Bard College at Simon's Rock: the Early College
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Web Governance Guidelines

Help keep our websites on-brand, on-message, and effectively governed. 

All websites representing Bard College at Simon’s Rock and Bard Academy at Simon’s Rock that are accessible to the public must conform to the standards put forth by Marketing and Communications and are subject to ongoing approval by Marketing and Communications. Any new website accessible to the public must be approved by the Director of Marketing and Communications.

Digital Presence

The Marketing and Communications oversees the governance of Simon’s Rock digital presence. Recent work includes:

  • Undergoing user research to identify key issues and engagement opportunities
  • Creation of key message framework, brand platform, and brand guidelines for consistent and effective messaging
  • Redesign of simons-rock.edu based on the above
  • Creation of content management system and training across campus to extend the ability of campus partners to update content

The Case for a Managed Digital Presence

Without actively practiced guidelines, we run the risk of diluting our brand, confusing our users, and creating unsustainable and orphaned websites.

A 2016 audit of Simon’s Rock websites discovered some of the following flags:

  • Outdated content
  • Duplicate content
  • Off-brand websites
  • An orphaned website created by former staff that we no longer have any way of updating or removing the content or website.  

Websites are becoming increasingly easier to produce and at the same time more likely to become part of the internet’s permanent record. We don’t want short-term content solutions to become permanent features of the web, accessible through a Google search or errant link. Thus, we need guidelines to ensure our websites are consistent with our standards.

Digital Presence Standards

All official websites accessible to the public should conform to the standards put forth by Marketing and Communications and are subject to ongoing approval by Marketing and Communications.

Some protocols to consider:

  • Does website conform to the brand standards?
  • Does the content conform and support the content strategy?
  • Is it clear to the user how different websites are differentiated from each other, how each has a distinct purpose, and how users navigate between them?
  • If the site is managed by a department outside of Marketing and Communications or ITS, does it have a clear governance procedure and redundancy plan, including user permissions, access, and training?

Digital Presence Criteria

Digital Presence shall be defined as the following:

  1. The content is accessible to the public.
    1. This includes websites hosted on a Simon’s Rock subdomain, such as example.simons-rock.edu.
    2. This includes websites hosted on a third party domain, such as example-simons-rock.com.
    3. This includes websites hosted through a third party service.
    4. This includes apps and social media.
    5. Non-public internal websites should be approved by ITS. Access to the public should be limited through a password or hidden from search engines.
  2. The content represents Bard College at Simon’s Rock or some portion of the College.
    1. This includes a building, department, class, or official team.
    2. This includes any location that uses the Bard College at Simon's Rock logo.
    3. This does not include an employee or student personal website or social media presence, so long as the content or design does not imply that it is an official voice of the college.