Policy on External Websites and Blogs
Introduction
Methods of communication have changed dramatically in the past few years with the advent of blogs, wikis, and other Web 2.0 social networking tools. It is imperative for an institution such as ours— one that needs to share information with and from a young audience—to tap into these new technologies to improve our communications and marketing with this market. However, with these new and less moderated sites come some issues that require a few rules.
Purpose
The following policy was created to address both the websites and blogs being hosted by members of the University community outside of the University server that reference The New School name or activities at the university, and those blogs that have been requested by members of the community to be hosted on the University server.
Policy
The New School does not support externally-created websites and blogs not hosted on the university server, but recognizes their existence consistent with its belief in the free exchange of ideas. Members of The New School community who intend to create websites and blogs hosted outside of the university server BUT link it to The New School name or activities are advised to refer to the Policy described below.
Linking of Official Content Items
Externally-hosted websites may not replicate certain official content items from The New School website. This is because Marketing and Communication (M&C) may approve the linking of the official content of The New School’s site to externally-hosted websites or blogs. This will be done on a case-by-case basis.
Externally hosted websites may not replicate content or official content from the New School website. The following are examples of official content items on www.newschool.edu that should be directly linked to by externally-hosted websites or blogs:
- Course listings and descriptions
- Tuition and fees
- Registration deadlines
- Curriculum charts
- Faculty biography
- Admission/application information
- University-level news and event information
The following are examples of content items on www.newschool.edu that should be directly linked to by externally-hosted websites or blogs:
- Policies
- Events
- Fees
- Staff biography
- Descriptions of services, activities or groups etc.
Clear Identification of External Site’s Affiliation with The New School
M&C also requires that the connection or link of externally-hosted websites or blogs to the New School’s site is intuitive by using language that clearly links it back to The New School website, parent College/School and to their Program’s official landing page (where applicable).
This can be done in the following ways:
- Clear links in the header or footer of the website, usually attached to the New School or College/School logo.
- Clear links in the page copy. This is done by linking the first reference of the words - for example, “The New School” to the New School homepage, “College or School’ to the college or school homepage, and “Program” to the official program landing page.
- Creating a dedicated “Links” or “About” page or section on the external website or blog that describes the website’s affiliation with The New School, its College/School/Program, as well as following the recommendations outlined in items 1 and 2 above. This can also be content found on the website's homepage.
Site Integrity and Handling of Complaints
While the university does not support or supervise externally-created websites and blogs, it reserves the right to take appropriate action such as removal of the link of an external site to the New School website when a complaint is lodged and it is determined that any material on the external site is inaccurate, illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing on intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy, or otherwise injurious or misleading.
How to lodge a complaint?
Procedure
Submitting Your New or Existing External Websites and Blogs
All external websites and blogs are required to be vetted for any possible compliance and university branding or information privacy issues prior to site launch (in the the case of new sites).
Please inform M&C of any existing sites, new sites or those that are in under-construction or in-planning stages by filling out the Website Registration Form for any blog or external website your oversee or administer. These should include any site that resides either within the New School suite of sites (newschool.edu) or outside a service URL/purchased domain.
Making a Request
If you would like your externally-hosted website or blog to be linked to The New School site, please have the relevant Dean or Officer review this policy and the website or blog in question.
The linking request should be emailed to Chris Bate, Director of Online Strategies at batec@newschool.edu.
Additional Information
Questions regarding this policy should be directed to Online Marketing Platforms (OMP) at omp@newschool.edu.