Web Page Guidelines and Responsibilities of Web Page Creators
Policy Statement
Navarro College recognizes the value and potential of publishing on the Internet, in particular, the World Wide Web (WWW). The NC Web Site is an official publication of Navarro College. For many people, the NC Home Page will be the first point of contact with the College. The purpose of the NC Home Page is to provide access to information about the College, its mission, services, faculty and students, and programs and events.
The NC Home Page provides direct access, via "hyperlinks", to the second tier of NC web pages. The second tier provides information about the College's academic programs, facilities, services, profile, and location.
The Navarro College World Wide Web Home Page is an official publication of Navarro College. Unless otherwise indicated, all text and photographs appearing on the Home Page or subsequent official pages linked to it are copyrighted and should not be reproduced without written permission from an appropriate College official.
NC Web Site Administration
The Navarro College Web Site is administered by two entities: the NC WebMaster and the Web Site Committee.
NC WebMaster
The WebMaster will be the Director of the Computer Center, unless otherwise designated by the Director of the Computer Center. The WebMaster will be responsible for authoring the top level tier of Navarro College web pages, and may author official departmental/group pages as requested. The WebMaster also has responsibility for reviewing the content, reliability and general organization of the NC Web Site in conformance with NC Web policy and guidelines.
The WebMaster will:
• bring suspect content to the attention of the Web Publishing Committee for their review;
• will report unreliable (faulty) HTML links and references to the attention of the web page provider; and
• will monitor the NC Web Site in general for technical problems.
Web Publishing Committee
The College will maintain a Web Publishing Committee which has responsibility for long-range planning of the NC Web site, the administration of its policies and the organization of its overall structure. The committee will provide oversight of WWW publishing and may be called upon to enforce this policy. The committee will review and make recommendations about proposed changes in policy, procedure and structure with regard to the NC Web Site.
The Committee is appointed by the Executive Vice-President of the College. It consists of:
• Director of Public Relations;
• Director, Computer Center;
• Chair of the Art/Multimedia Department.
Who May Create a Home Page?
Web Pages that serve to carry out official College business in support of the College's mission may be created by officially constituted academic departments, programs, centers or institutes; by administrative departments; or officially recognized student groups. Faculty/staff groups, such as the Faculty Affairs Committee, are also entitled to a home page. Individual members of the faculty and staff who desire their own home pages must link them through their department's home page or through the "Personal Web Pages" section of the main NC web page.
Requesting a Link to The Navarro College Home Page
All web pages created for Navarro College departments, activities, faculty, and/or staff MUST reside on the the Navarro College web server. Pages created on other host machines must be moved to the NC server before a link will be made on the main NC page. A request must be made to the NC WebMaster to move and activate the page. After a Home Page has been created/moved and checked for integrity, it may be incorporated into the NC Web Site by the WebMaster.
Accepted web pages will be appropriately linked within the NC Web Site. This incorporation will be made subject to College guidelines outlined in this policy and any other college policies on computer ethics.
Standards for Official Homepages
The standards included in this document are intended to promote a consistent interface for those accessing information about the Navarro College via the WWW. The document is not meant to impede the creativity of Navarro College information providers nor does it address stylistic considerations or HTML authoring in detail.
Contents of all electronic pages must follow College standards. Information must be accurate and timely. Publishing on the WWW may not be used in any manner prohibited by law or disallowed by licenses, contract, copyrights, copyrighted material or College regulations.
Web pages should not contain:
• legally restricted or confidential material;
• material that is obscene, racist, ethnically disparaging, defamatory, or in violation of other publishing standards set by College policy;
• commercial and personal advertising of services and products.
Grammar and Spelling
Pages should be grammatically correct with no spelling errors. Authors are strongly encouraged to have their pages reviewed by another party for typographical errors and similar problems. Acronyms should be used sparingly and never as a first reference.
Graphics and Fonts
Graphics should provide useful, visual clues about the information provided. Consider that there are many different browsers that will be displaying your homepage. We recommend that your design accommodates the common screen resolution of 1024x768 pixels. Alternative text should be used for graphics that contain essential information for individuals loading pages over a modem with images turned off, and users using non-graphical browsers such as Lynx. Authors should test their homepages using a non-graphical browser to make sure that information is accessible to the broadest possible audience.
Accuracy of Information Provided
Departments, colleges, and offices creating official pages are responsible for the timely updating of the text and images contained on those pages. A page manager must be appointed and periodic review of content must be made. Contact information including a phone number and email address for the page manager and a stamp indicating the date of the last update should be placed on the official page. Information should be as current and accurate as possible. Inaccurate information will be reported to the information provider who is responsible for removing or revising the data. All links to campus and Internet resources should be checked monthly and revised as necessary. Each page should include the date of last revision.
If, through random checks, a problem in content or design is discovered, the page manager will be contacted with a request that the problem be corrected. If it is not corrected, the page will be removed from the NC home page.
Links
For ease of navigation each unit-level home page will include a link to the next higher level page. Links from institutional pages to individual pages should be clearly indicated. Whenever possible, links to other sites on the NC home page should be created. This will reduce duplication of effort and help ensure consistency and accuracy.
Copyright
Copyright laws apply to electronic publishing as well as to print publishing. Home Page publishers must have permission to publish the information, graphics, or photographs on their pages if they are not the author or creator, and the information is copyrighted. Copyright and trademark law will be respected on all web pages. No images, text, video, or audio will be used without permission of the copyright holder. Quotations must have appropriate attribution. Standards of professional and academic ethics will be respected.
Disclaimer Text
All major sections within the NC Web must have a link to the Navarro College disclaimer page (http://www.navarrocollege.edu/disclaimer.php) or include the following text.
All parties submitting materials to the NC Web represent and warrant that the submission, installation, copying, distribution, and use of such materials in connection with the NC Web will not violate any other party's proprietary rights. The user understands and agrees that NC is not responsible for any errors created in or damage to materials as a result of the installation or maintenance on NC Web servers, or their use by anyone accessing NC Web servers. All use of the NC Web must be in accordance with existing College regulations for computer use. Official NC pages may contain links to other pages not sanctioned by the College.
Information about the author of the page/contact person
Official pages can only be created by persons employed by and/or currently enrolled in Navarro College. When the author leaves the College some other individual(s) should be assigned responsibility for answering questions related to the information on the page(s).
Each page should include a "mailto:" link. Additional information such as name, title, and telephone number of the person who developed the page and/or is responsible for answering questions about the service, department, etc. should also be included prominently somewhere in the set of pages (i.e. an "about" page). If a generic name is given (i.e. "Admissions," "Hockey" etc.) the people responding to the electronic mail should have a plan so that responsibility for answering queries is clearly understood and addressed by those individuals with access to the account. Those with the "mailto:" link should respond to queries in an expedient and professional manner.
Personal Pages
The creation of individual web pages is a matter of free speech thatmust be protected in an academic environment. As such, the College bears no responsibility for the content of individual web pages, although the College reserves the right to remove from any NC server an individual web page that is found to be in violation of the law or College regulations, policies, or procedures. Navarro College resources may not be used to create web pages exclusively for personal business or personal gain. The college can accept no responsibility for the contents of personal web pages. The views and opinions expressed in personal web pages incorporated into the NC Web Site are strictly those of the page authors.
Size Limitations
The College reserves the right to limit a web file's size in order to facilitate the most efficient use of the WWW on campus and to facilitate efficient browsing of the NC Web Site by Web surfers.
Page last updated July 7, 2006