Updated January 18, 2011 Page 1
WEB USE POLICY
Introduction
The purpose of the Salem State University website is to provide information about the university,
its mission and services, its faculty and students, and its events and programs. In addition, the
web site provides access to resources for the university community. The university home page
and associated web pages, including those of academic and administrative departments or
affiliated organizations, are official publications of the university. These pages are often the first
point of contact visitors have with the university and the quality of information presented on the
university's web pages plays an important role in shaping the image and reputation of Salem
State University.
Purpose of the Web Site Policy
The Salem State University web site policy establishes the university's standards for: (a)
acceptable use of the medium, (b) accessibility requirements of content for all users, (c) the
responsibilities of authors and other content providers posting to the university's web pages, and
(d) accurate, functional, and appropriate presentations of information. All members of the
university’s academic community are encouraged to regularly publish timely, accurate
information on the web, provided such information supports the mission of the university and
does not violate articulated policies or procedures.
Scope
The web use policy applies only to information published on the Salem State University internet
domain, salemstate.edu.
Official university web pages include the homepage;
Academic department and program pages;
Office, administrative, and support pages;
Pages containing information pertaining to university programs, services, core
institutional functions, and officially recognized student organizations;
Publications;
News and events pages;
Student groups and organizations;
Other pages that are otherwise sponsored or endorsed or created on authority of a
university department or administrative unit.
Web pages maintained by individuals with content specific to that individual’s interests, such as
personal faculty, staff and student web pages including official student organization web pages
may be linked from university sites, but they are understood to represent the perspective of an
individual or group rather than the university as a whole. All web pages on the SSC domain are
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expected to meet professional standards and comply with acceptable use standards. Web pages
representing schools, departments, offices and administrative areas of the Salem State University
must comply with the university’s web page design and content policies.
Acceptable Use
All web pages hosted by Salem State University must comply with the university’s acceptable
use policy and other university policies.
Branding Policies
Content managers responsible for maintaining sites and content must follow the graphic, style,
and template guidelines supplied by Salem State University. Sites that do not follow graphic,
style, and template guidelines are subject to review and revision or take-down by the Web Policy
Committee. Site developers must be directly associated with Salem State University and have
agreed to the acceptable use policy. Any site developed must follow the graphic, style, and
template guidelines supplied by Salem State University.
Web logo guidelines are available at [www.salemstate.edu/web/WEB-logos.php]
Publication and multimedia standards are available at
[www.salemstate.edu/publications/docs/PUB-standards.pdf]
Accessibility
In compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act,
and University non-discrimination policies, web pages, to the extent feasible, must be accessible
to people with disabilities. If not feasible, alternative methods should be made available to
complete the same tasks.
University Data
Units referring to information maintained by another unit should coordinate access and use with
the data custodian in compliance with policy developed by Data Standards Committee. Dynamic
information (course enrollment, tuition, directory information, etc.) should be retrieved from the
authoritative university operational database. When time-sensitive data is published, the
effective term or expiration date of such data should be stated.
Compliance
The Web Compliance Committee is responsible for monitoring compliance with published
policies. All pages published on the salemstate.edu website must comply with existing web
policies and any local, state, or federal laws including but not limited to libel, obscenity,
copyright, and accessibility. In the event the compliance committee finds web content that is out
of date, inaccurate, or otherwise in violation of the web publishing policies, the content provider
will be notified so that he/she has time to revise the content in question. If such a revision does
not occur within the specified time, the compliance committee will remove any such pages.
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(There shall be established a compliance committee consisting of: two administrators appointed
by the president, two faculty/librarian members appointed by MSCA, and one student appointed
by SGA.)
Disclaimer
The university reserves the right to change this policy at any time. Visitors will not be notified
of any changes made to this policy. The version of this policy in effect will be posted on the
Information Technology policies website.
Copyright
The Salem State University copyright policy can be accessed via the following link:
http://www.salemstate.edu/policies/SSC-web_policies.php#copyright
Additional Information
www.salemstate.edu/publications/docs/WEB-PUB-Policy.pdf: Web Publishing Policy
www.salemstate.edu/web/WEB-logos.php: Web Logo Guidelines
www.salemstate.edu/publications/docs/PUB-standards.pdf: Publication and Multimedia
Standards
www.salemstate.edu/software/xxx: Software and templates
http://www.salemstate.edu/policies/SSC-web_policies.php#copyright: Copyright Policy
www.salemstate.edu/usersupport/US-acceptable_use_policy.php: Acceptable Use Policy
www.ma.gov/xxx: Enterprise Information Security Standards: Data Classification
Version 1.0
http://www.mass.gov/Aitd/docs/legal/privpolicyorder.doc: Requirements for Agency Website
Privacy Policies
Fair Information Practices Act: Mass. Gen. L. ch. 66A
Executive Order 412: Executive Order regarding protection and privacy of personal information
Public Records Division: Public records resources as provided by the Secretary of the
Commonwealth
Massachusetts Identity Theft Law: Law relative to Security Freezes and Notification of Data
Breaches
http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/index.html: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of
student education records.
