Website Policies
Introductory Statement on Webpages
The University encourages participation in the expansion of the University's presence on the World Wide Web. Participation may be in the form of contributions to departmental or other Institutional Pages or may be of an individual nature on Professional Pages. Departments or other University entities, in concert with the Webmaster, shall exercise overall responsibility for the content and format of their Institutional Pages, subject to any other pertinent policies established by the University, and guided primarily by the "Policy Statement for Institutional Pages." Professional page authors shall exercise control over their respective pages within the parameters of the "Policy Statement for Faculty Professional Pages" below.
Institutional and Professional Pages Defined
A distinction can be made in practice between Institutional and Professional Pages.
Institutional Pages are a publication of the University, and are primarily directed at enhancing the University's presence on the Internet and to broaden recognition for the University, especially as that relates to the University’s marketing efforts and Mission Statement for the University Websites. Institutional Pages are created by or for a department or other official University entity, and must contain information relating to that entity’s mission of informing various publics, and in particular prospective students, about the entity’s role in the University’s mission. Institutional Pages contain standardized colors, navigation graphics, logos and proprietary page code written for the University by the Webmaster and/or other University authorized page designers.
Professional Pages embody the purposes of the page author, are created and maintained by individuals employed by the University, and may follow any design and content standards an author chooses, keeping in mind those minimal standards described by the University in its Policy for Professional Pages. Professional Pages are a University privilege, and the University assumes that content is focused on the academic interests of the page’s author as it relates to the author's role at the University, such as syllabi, resource pages and other educational helps. The Webmaster is available for consultation on page layout and design of Professional Pages, but all content is ultimately the sole responsibility of the owner of the webpage and is subject to the University policies for Professional Pages and any applicable laws.
Vanguard University Policy on Institutional Pages
The University has a standard design style for all official University Web pages. The reason for the standard design style is that each page on the University’s institutional websites can be reached directly through search engines and links from other sites, bypassing the home page of vanguard.edu. Using a standard design and navigation structure at all levels of the institutional sites ensures that users have a full-featured set of navigational aids with which to find their desired content. Using institutional code in the proper way also guarantees that all Institutional Pages will meet at least the basic accessibility standards set by the Center for Applied Special Technology (www.cast.org) and the W3C (www.w3c.org).
Note that the institutional design standard does not apply to and should not be used on Professional Pages. Professional page authors are, however, encouraged to create accessible pages, and the Webmaster is available for consultation on this and any other subject related to "best practices" Internet design.
Scripts, Code and Executable Files
No script or code (client or server side) other than what is provided by the Vanguard Webmaster may be run on institutional webpages or the server without prior approval by the Webmaster. The obvious exception to this rule is the HTML scripting language. The Webmaster is always available to consult and design forms or other code necessary to fulfill the mission of a particular department. No executable files (.dll, .exe, etc.) of any kind may be run on the Vanguard server without prior approval by the Webmaster.
Web Forms
An improperly written web form is a potentially serious security risk. No web form (a form that interacts in any way with the server or stores content on the server or uses an email function to send form content) may be used on the Vanguard web server without prior approval by the Webmaster.
Institutional Webpage Content
Graphics should be optimized for size, and should not exceed 20-30k and 300-400 pixels in width. Pictures that are at the upper end of those limits should be used on pages that do not contain heavily-trafficked content.
Text should be short and to the point. Headings should be used to facilitate "scanning", the preferred method of reading on the web, and for accessibility purposes.
No e-commerce or other commercial content is allowed on the Institutional websites. No link may point to an e-commerce or other commercial site owned by a student or employee of Vanguard University.
Policy Statement for Faculty Professional Pages
The intent of the following policy statement on Professional Pages is to encourage academic freedom for authors of Professional Pages by allowing the creation of pages which are free of the scope, standards and purpose placed on the VUSC institutional websites, and to make Professional Page authorship available to non-experts by removing the strict accountability to accessibility standards set by world standards organizations which the VUSC institutional sites hold to, though Professional Page designers are encouraged to provide at least a basic level of accessibility whenever possible.
1. To request a webspace for a Professional Page(s) on the Vanguard web server, or for questions regarding Professional Pages, please contact the Webmaster.
2. To qualify for an account on the Vanguard web server a page author must be a current Vanguard University faculty member with valid VUSC computer and email accounts. All Professional Pages will be removed within 3 months of the faculty member’s separation from VUSC.
3. All Professional Pages will be stored at www.vanguard.edu/faculty/accountname/, where "AccountName" is the email address of the employee. For instance, Doug Degelman's address is www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/. Exceptions to the naming convention can be made for a variety of reasons.
4. For reasons mentioned under the "Intent" section above, the University requires that there be a clear and explicit transition from Institutional to Professional Pages. This indication must come in the form of Professional Pages that are different in design from Institutional Pages. Professional Pages are not to display the Vanguard University graphic identity, institutional navigation graphics, or make use of proprietary page code. Specifically, Professional Pages cannot contain images, logos, graphics or more than incidental portions of text from Institutional Pages. For syllabi posted in a faculty webspace, a logo to identify the page(s) as an official document of the university is available for use if the page's author so chooses.
5. Institutional department pages can link to Professional Pages residing on a VU website when such linking provides a service to VU website visitors. This linking can be done from a "Faculty Page" that resides in the division/department and/or other page(s) if appropriate. Professional Pages which are linked to from Institutional Pages must provide information relevant to the individual's role at the University.
6. Professional Pages which have a link from an Institutional University page shall reside on the University's web server. Without approval, one cannot place a link on an Institutional Page that points to a Professional Page not located on one of the Vanguard websites, and thus not under the policies for Professional Pages established by Vanguard University.
7. Every webpage on any Vanguard server must have a link to the University disclaimer page. Every Professional Page must also have a clear indication of the authorship of the page(s) and a way to contact the author. Information should include name, institutional affiliation, phone number and an email link. For each faculty member's convenience, a template with the basic required information will be created so the information repeats on every page automatically.
8. No material included in Professional Pages should violate any laws, including those regarding obscenity, harassment of others or copyright. Professional Pages must uphold the Vanguard standard of academic integrity with its reliance on honesty. Professional Pages must respect the intellectual property rights of others. It is the page author's responsibility to obtain proper permissions when using copyrighted work in any format.
9. Authors of Professional Pages are expected to use good judgment with respect to the effect of their content on other members of the community.
10. No script or code (client or server side) other than what is provided by the Vanguard Webmaster may be run on a Professional Page without prior approval by the Webmaster. The obvious exception to this rule is the HTML scripting language used to create webpages. No executable files (.dll, .exe, etc…) of any kind may be run on any Vanguard server without prior approval by the Webmaster. No one but the Webmaster may approve code, scripts or executables for use on vanguard.edu web servers.
11. An improperly written web form is a potentially serious security risk. No web form (a form that interacts in any way with the server or stores content on the server or uses an email function to gather and/or send form content) may be used on the Vanguard web server without prior approval by the Webmaster.
12. Professional Pages may not be used for commercial purposes. Professional Pages on a University web server may not be used to promote a personal business or service, offer for sale any goods, or use any other means to generate personal financial gain. Using Professional Pages to generate income for the University or any other person or entity is not allowed, nor is displaying revenue generating "banner advertisements."
13. Donating any portion of your personal web space to a person or organization is not allowed.
14. The University may limit the amount of space that is provided on the server for Professional Pages.