1. The Central State Homepage

The Central State homepage will welcome visitors and serve as an institutional direction-finder, as well as a focal point of contact to and from other related Web sites. It is intended to provide information that addresses our constituents and their needs and interests. Selected university operations will have Web sites that will be considered core to the Central State homepage. Such Web sites must to meet particular standards of design and organization. Electronic pages that support the university's mission may be linked to the Central State homepage and/or reside on university servers.

Other Central State Web Sites

University units (faculty, staff, and students therein) that wish to provide information via Web-enabled technology are encouraged to do so. Any academic unit, administrative unit, or individual considering the development of Web pages must clearly define the intent of that site, and, therefore, the resources and content required for it to accomplish associated goals.

2. Responsible Use

Contents of all electronic pages must be consistent with The Central State University's policies and local, state, and federal laws. This includes links to other pages or computers. Pages found to be inconsistent with such policies and/or laws may be disconnected from the university's homepage and other top level pages.

Anticipate Required Resources
By the nature of Web-based technology, an expectation and a unique and challenging opportunity for currency of information exists. Consideration should therefore be given to the staff and technical resources that will be needed to establish and operate this site on a reliable basis, including appropriate hours of availability. Participation in this distributed technology requires maintenance and currency of information provided. Pages with time- sensitive information that are not maintained may be disconnected from the university's homepage and top level pages. Accordingly, initially it is important to consider the type of Web presence needed and the resources necessary to maintain the site.

Web server software needs to be secured. Also, it is important to be aware, if writing executable code or CGI scripts for Web applications, that there are inherent security risks. Knowledgeable programmers should be tasked with reviewing, if not writing of, such code to prevent security problems. Web server equipment and operating systems that Web servers run on must to be secured by knowledgeable network administrators.

4. Web Site Content

(revised March 31, 2009)
No homepage can contain any copyrighted or trademarked material without permission except as permitted by law. Photographs, drawings, video clips, or sound clips may not be used on a page without permission of the person who created them or who owns the rights except as permitted by law.

All pages directly linked to the university's homepage must contain the following information:

1. identification of the Central State University (http://www.centralstate.edu);
2. name of the unit publishing the page (division, department, program, etc.); and
3. Central State University standard navigation (http://www.centralstate.edu/resources/navigation.html)

Accessibility for all potential users (ADA compliant) must be implemented when designing Web pages.

ADA Standards for Accessible Design

6. Advertising

As with other university promotional and informational communications, advertising should be considered the exception and not the rule. Communication that is deemed to be central to the mission of the university and/or associated units should be subsidized accordingly.

Exceptions may be appropriate under these circumstances: the advertising is core to the purpose of the site (i.e., referrals to non-university services of particular interest to the constituent);

1. a site that is determined to be core to the mission of the university and/or the expectations and needs of its constituents requires maintenance resources that exceed internal allocations;
   
2. when used as references to commercial sites for the purpose of providing an Internet bibliography.
   
3. acknowledgement of funding sources, proprietary technologies, site developer, and other naming of commercial ventures may be deemed appropriate by the creating unit and may be used in a manner that does not detract from the educational or administrative purpose of the site; such acknowledgement does not constitute and should not imply an endorsement by the university.
   

Additional advertising considerations include:

1. a site supported by advertising may be better placed in the .com domain;
   
2. revenue generated by advertising may be subject to unrelated business income tax (UBIT);
   
3. advertisements or icons that are links to a commercial site may conflict with the interests of the university and involved unit, in that they take the viewer away from the university site, to which a return may be difficult.
   
4. advertising that is considered in exception of the above policy must not conflict with the intent and primary messages of the page, nor should it reflect an undignified image of the university;