (as defined in the university discrimination and harassment policy) or illegal activities; nor should they promote, endorse, or construe sexual or drug-related behavior by the campus population or alcohol-related behavior by students. For consistency, images used on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville website(s) must come from by the University photographer or purchased from a University approved image resource website. All video displayed on the University of Wisconsin-Platteville website(s) will be delivered from a University of Wisconsin-Platteville YouTube account.
### Text
Like images and video, text content should portray the university and its constituents in a positive manner. Marketing Communications will write text appropriate with the University brand voice and message on behalf of the faculty; academic staff and leadership in order to maintain consistency and tone.
### Advertising non-university programs
Non-University Programs should be associated, in partnership, or in collaboration with a related program at UW-Platteville. Non-university program content should be appropriately weighted against UW-Platteville content on the same page. Educational domains (.edu) are not permitted to sell advertising space.
### Social Media
Social media links must direct to university-affiliated accounts. Those accounts must have an active presence, and must maintain the above content standards to present the university in a positive light.
For a full list of approved social media policies, please reference the approved Social Media Policy governing UW-Platteville social media.
### Links to other websites
Links are considered a type of content. Therefore, links must be in some way related to the purpose of the office or department and in no way for promotion. Linking to an off-site page is in essence a way of vouching for another page's content. Consider carefully what you are "vouching" for, and review links regularly in case off-site content changes.
In the event a webpage has a considerable amount of links, like a list of related sites for instance, a disclaimer is necessary.
"The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is not responsible for the content of linked pages."
Consider fair representation when listing products, groups, or businesses.
Content managed by invested individuals
Because web content is so visible and valuable, it is strongly suggested that each department invest time and energy into its representative content.
Marketing Communications make all content-related edits on the unversity website by the direction of departments and offices. Requesting a change is the beginning of this process.
External Auditing Process
Marketing Communications or ITS have the authority to audit webpages and make changes based on content in a consistent manner. They may also remove content without first communicating with the department if this information is out-of-date or no longer relevant.
Profile Pages and Personal Pages
The purpose of profile pages is to display professional information, share educational information, etc. Creating content on the uwplatt.edu domain constitutes paid work, just as any use of the university property constitutes work. As such, content is subject to university standards. While these pages are personal in content, they do reside on the university web server(s) and reflect an image of the university, and therefore can be audited for inappropriate content.
"UW System institutions are often directly involved in the development of copyrightable instructional materials, because they provide substantial public resources to support the creation and production of these materials. Institutional involvement is likely to expand substantially with the increased use of information technology in the creation of multimedia instructional materials and distance education course offerings."
"The UW System does not assert a property interest in materials which result from the author's pursuit of traditional teaching, research, and scholarly activities. The creation of materials such as theses, scholarly articles, journal articles, research bulletins, monographs, and books occurs, in most circumstances, as an integral part of the author's position as a UW System employee. In those cases where substantial institutional resources are provided to support the development of instructional materials, however, the UW System may assert ownership or other property interests that should be addressed through specific agreements with the authors and producers of the materials."
For the full policy, see UW-System Administration
Student Organizations
Any student organization may establish its own web presence outside of the UW-Platteville domain, but as an official student organization, the off-site web presence must adhere to the same university standards as on-site pages.
Subdomains for uwplatt.edu
Because of certain underlying principles supporting subdomains, subdomains may only be implemented if the web site meets the following criteria.
- The web site resides on a physical server other than the primary web server, contains content or applications that cannot be hosted on the primary web server, and the content must be made available to the University community.
- The subdomain name is for one of the University's audiences. Because of the challenge and expense involved in managing large numbers of individual subdomains for every department, Individual departments or programs should not have their own.
- All subdomains must be approved by the CIO.
- Subdomain names should be reviewed annually by Information Technology Services (ITS) Department. Subdomains no longer in use should be retired each year.
- All subdomains must use the *.uwplatt.edu domain name.
Need help?
If you have questions, please contact the ITS Help Desk at 608.342.1400 or helpdesk@uwplatt.edu. You may also visit the Help Desk on the first floor of the Karrmann Library.