Office of Web & New Media Development Responsibilities
The Office of Web & New Media Development will establish the University’s web site design and structure, as well as track and evaluate effectiveness of the site. Web & New Media Development will be responsible for maintenance and future development of BVU’s web presence, will consider and handle instances of web policy violations, will communicate to the campus community about effectively using the web as a marketing and communications medium, and will revise and/or amend the web policy as needed.

University Responsibilities
Buena Vista University has made World Wide Web access available to students, faculty, and staff in order to promote dissemination and collection of information. BVU encourages faculty, staff, and students to take advantage of the global reach of the web. BVU also respects individuals’ rights to be free of harassment and intimidation and therefore expects its users to use common courtesy, common sense, and restraint when placing information on the web.

It is the University’s policy to comply with all federal and state copyright and trademark laws. BVU reserves the right to inspect and remove from the network any pages, files, or links that may violate the law or any written BVU policy or procedure. BVU may also remove files that are detrimental to the performance of the web server or network. For more information, please see the University’s Electronic Information Policy at http://2fix.bvu.edu/policies.htm.

User Responsibilities
Members of the BVU community should use information resources responsibly, considerately, and in accordance with the following rules:

Individuals should comply with the Federal Lanham Trademark Act. Reproduction and/or distribution of any copyrighted material are permitted only in accordance with a valid licensing agreement. Copyrighted materials may include, but are not limited to, computer programs, literary works, photographs, computer graphics and logos, sound recordings, and musical works. No photos or videos of people shall be placed on an official or unofficial BVU web page without the permission of the people in the picture or video.

Every person has a right of privacy, which includes the right to restrict the use of his/her own image. Faculty, staff, and students will honor requests for removal.

Official Sites and Pages
The Buena Vista University home page (www.bvu.edu), department sites/pages, and office sites/pages constitute official BVU pages and are overseen by the Office of Web & New Media Development. This office is responsible for the structure and development of the BVU web presence, as well as determining guidelines for consistent graphic design, writing style, and accuracy of information. Permanent site administrators, who are designated by their department head and the director of Web & New Media and their designees, have sole access and responsibility for updating this information and maintaining the quality and accuracy of these pages. These pages are the University’s formal presence on the World Wide Web.

Authors of these pages must abide by the BVU’s Web Policy & Development Guide, Electronic Information Policy, and all other policies stated in the Faculty Handbook, Student Handbook, and Academic Catalog. Authors should also consult BVU’s Communication and Style Guide for important information regarding written style and BVU’s identity program (logo usage).

Naming Conventions
The BVU web site/page naming convention addresses the need for consistent naming of web pages and sites. It also acts as a necessary structural guide for the creation and management of BVU web server space and file storage.

BVU’s Web Policy classifies web pages as either official or unofficial. Unofficial content is housed on web.bvu.edu. (See 5.5.1 Unofficial/Personal Sites and Pages: Naming Conventions.)

Based on those classifications, the following are samples of the naming conventions that affect the majority of independent web page designers and owners on campus. A complete outline of the naming system is available upon request.

Note that italicized items will vary by school, department, organization, etc.

www.bvu.edu
www.bvu.edu/about
www.bvu.edu/academics/schoolname/programname/coursename
www.bvu.edu/admissions
www.bvu.edu/alumni
www.bvu.edu/athletics
www.bvu.edu/centers
www.bvu.edu/ebvyou
www.bvu.edu/departments/departmentname
www.bvu.edu/news
www.bvu.edu/sresources
www.bvu.edu/supportbvu
www.bvu.edu/visitorinformation

Requirements
All official University pages must follow the standards set forth by the Application Development Standards, BVU Communication and Style Guide, including the Written Style Guide, Identity Program Guide, and Web Policy & Development Guide, and must contain:

• Official office, department, or program name
• Complete contact info, including address, phone, fax, and e-mail
• Name of site administrator
• E-mail of site administrator
• Link to BVU Home (www.bvu.edu)
• Date of last content update

Project Initiation & Process
All official web pages and sites must be initiated through the Office of Web & New Media Development. Contact the director to begin the project process, which includes:

• Initial project planning meeting, which includes discussing goals and objectives, determining proper audience, outlining site/page content, and determining budget and timeline
• Project outline review by client
• Design and content development
• Design and content review by client
• Site/page testing
• Site/page launch
• Project wrap-up meeting, which includes determining maintenance responsibilities and a review schedule

Site Maintenance
Official site/page maintenance schedules and responsibilities will be negotiated individually by the site administrator and the Office of Web & New Media Development and reported annually to the President’s Council.

Unofficial/Personal Sites and Pages
Unofficial/personal sites and pages include faculty and staff instructional and personal pages, and those of student organizations and individual students. Authors of these pages must abide by BVU’s Electronic Information Policy and all other policies stated in the Faculty Handbook, Student Handbook, and Academic Catalog.

Each student, faculty, and staff member has 30 MB of space available for web publishing. For more information on how to access personal web space, contact the Stewart Siebens Computer Center at 2fix@bvu.edu or 712.749.2FIX.

Naming Conventions
The BVU web site/page naming convention addresses the need for consistent naming of web pages and sites. It also acts as a necessary structural guide for the creation and management of BVU web server space and file storage.

BVU’s Web Policy classifies web pages as either official or unofficial. Official content is housed on www.bvu.edu. (See 5.4.1 Official Sites and Pages: Naming Conventions.)

Based on those classifications, the following are samples of the naming conventions that affect the majority of independent web page designers and owners on campus. A complete outline of the naming system is available upon request.

Note that italicized items will vary by school, department, organization, etc.

web.bvu.edu/students/username
web.bvu.edu/staff/username
web.bvu.edu/faculty/username
web.bvu.edu/organizations/organizationname

Requirements
All unofficial/personal sites and pages must follow the standards that pertain to unofficial sites as set forth by the BVU Communication and Style Guide, specifically the Identity Program Guide (covering logo usage) and the Web Policy & Development Guide, and must contain:

• Name of site or page developer/designer (or advisor if student organization site)
• E-mail of site or page developer/designer (or advisor if student organization site)

Site developers are also encouraged to include the following disclaimer: “Views and opinions expressed on this unofficial page are strictly those of the page authors. Personal page publishers assume complete responsibility and liability for the content of their documents.”

Style Recommendations
The Office of Web & New Media Development recommends that site and page designers use the following guidelines when developing pages:

Screen Size:
Design to fit optimal screen size of 800 x 600

Page Titles:
Include the page owner’s name and other descriptive wording

Color Palette:
BVU uses the following colors within its main page style:

• Blue 1: #668099
• Blue 2: #8FA4B8
• Blue 3/text: #486D91
• Yellow/Gold: #FFCC00
• White: #FFFFFF
• Tan: #C0BFAA

Body Copy Font Style:
Helvetica/Arial/Sans Serif, 10 point or 2 font size.

Headline Font Style:
Helvetica/Arial/Sans Serif, 14 point or 4 font size

Link Requests
Faculty/Staff:
Contact the Office of Web & New Media Development via e-mail or by phone at 712.749.2026.

Students:
Students wishing to be listed in the Student Home Pages section of the BVU web site must include a file called “listme.htm” in the root directory of their BVU student web site. Contact the Stewart Siebens Computer Center via e-mail at 2fix@bvu.edu or by phone at 712.749.2FIX for more specific information.

Organizations:
Contact the Office of Web & New Media Development via e-mail or by phone at 712.749.2026.

Usability Standards
Access to Information:
Federal laws, including the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), address access issues and are intended to assure that all potential viewers have access to the University’s online presence. BVU and the Office of Web & New Media Development strive to make its pages WAI compliant. Several sites offer guidelines and insight regarding usability issues, including:

• World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative
• Federal Standards for Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility [Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794d)
• Center for Applied Special Technology Bobby Site

Site Performance: Usability also refers to the speed and quality of access to the University’s online information. Although the University has a reputation of being a technology leader, the Office of Web & New Media Development designs web sites and pages with the average user in mind, recognizing that viewers utilize a variety of hardware and software configurations to view materials online.

Web Application Development Standards
Web applications are defined as scripts, executables, or other software uploaded to or developed on BVU web servers for execution on BVU web servers. This includes but is not limited to Active Server Pages, CGI executables and DLLs, Java Server Pages and Java Servlets.

Web applications designed for official BVU sites should follow BVU’s Application Development Standards. Web application development should occur on BVU’s test server at dev.bvu.edu (contact 2fix for more information). Applications should be published to the main BVU web server only after they’re functionally complete and tested.

The acquisition or purchase of software intended to run on BVU web servers should be done in consultation with the Office of Web & New Media Development and Information Services.

The upload of any malicious software to unofficial or official web sites is forbidden. Malicious software is defined as any script, executable, or other software to be executed on the server designed to compromise server security or availability, individual privacy, or institutional confidentiality.

Copyright and Trademark Ownership
No photos or videos of people shall be placed on an official or unofficial BVU web page without the permission of the people in the picture or video. Every person has a right of privacy, which includes the right to restrict the use of his/her own image. Faculty, staff and students will honor requests for removal.

Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, Iowa, copyrights all text, graphics, and photographic images on official BVU pages and sites. Any use of the BVU logo or identity markings must adhere to the requirements of the BVU Communication and Style Guide and federal and state laws. Permission to use marks can be requested through the Office of University Marketing & Communications. Redistribution or commercial use of this material without express written consent is prohibited.

Collaboration
If a University department collaborates with an outside group to create a web page or pages, the collaborated work will be governed by the guidelines, and policies of the BVU web policy. This applies to both official and unofficial pages hosted on the University’s web servers, as well as University pages hosted on outside servers.

Commercial Use
Commercial activity on the BVU network is permitted for business done on behalf of BVU or its organizations and must comply with all policies stated in the Faculty Handbook, Student Handbook, Academic Catalog, the BVU Electronic Information Policy, and the Web Policy & Development Guidelines.

Pages housed on University-owned servers that direct traffic to commercial sites for potential revenue generation through advertising or other partnerships are not allowed. Fundraising and advertising may be conducted on the BVU network only under the supervision of officially recognized campus organizations. The University’s name must not be used in ways that suggest or imply the endorsement of other organizations, their products, or services.

Enforcement
The Office of Web & New Media Development is responsible for promoting, enhancing, and enforcing the policies and guidelines established in this document.

Complaints or concerns regarding this policy should follow the appropriate grievance procedures as outlined in the Faculty Handbook, Student Handbook, and/or Academic Catalog.

Any questions or violations in regard to these policies or guidelines should be forwarded to the Director of Web & New Media Development by phone at 712.749.2026 or via e-mail.