Smith Website and Content Management User Policy

This policy addresses the means through which content can be added to or removed from smith.edu, and addresses the types of content allowed on all Smith websites. The policy applies to all staff, faculty, and students.

The Office of College Relations and Communications

• Sets the strategic direction for smith.edu.
• Establishes policies and procedures that govern the current and future core web domains.
• Oversees taxonomy, navigation, and content structure of smith.edu and the hierarchy and placement of content.
• Establishes, reviews, and approves all branding, styling, and other format and content standards, as needed, for all core web domains.
• Partners with ITS and external providers to manage compliance with legal and regulatory standards, including accessibility, security, and protection of privacy on smith.edu.
• Ensures site quality (e.g., ease of use, speed, usability, search) and content integrity on smith.edu.
• Creates original content—including promotional, informative, and entertainment pieces—for smith.edu, along with pieces inspired by existing content, such as news stories.
• Partners with ITS and external providers on the management and resolution of website issues and security updates for all core web domains as well as the Smith College Museum of Art, School for Social Work, and Executive Education sites.

1. accessibility: Ensuring that website content is usable by people with disabilities by complying with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA). This is a legal requirement of the college and includes elements such as color contrast, document accessibility, proper web header hierarchy, and descriptive hyperlink text.
2. core web domains: Refers to the websites and domains on a single platform, managed under one centralized Drupal installation, for which the web team is the primary website administrator: smith.edu, The Botanic Garden of Smith College, and Smith Libraries.
3. departmental contact: A designated staff or faculty member responsible for coordinating with the Office of College Relations and Communications to maintain a department’s or office’s web content. This person does not need specialized technical or design skills, but they should be familiar with the department’s or office’s priorities. They should also be effective at communication and collaboration and able to work with the web team to ensure that content is aligned with departmental priorities. This person cannot be a student.
4. departmental update sections: Departmental update sections are brief, predefined areas on smith.edu that are designed for departmental contacts to input and update relevant information on a regular basis. They are subject to content, length, and formatting constraints to maintain clarity and relevance.
5. prohibited content: These are materials not permitted on smith.edu, including anything that violates the college’s legal requirements or branding guidelines (e.g., political or personal statements, sensitive or confidential information, inaccessible documents, use of copyrighted materials without permission, content that is inconsistent with Smith’s values and messaging).
6. smith.edu: This refers to the domain smith.edu. It does not include the Smith College Museum of Art, Campus School of Smith College, the School for Social Work, Smith Athletics, Executive Education, Clark Science Center, Digital Smith, The Botanic Garden of Smith College, Smith Libraries, Slate, linked personal sites, and links to or embedded other third-party sites (e.g., Smith Social Network, Scholarworks) not managed by Smith College or ITS-supported WordPress sites (e.g., smith organization WordPress sites).
7. web team: The group within the Office of College Relations and Communications responsible for managing smith.edu, including content, updates, design, and technical oversight.

The Smith websites are a major investment, and maintaining them are an extensive undertaking for the college. As a strategic asset for Smith, the websites are one of the largest and most important communications tools available to the college, and are the college’s primary tools for reaching alums, donors, prospective/current students and their families, faculty, and staff members. They bring the college and its values to the public, enabling us to present a consistent, high-quality, and joyful reflection of the college to all who visit the sites.

All Smith websites are the sole property of Smith College. All departments and offices that use the college’s content management systems for public websites must adhere to Smith’s user policy and style guidelines. Smith.edu and all core web domains are under the oversight of the Office of College Relations and Communications. A limited number of select staff—appointed by individual departments or offices and pending approval by the web team—will have access to edit a designated content block on their office or department webpage on smith.edu. The Office of College Relations and Communications reserves the right to edit content on smith.edu for clarity, accessibility, grammar, spelling, usage, style, design, user experience, and compliance with Smith’s values, naming conventions, and branding. Where possible, these edits will be made in collaboration with the relevant department. The web team reserve the right to omit, revise, or delete content that does not meet these acceptable use guidelines or standards for brand.

1. Maintaining Existing Content and Creating New Content

It is strongly suggested that departments or offices designate a staff or faculty member to serve as a departmental contact. If the departmental contact will be unavailable, the department or office should make arrangements to transition webpage maintenance duties to another staff or faculty member to ensure that the content on their pages remains current and that collaboration with the web team remains intact. Departments and offices are expected to regularly review their respective pages on smith.edu for incorrect or outdated information.

A. Maintaining Content

Departmental contacts are responsible for keeping their departmental update sections relevant and accurate and for complying with the Smith Style Guide. The Office of College Relations and Communications is not responsible for fact-checking or verifying information submitted for posting to smith.edu. Upon submitting content to the web team, departmental contacts are acknowledging that they have sought and obtained any required approvals from their leadership teams. As Smith College is a nonprofit organization, political statements on all Smith websites are prohibited. Statements that are inflammatory, divisive, or conflict with Smith’s values, guidelines, or policies are also not permitted. All departments are responsible for ensuring that their content adheres to this policy. The web team reserves the right to edit or delete any content posted or submitted to be posted to smith.edu that does not meet these guidelines. If any content on smith.edu is called into question, and a resolution cannot be achieved with the submitting party, final decisions about the content will be made by the vice president for college relations and communications in collaboration with other relevant members of the president’s team. The content on smith.edu will be monitored for outdated information and compliance with these policies by way of daily review of departmental updates and periodic site review and will be updated when necessary. Additionally, the web team will perform in-depth annual site audits in close collaboration with individual departments and offices, assessing content, navigation, and layout using data gathered from the previous year.

B. Outdated Content

Note that smith.edu does not serve an archival purpose. Outdated webpages or content—including those pertaining to past events—should not be retained on smith.edu. The web team reserves the right to determine best practices for retaining information on a case-by-case basis. For instructions on how to retain webpage content for archival and recordkeeping purposes, please refer to the Records Management Policy.

C. Public Facing vs. Internal Content

Because most pages on the site are public facing and can be accessed by anyone, at any time, all content authors should use discretion regarding the content made available on webpages affiliated with Smith College. Internal content should only be accessible on internal platforms and never published on public-facing platforms. For example, meeting notes, documents that contain sensitive or personal information, and class-specific materials should not be public facing.

D. Style and Tone

All Smith content—on the web and in print—must comply with the Smith Style Guide. For additional guidelines for website content, please see Website Guidelines & Best Practices.

E. Photography, Video, and Other Multimedia

The posting of videos, photography, graphics, and other multimedia elements to smith.edu will be handled by the web team.

A. Creating and Maintaining Content on smith.edu

The web team should be contacted by departmental contacts at webteam@smith.edu for all of the following:

• Creating and editing new and existing content. In some cases, the web team may ask to meet and collaborate with members of a department or office in order to brainstorm ideal content, layout, and design solutions.
• Questions about internal- versus public- facing content.
• To make arrangements for photography or video needs. Please note that the Office of College Relations and Communications cannot accommodate all requests for media production.

To provide access to only the Smith community, add the content to internal platforms and do not post it on the public website.

B. Policy Review Cycle

This policy will be reviewed annually or as needed to reflect revisions in laws, regulations, and college operations and policies.