Web Governance

The Web Governance Policy outlines how St. Edward’s University manages its website to ensure accuracy, consistency, and accessibility. 

It defines roles and responsibilities for content maintenance, establishes publishing workflows, and sets standards for web design, accessibility, and compliance. This framework helps ensure that all university web content supports institutional goals and meets the needs of students, faculty, staff, and external audiences.

1. Purpose

The web governance policy establishes a structured, strategic, and sustainable approach to managing the St. Edward’s University website. By maintaining clear roles, responsibilities, and standards, we will ensure:

• Effective ownership and management of content.
• A consistent and high-quality user experience.
• Compliance with branding, accessibility, and security standards.
• Alignment with the University’s mission and strategic goals.

2. Governance Structure

2.1 Web Properties and Technical Management

Marketing and Communications oversees the website’s strategic and operational management and technical support, including:

• Hosting, infrastructure and security.
• Content management system (CMS) application, updates, performance, optimization, feature enhancements and accessibility.

2.2 Oversight and Strategic Management

The Web Leadership Council, a small group composed of Marketing staff experts on technology, content, and brand, provides high-level direction and oversight, defining policies, setting priorities and allocating resources. The WLC collaborates with the Marketing and Communications team, university leadership and other stakeholders to ensure alignment with university goals.

2.3 Operational Management

Marketing and Communications

• Responsible for content updates on the homepage and second- and third-level landing pages.
• Structural changes (new pages/sections, menus, updates to information architecture, etc.)
• Oversight and maintenance of all academic program webpages. This includes, but is not limited to, updating content for majors, minors, certificates, and pre-professional studies program pages.
  • All requests for edits or updates to academic program webpages must be submitted through the Web Help Request Form. Requests will be reviewed and implemented by the Content and Communications team in accordance with the established academic program content update process.
• Ensures content adheres to policies for accuracy, branding and accessibility.
• Manages the CMS application and publishing workflow.
• Reserves the right to edit any page to address accessibility issues and ensure compliance with style and brand guidelines.

2.4 Roles and Responsibilities

Developers

• Develop site code for production, including application configuration and design. Creation of new pages, updates to information architecture and menus.

Administrators

• Administrate content across the site.

Content Publishers

• Review and approve content within the main content region of assigned pages.
• Ensure compliance with editorial, branding and accessibility standards.

Content Editors

• Create and refine content.
• Submit content for approval to Publishers.

Content Contributors

• Provide subject-matter expertise and suggest content updates, but do not directly work within the CMS application.

Faculty/Directory Profiles

• All faculty and staff members are granted site access to update their extended directory profile and publish directly to production.

3. Access and Training

3.1 Access Requirements

Departmental access to the CMS is granted based on:

• Subject-matter expertise or departmental authorization.
• Supervisor approval.
• Completion of required training.

3.2 Training and Ongoing Support

• All users must complete training before gaining access to the CMS.
• The Marketing and Communications team will provide ongoing training and support and communicate regularly through University channels.

3.3 Training Commitment

• Office hours for training, troubleshooting and consultation are available throughout the year.
• Self-help resources like the Web Style Guide and accessibility reporting are provided. The guide includes best practices, documentation, and examples of different layout components. It also offers instructions and videos that explain how to set up and modify layouts, with tips for adapting them to different types of content.

4. Content Standards

All content on www.stedwards.edu will:

• Align with university goals and reflect brand, mission, and strategic priorities.
• Be professional, accurate, and appropriate for the target audience.
• Maintain consistency by adhering to the style and editorial guidelines.
• Comply with WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards.

All CMS users agree to:

• Adhere to content governance policies.
• Complete periodic training as standards evolve.

5. Content Approval Process

To ensure content quality before publication, a structured two-step approval process is followed:

1. Draft Creation - Editors draft new content, then submit content for review.
2. Review and Approval - Content publishers review content to ensure it complies with guidelines before approving and publishing drafts to the live site.

5.1 Publishing Privileges

• If a user consistently fails to meet editorial or accessibility standards, their publishing privileges may be revoked.

5.2 Consideration of External or Faculty-Owned Content

In cases where faculty or departments seek to integrate content from external or previously hosted sites (such as those built on CampusPress), the following considerations will be used to determine whether the content is appropriate for inclusion on the university website:

• Alignment with the university’s brand, mission, and strategic goals.
• Audience and visibility: whether the content is meant for a broad public audience or a restricted/internal group.
• Content quality and consistency with web standards.
• Relevance and longevity: whether the content is timely, esoteric, or temporary and fits within existing information architecture.
• Contribution to university marketing, recruitment, or academic program visibility.
• Faculty, department or school commitment to maintenance of content with assigned editors and ownership

Requests that do not meet these criteria may be referred to alternative platforms like Google Sites.

6. Content Accountability

• Every webpage has a designated content owner responsible for keeping it up to date.
  • Each web page must have one publisher and one editor. These users are responsible for ensuring the accuracy, timeliness, and compliance of the content on that page.
  • A user may hold only one role within the CMS, i.e., they cannot serve as a publisher in one section and an editor in another. This helps maintain clear accountability and consistent workflows across the website.
  • In cases of shared content ownership, additional roles may be permitted with approval from content owners and the Marketing ofice.
• The Marketing and Communications team conducts periodic content audits to ensure:
  • Information is current and relevant.
  • Pages meet accessibility and branding standards and website best practices, as outlined in training and documentation.
• Marketing and Communications maintains responsibility for creating new pages on the university website.
• Program pages (majors and minors) are maintained by academic deans and marketing. Content updates to these pages must be requested through academic deans, and changes are made in accordance with branding, editorial, and accessibility guidelines.

7. Governance Enforcement & Compliance

• Regular audits are conducted to ensure compliance with governance policies.
• Users who fail to follow governance standards and policies may be required to undergo retraining.
• Repeated violations may lead to a loss of publishing privileges.
• Marketing and Communications and the Web Leadership Council oversee enforcement and provide corrective guidance.

8. Digital Accessibility Compliance & Audits

• Regular accessibility audits (i.e., SiteImprove) are conducted to ensure compliance with accessibility standards.
• Marketing is responsible for ensuring compliance with WCAG 2.1 standards in templates and site architecture.
• Content owners should review and comply with university accessibility guidelines and best practices, particularly as they relate to content they add to the site (text, links, images).

9. User Engagement & Feedback Mechanisms

• CMS users may submit feedback on website usability and governance.
• A web form is available for requesting assistance, reporting issues and suggestions.
  • The form should be used to initiate contact with Marketing on all website issues, generating a support ticket managed from within the project management software

10. Third-Party Integrations & External Content

• Third-party tools, embeds and integrations should be approved by Marketing and Communications and regularly assessed for security and performance.
• User-generated content must comply with branding and security policies.