Bard College at Simon's Rock: the Early College
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Governance Process and Procedures

Leverage the campus staff expertise while utilizing the skills and strategic vision of the Marketing and Communications department.

The Goal

We are working towards a day when staff throughout the campus create and manage web content in order to better serve our stakeholders. Marketing and Communications will provide Foundation guidelines, training, and oversight. 

  • Marketing and Communications provides oversight over the entire site and tightly manages essential pages and aspects of the website. 
  • Department leads manage their content areas and submit web changes to Marketing and Communications.
  • Staff within a department submit web changes to the department lead.

Marketing and Communication Governance Priorities

  • Train staff throughout the college to act as their department’s lead website content contributor
  • Provide ongoing support to website content contributors, make it easy for contributors to create content that supports the Foundation Guidelines 

Roles

Staff have been assigned the following roles for Web Content Changes. 

Contributor

  • Web contributors can edit pages within the directory of their area using the CMS. 
  • When edits are complete, contributors can submit the changes for approval. Changes won't go live until Communications publishes them.
  • New pages can be requested through the web change request form.

Expectations

Contributors should agree to the following guidelines.

  • Attend required trainings—there is an introductory training, additional trainings will be convened as necessary
  • Take ownership and be accountable to content of a specific area
  • Contribute web changes using the CMS
  • Follow the guidelines, process, and procedures described in the Guide
  • Do not share user account with another person

Level 5 Contributor

  • Level 5 contributors can create new pages within the directory of their area using the CMS. 
  • Level 5 contributors can edit page parameters within the directory of their area using the CMS. 
  • When edits are complete, contributors can submit the changes to Marketing and Communications. Changes won't go live until Communications publishes them.
  • More complicated issues can be requested through the web change request form

Expectations

Contributors should agree to the following guidelines.

  • Take ownership and be accountable to any created pages
  • Expectations described above

Non-Contributor

Non contributors can continue to request web changes with the web change request form.  

Support and Oversight

Support for digital content and websites at Simon’s Rock will be led by the Marketing and Communications Department, which is also charged with shepherding the overarching Simon’s Rock web strategy and acting as strategic lead for the digital presence of the College.

All contributors are included on an email list in order to share regular updates and tips.

The Marketing and Communications Department has been empowered by the provost and the Board of Overseers to make decisions regarding Simon’s Rock’s digital presence. 

The Marketing and Communications Department will receive and prioritize requests according to this web governance policy and the Simon’s Rock web strategy. The Marketing and Communications Department will also receive and make decisions regarding requests for exemption from policies or standards.

Any Simon’s Rock community member can make suggestions or requests of the Communications Department, who will then be responsible for evaluating and prioritizing these requests. 

The Communications Department will also direct the formation and assignments of distributed web managers and content creators.

Consistency and Maintenance

The Marketing and Communications Department is responsible for upholding the brand in the overall design, the consistency of imagery, and the tone of voice that is reflected throughout Simon’s Rock’s digital presence. The Marketing and Communications Department is empowered to instruct units to change items that don’t conform to brand standards and this web governance policy.

Simon’s Rock shall run a single web content management system (CMS), OU Campus, to update the official website. The Marketing and Communications Department is responsible for implementing and running this system, and for arranging training for content managers and editors.

Major content and design changes must be done in consultation with Simon’s Rock policies and guidelines. Units can obtain training and support through the Communications Department. Template and major design elements affecting the brand are locked within the CMS, and require the involvement of the Communications Department for alteration if necessary to achieve a strategic goal.

If the Communications Department determines that a portion of the Simon’s Rock website has been abandoned (e.g., no active updates), a member of the team will attempt to find an appropriate owner or alert the unit head. If that step cannot be completed and the content is outdated, redundant, or trivial, it may be removed.

Everyone in the Simon’s Rock community is responsible for reporting inaccurate, outdated, inappropriate, or poorly developed web content. Any Simon’s Rock-related individual may pass on suggestions of these types to the Marketing and Communications Department by making a web change suggestion. 

Additional Websites

All official pages, sites, social presences, and other digital displays representing Simon’s Rock must conform to the approved brand, design, and logo standards to ensure consistency. Review an audit of additional websites and get approval for additional sites.  

Review and Revision

The Marketing and Communications Department and all content managers are required to review and update all content on all digital properties they control at least once a year. Outdated, redundant, or obsolete content must be removed promptly using a common archival and sunsetting process.

If a page has an unusually low amount of traffic, usability tests and/or consulting with the website manager can determine the best course of action:

  • If this low traffic is due to a usability problem, structure or navigation changes should be considered.
  • If this low traffic is due to the content being unnecessary or not useful, the content should be reworked or removed.
  • If this low traffic is due to the content being difficult to find by search engines, examine ways to optimize content, metadata, or page mark-up.

Distributed Web Contributors

Web contributors throughout Simon’s Rock are ultimately responsible for their unit’s online presence. The Marketing and Communications Department will work with unit heads to ensure an appropriate web contributor has been designated.

More than one individual should be able to make changes to each digital property, in case of personnel transitions or illness. A backup to the web contributor should be appointed, and trained by the Marketing and Communications Department. This backup should be familiar with the content of the unit’s website.