Community Standards
(Updated July 26, 2018)
The user guidelines and policies for College-administered Web sites differ, but given the public nature of the internet, exercise good judgment regarding what you publish online (most especially to a “union.edu” domain).
Guidelines for All Web Sites
All Union College Web sites are subject to copyright laws and fair use guidelines (available from Schaffer Library).
The College reserves the right to immediately remove any content that violates the College’s codes of conduct, which are available in the Student Handbook, Faculty Manual, and Staff Manual. All sites must also adhere to all local, state, and federal laws, and all College policies.
Complaints should be directed to the Office of Communications and Marketing or Office of Information Technology Services. In cases where there is a violation of applicable policies, laws, or established codes of conduct, the Chief Information Officer or Vice President for Communications and Marketing may remove the site from the network and suspend individual access privileges. The matter will then be referred to the appropriate campus judicial body.
Union College supports the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative and encourages Web developers to follow the consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, which are available here.
The Guidelines help make web pages accessible to people with disabilities.
Types of Web Sites
The Official College Web Site
The official College website, www.union.edu, is administered out of the Office of Communications and Marketing.
Though a valuable resource, www.union.edu is not an online publishing platform for the student body.
Contact: ucco@union.edu or (518) 388-6131
The College encourages faculty to create websites for as many of their courses as possible. Union College’s Learning Management System (LMS) is called Nexus and is the ideal platform for creating, managing, and maintaining such sites for your students. If a public-facing course website is needed, the College’s Muse platform is available to help faculty create a beautiful and well-organized site that helps faculty showcase Union College’s high level of scholarship and rigor to an external audience. Faculty may request assistance from ITS in setting up their course sites in Nexus and/or Muse.
Contact: helpdesk@union.edu or (518) 388-6400
Student Club and Organization Web Sites
Student organizations and clubs are encouraged to create Web sites to promote and document their activities through Union College’s Muse platform. As with departmental websites, student organization/club website represent the College, and require regular updates with current and valid information. Given that websites maintained by students necessarily change hands at least once every few years, it is important that each student site has at least one faculty or staff sponsor enrolled as a site administrator. This requirement reduces the risk of a Muse site becoming orphaned and inaccessible due to a student site administrator graduating and leaving the College. Orphaned sites, or sites with invalid or outdated information may be unlinked from the Union web site or taken down altogether.
Student club Web sites residing on Union College owned systems or served through the Union College network are permitted but shall include the disclaimer that: “Union College does not monitor or endorse student club websites residing in the Union College domain. The College is not responsible for the contents of student club websites or electronic mail communications. Views and opinions expressed on student club websites or in emails are strictly those of the authors.”
Student clubs and organizations may use the Muse platform, with a faculty or staff sponsor. The faculty or staff sponsor should contact ITS directly and request a Muse website be setup for a student organization or club. The requesting faculty or staff sponsor will be added to the Muse site as a site administrator, as will the requested student(s).
Contact: helpdesk@union.edu or (518) 388-6400
Personal Websites
All members of the campus community are encouraged to express themselves on the Web creatively and responsibly. Muse site administrators and web developers of other public-facing websites (e.g., Minerva, Virtual Union, etc.) are encouraged to remember that their sites are available worldwide, and are interpreted as representative of the College. Remember that potential visitors include prospective students, parents, professional colleagues, potential employers, and the general public.
Personal Web sites residing on Union College owned systems or served through the Union College network are permitted but shall include the disclaimer that: “Union College does not monitor or endorse the personal websites residing in the Union College domain. The College is not responsible for the contents of personal websites or electronic mail communications. Views and opinions expressed on personal websites or in emails are strictly those of the authors.”
The contents of personal websites are the sole responsibility of the individual; Union College accepts no liability for personal websites. Union College notes that, while faculty, staff, and students must assume responsibility for their personal websites being accurate and up-to-date, the College reserves the right to remove a site from the website if that site is egregiously out of date or out of use (until compliance is agreed upon and achieved).
Faculty or staff may simply contact ITS for assistance setting up his/her own personal website through Muse. Students may use a Muse website for a personal project, research, etc., with a faculty or staff sponsor. The faculty or staff sponsor should contact ITS directly and request a personal Muse website be setup for a student project, research, etc. The requesting faculty or staff sponsor will be added to the Muse site as a site administrator, as will the requested student.
Contact: helpdesk@union.edu or (518) 388-6400
Union College supports the engagement of its students, faculty and staff in the social media space, both individually and as part of their work for the college. To make that experience most beneficial to all involved, the Office of Communications & Marketing has posted social media best practices. Contact: ucco@union.edu or (518) 388-6131