Web Policies

I. PURPOSE

This policy seeks to provide a tool for electronic publications through computer systems located at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and provide guidelines for implementation of the policy to assure accurate information representative of UWM. All officially provided data must support the mission of UWM or be of general interest to members of the university community.

It is the intent of UWM to be sure that any officially provided data seen by anyone outside UWM is accurate and consistent with university policies.

It is also the intent to enable faculty, staff and students to be able to publish freely and openly within the constraints of local, state and federal laws, including copyright laws.

II. OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS

A document that is official is one that purports to speak for the university and its official units, programs and departments and not for individuals employed by UWM. Some examples are university, college and departmental policies; official forms; academic/curriculum information; institutional statistics; recruitment materials; and financial aid guidelines. Departments should provide links to official documents and should not reproduce these on their own pages. Information about creating links to official sources can be obtained from the UWM Web Master (www@uwm.edu). For the purposes of this policy, official documents do not include electronic mail, memoranda or correspondence. When official documents or publications are published electronically, all such official electronic documents must contain an e-mail address and a last-modified time/date.

In order to reduce confusion as to content ownership as well as the potential for outages, UWM Colleges, Schools, Departments or units may not publish domain names registered with commercial providers (such as .com, .org, or .net addresses) re-directing the location of official UWM content. If a separate domain address is desired, units must arrange for an address within the uwm.edu domain by consultation with I&MT.

Sponsorship and Advertising

It is acknowledged that units and programs may receive support for their endeavors from a variety of sources, including grants from commercial entities. It is permissible to acknowledge such support, but the university cannot endorse or provide advertisement in exchange for these forms of support.

Academic publications, including all distance education publications, shall not include any paid external advertising. In appropriate circumstances however, a sponsor may be acknowledged on an opening or closing screen by name, logo, or both.

The sponsorship logos shall not be linked to the sponsor’s commercial web site. If required by contract or sponsorship agreement, the sponsor’s logo can be linked to a sponsor’s page (different from its commercial site) with appropriate sponsorship information such as:

• Name of the sponsor.
• Purpose to which the sponsorship was directed.
• A sponsor’s location—physically and on the World Wide Web including a non-linked web address for the sponsor’s commercial web site.
• Noncomparative descriptions of the product or service line.
• A sponsor’s institutional goals or a public service message.
• A sponsor’s brand or trade names, including depictions of the same.
• A sponsor’s bona fide text or visual logo.
• The length of time a sponsor has been in business or the date its business commenced.
• A sponsor’s telephone number.

Sponsorship information pages may not be hosted on UWM sites. It must be clear to viewers that they are leaving UWM’s official publication when linking to a sponsorship page.

In order to ensure equal access to web materials for persons with disabilities, all official UWM web materials and all UWM web-based course materials must comply with, at minimum, the `Priority 1' recommendations of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10/).

In addition, pages must be in compliance with all appropriate UWM policies and procedures, including the UWM Computer and Network Usage Policy; UWS Chapter 18, Conduct on University Lands; UWS Chapter 21, Use of University Facilities; UWS Chapter 8, Unclassified Staff Code of Ethics; and ER-MRS24, Code of Ethics.

III. OFFICIAL HOME PAGES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

In addition to the official UWM home page, UWM administrative units and legislatively-based governance groups’ home pages are expected to conform to UWM Web Page Standards (http://www.uwm.edu/policy/standards.html). Top level pages of UWM administrative units must reside on the UWM central web server.

IV. OTHER WEB PAGES AND ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS

Faculty, staff, students, student organizations, and organizations carrying on university business¹ may establish unofficial home pages and documents. These pages are not official university publications and the author has full responsibility for the contents. This policy recognizes that together with other forms of electronic publication, home pages developed by faculty, staff, students, and organizations carrying on university business constitute an important means of formulating and conveying knowledge, including statements of belief and opinion, to the university community and to the world at large. The principles of intellectual and academic freedom developed for publication in print media will be applied to publication in computer media. In addition, the same standards of intellectual and academic freedom developed for university libraries will be applied to access to electronic information from the news networks, the World Wide Web, and other remote sites. The contents of documents and pages must not violate any applicable export laws and regulations, must not constitute a copyright or trademark infringement, or otherwise violate any local, state or federal laws.

In addition, unofficial documents and pages must be in compliance with all appropriate UWM policies and procedures, including the UWM Computer and Network Usage Policy (http://www.uwm.edu/IMT/Computing/Docs/csdGuideline.html); UWS Chapter 18, Conduct on University Lands; UWS Chapter 21, Use of University Facilities; UWS Chapter 8, Unclassified Staff Code of Ethics; ER-MRS24, Code of Ethics; and UWM Discriminatory Conduct Policy (S-47). For example, unofficial home pages may not purport to be an official site for any non-UWM organization or be used to conduct a commercial business enterprise, serve as an advertisement for a commercial business enterprise, consume extraordinary resources, or be used for personal financial benefit, or they are subject to removal from the network. Moreover, it is expected that such documents and pages will not be in conflict with the policies and guidelines outlined herein. Student organization home pages must comply also with guidelines issued by the Office of Student Organizations Advising and Resources (http://www.uwm.edu/policy/soar-www.html).

V. ADDITIONAL ITEMS

The party responsible for any home page must be clearly apparent and readily identifiable at first glance and must not misrepresent the unit or himself or herself. Any electronic documents or pages discovered to be in violation of the above policies and guidelines are subject to removal from the UWM network and may result in loss of access to systems, appropriate administrative sanctions and/or legal action. Appropriate university procedures apply with respect to appealing such actions.

Questions regarding this policy can be directed to the UWM Web Master.

Nancy Zimpher
Chancellor

---

Last update: October 19th, 2001. --- URL: http://www.uwm.edu/policy/ep.html
Copyright 2000 by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, all rights reserved.
If you have questions or comments about this page please send e-mail to: www@uwm.edu