Web Governance Policy

Policy Number	Policy Owner
3008.3	Strategic Communications/Marketing

1.0 Purpose

The SUNY Plattsburgh official website is the public face of the college. It mainly serves the marketing and communications needs of the college, and is our primary and most important recruitment and communications tool for our external stakeholders. The standards and expectations outlined in this document are intended to assist college personnel in developing webpages support, the mission of the College, align with applicable laws and policies, and facilitate the business of the institution. The official website is currently hosted at Plattsburgh.edu.

2.0 Revision History

Date	Version Number	Change Description	Referenced Section
8/16/11	1.0	New Document	Entire Document
10/10/15	1.1	Minor Revisions
1/4/17	1.2	Minor Revisions
5/7/18	2.0	Major Revisions
4/26/22	2.1	Major Revisions	Owner Name Change
2/2/24	3.0	Major Revisions	Major Content Changes, 4-6, Minor 7 and 9

Date

Version Number

Change Description

Referenced Section

8/16/11

1.0

New Document

Entire Document

10/10/15

1.1

Minor Revisions

1/4/17

1.2

Minor Revisions

5/7/18

2.0

Major Revisions

4/26/22

2.1

Major Revisions

Owner Name Change

2/2/24

3.0

Major Revisions

Major Content Changes, 4-6, Minor 7 and 9

This policy was previously named Web Content Management.

Review Process / Approval

Action:	Units	Date
Policy Review	Strategic Communications/Marketing Computer Systems and Desktop Support Management Services	3/1/18 - 4/1/18
Policy Approval	Executive Council	4/23/18

Action:

Units

Date

Policy Review

Strategic Communications/Marketing
Computer Systems and Desktop Support
Management Services

3/1/18 - 4/1/18

Policy Approval

Executive Council

4/23/18

3.0 Units & Persons Affected

4.0 Policy

Governance and content management of the official SUNY Plattsburgh website is overseen by the Office of Strategic Communications and Marketing. This oversight includes development and implementation of web and content strategy. All pages on the SUNY Plattsburgh official website are maintained on plattsburgh.edu or other approved domains and servers, and must adhere to the website policy. SUNY Plattsburgh is solely responsible for the content, copyright and accessibility of all pages representing the college, and therefore, these pages must adhere to this policy, the Graphic Communications Policy and all legal requirements, including accessibility guidelines. Pages that belong to the Student Association, Athletics, Study Abroad and Institutional Advancement are responsible for ensuring that materials meet legal and college policy requirements. The News & Events section is managed by Strategic Communications and Marketing, which provides content and updates via its communications function. Strategic Communications and Marketing may delegate additional authority to other campus users where deemed in the best interest of the institution.

External Links
Occasionally, official Plattsburgh.edu pages include links to external sites. Links from SUNY Plattsburgh pages to commercial organizations and business or for promotional purposes are generally not permitted. Requests for an exception to this policy will be reviewed by the executive director of Strategic Communications and Marketing on a case-by-case basis.

Online Journals or Blogs
Online journals or blogs on the SUNY Plattsburgh website are required to comply with accessibility laws. Such online publications are required to adopt the college’s web template and represent a visual connection to the college.

Social Media and Networks
Use of social media networks is governed by the SUNY Plattsburgh Social Media Policy.

Non-Affiliated Associations
Content Owners are required to ensure that non-affiliated associations linked on official SUNY Plattsburgh web pages be clearly identified as such (i.e. as being entities other than SUNY Plattsburgh). Representations of non-affiliated associations on the website are required to comply with New York State laws concerning accessibility and to follow this policy.

Faculty Projects
Faculty-run or faculty-managed web projects shall reside on external hosting sites, not on the official college website. All web pages and materials made available by faculty must be fully accessible and comply with state and federal laws.

Student Projects
Student-run web projects shall reside on external hosting sites, if approved by a faculty member, not on the official college website. When working on student projects, the student must provide log in names and passwords to the faculty member they are working with. Students should close blogs and forms when finished with their project.

External Sites
To secure a non-plattsburgh.edu domain name or to host web pages off plattsburgh.edu, department heads must submit a written request to the executive director of Strategic Communications and Marketing for review and prior approval. Requests to host student recruitment content on external servers will not be honored.

Privacy
For specifics on privacy, please see Appendix.

5.0 Definitions

Approved Domain: Using a Plattsburgh.edu domain name assures users that your domain is an official, trusted Plattsburgh-related entity.

Faculty-run or faculty-managed project: Special projects either initiated by faculty or supervised by faculty, with or without student participation, which require web pages or web services. Websites, blogs, wikis, and other methods of serving online content are some, but not all, examples of projects included in this definition.

Student-run projects: Projects initiated by students, with or without faculty supervision or participation, which require web pages or web services. Websites, blogs, wikis, and other methods of serving online content are some, but not all, examples of projects included in this definition.

6.0 Responsibilities

Strategic Communications and Marketing Web Strategists
The web strategists of Strategic Communications and Marketing are responsible for plattsburgh.edu website goals and strategy, user experience and content plan. The strategists are tasked with updating, editing and maintaining web pages on the official website. The strategists are empowered to work closely with content owners in each department or office to ensure content is up-to-date and recruitment-focused. The strategists are also tasked with training new content owners on using the content management system (CMS) used to edit web pages. The strategists are responsible for authorizing edit access and other CMS authorizations.

Content Owners
The official website requires a collaborative, proactive approach with key stakeholders across campus. Content owners are designated by vice presidents or other department heads to assume overall responsibility for managing their corresponding official web presence in accordance with the Web Governance Policy. Each department will have one content owner, and the content owner must be staff in the department. In the event a committee is charged with maintaining web content, the committee will designate one member as the content owner. Content owners review and provide content and information to the Strategic Communications and Marketing web strategists in the production of web pages. The Strategic Communications and Marketing web strategists work collaboratively with content owners, but maintain final authority. Content owners may not make changes to other content owner’s web content. Only faculty or professional staff can fill the role of content owner (not students).

Executive Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing
The executive director of Strategic Communications and Marketing is responsible for approving other domain requests, approving external link requests and other requests that ask for an exemption to this policy.

7.0 Procedures

Web Strategists
Web Strategists will ensure that all pages have:

Content that is engaging, informative and useful to one or more of the audiences below:
- Primary Audience: Recruitment — Prospective students and their families
- Secondary Audiences — Enrolled students, alumni, donors and friends
- Other Key Audiences:
  - Faculty and staff
  - Prospective employees
  - Interested parties and associations, including the media

Editorial review
High level of accuracy
Regular review and updating
Integration of messaging and tone of voice

Content Owners
All web pages must have a content owner identified. Content owners with higher visibility pages may qualify to have a license to the CMS and can make changes to their content, that will then be reviewed and approved by the web strategists before publishing revised pages. Content owners without licenses will make requested changes by using Strategic Communications and Marketing’s form in Section 8.0.

8.0 Forms

9.0 Appendix

10.0 Distribution & Training

Web Governance Policy

Policy Information