Web Governance

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A Shared Vision For ewu.edu

The EWU website (ewu.edu) is the university’s number one marketing and communications tool. It connects prospective students, families, alumni, donors, and the community to Eastern—and tells the story of who we are.

Every story, photo, and program page shapes how future students, alumni, and partners see our university. Maintaining a consistent voice and visual identity across all pages helps ensure that EWU’s brand and value propositions are clear and cohesive.

This framework defines the shared roles, responsibilities, and processes that keep our website accurate, consistent, accessible, and aligned with EWU’s brand and enrollment goals. It’s a collaborative effort across campus to communicate Eastern’s story effectively and deliver an engaging, unified web experience.

The EWU digital team seeks to:

  • Recognize our audiences’ needs and expectations.
  • Leverage web technologies to better meet institutional goals.
  • Incorporate a shared brand identity and story.
  • Understand best practices and industry standards, and measure the success of decisions based on data.

Who This Policy Is For

This framework is for all EWU faculty, staff, and administrators who contribute to, edit or request updates to the university’s public-facing website. It provides guidance for maintaining accuracy, accessibility and brand alignment across ewu.edu.

Purpose & Scope

  • Recognize and respond to audience needs.
  • Leverage web technologies to meet institutional goals.
  • Use a shared brand identity and storytelling approach.
  • Apply best practices and measure success through data.
  • Focus on usability, storytelling, and continuous improvement.

  • Departments must designate at least one content lead who is responsible for updating and ensuring the accuracy of their pages, contact cards and application deadlines.
  • Editors must complete training before being granted editing access.
  • The Digital Team reserves the right to revoke access if content does not comply with EWU policies or governance standards.

This governance framework applies to all websites managed under the ewu.edu domain that serve external audiences:

  • Prospective students
  • Current students
  • Parents and families
  • Alumni
  • Donors and philanthropic organizations
  • Community members

The digital team’s goals, supported by this framework, include maximizing usability, enhancing storytelling, and continually improving the digital presence. It aims to achieve a coordinated governance model where content activity is shared among empowered editors, moving away from a dispersed, decentralized approach.

  • Ensure accuracy, consistency, and accessibility across EWU’s public-facing websites.
  • Align content with institutional priorities such as admissions, scholarships, fundraising, and applied learning.
  • Reduce confusion and risk in what was previously a decentralized web environment.
  • Reflect EWU’s core values: quality, access, inclusiveness, integrity and a student-centered learning environment.

Excluded: internal tools and faculty/staff sites such as InsideEWU and SharePoint.

Roles & Responsibilities

  • Oversees site maintenance, governance, and training.
  • Owns design, layout, and user experience standards.
  • Ensures accessibility, compliance, and brand consistency.
  • Manages content freshness, SEO, and removal of outdated pages.
  • Provides analytics, reporting, and campaign support.
  • Builds custom projects (e.g., Give site, Program Explorer).
  • Consults with departments for accuracy.

  • Provide subject matter expertise for programs, faculty bios, deadlines, and accreditation.
  • Review content annually or quarterly.
  • Collaborate with the Digital Team on major updates.

  • Provide technical infrastructure and security.
  • Partner with the Digital Team on compliance and deployments.
  • Do not govern content strategy or voice.
  • Do not make updates on ewu.edu.

  • Maintain authoritative content for admissions, Financial Aid & Scholarships, Running Start, and College in the High School.
  • Partner with the Digital Team on recruitment initiatives.

  • Collaborate on fundraising campaigns and giving tools.
  • Support digital content that advances philanthropic goals.

Content Classification & Ownership

  • Definition: Content of high strategic value that meets critical business needs. This includes core institutional information, official policies, and content directly supporting university-wide strategic goals such as recruitment, fundraising, and accreditation.
  • Characteristics: Access is strictly limited to specific staff (primarily the Digital Team) to ensure content quality and accuracy. It reflects the university’s official voice and must adhere to EWU, state, and federal guidelines.
  • Ownership/Influence: Primarily owned by University Marketing & Communications (Digital Team), with collaboration from institutional partners for accuracy.

  • Definition: Content with strategic marketing value for primary audiences (e.g., prospective students, current students). This generally includes any content within the primary menu structure of the ewu.edu sitemap. Some core content may also be authoritative.
  • Characteristics: Crucial for user engagement and information gathering. It must be accurate, up-to-date, and align with EWU’s brand and storytelling efforts.
  • Ownership/Influence: Institutional partners (e.g., Departments, Enrollment Services) own the subject matter, with Marketing & Communications (Digital Team) having significant influence over its presentation, design, and adherence to standards.

  • Definition: Content primarily for department or tertiary audiences, or that has no direct strategic marketing value. This may include departmental news, very specific event details not targeting broad external audiences, or content that will be short-lived. Note: news stories should be run through an editor before publishing.
  • Characteristics: While managed by departments, it still contributes to the overall digital presence and must avoid perpetuating stereotypes or biases.
  • Ownership/Influence: Primarily owned by Institutional partners (e.g., departments, faculty), with general oversight from the Digital Team for overall site quality and consistency.

To ensure clarity, consistency, and strategic alignment, EWU’s web content is categorized based on its strategic value and audience. This classification helps define ownership, access, and review processes, providing an insurance policy for the investment made in digital platforms.

Content Change Categories

  • Handled directly by the Digital Team to ensure efficiency and immediate compliance, often about authoritative or core content aspects of quality:
    • Removal of outdated content (e.g., past events, expired reports, inactive or broken links).
    • Layout or formatting improvements (e.g., mobile optimization).
    • Corrections to typos, broken links, and accessibility issues.
    • Updates to reflect global messaging campaigns (e.g., scholarship wording).
    • Maintaining consistency with the catalog in our academic offerings yearly, this includes unpublishing degree pages that are no longer valid, and updating navigation and redirects.
    • Polytechnic messaging for SEO purposes.

Initiated by the Digital Team or departments, requiring consultation and joint effort to ensure accuracy and alignment with institutional goals, typically involving Core Content or Authoritative Content, where departmental input is needed:

    • New program launches.
    • Changes to degree or certificate information.
    • Shifts in program mission, tone, or focus.
    • Overhaul of content structure or user navigation.
    • Major content updates where the Digital Team assists in streamlining processes and ensuring effective management and accessibility of critical information.

Initiated and reviewed by departments, reflecting their specific expertise. While departments manage these, primarily concerning Core or Non-Core Content, the Digital Team retains the right to edit for compliance and consistency with university standards:

  • Faculty/staff rosters and contact info.
  • Application deadlines and links
  • Department news, events, and announcements.
  • Program-specific narratives.
  • Communication about a degree added or no longer being offered.

Editorial & Brand Standards

Refer to our student’s first content strategy.

Use short sentences, bulleted lists, 3-5 sentences per paragraph, avoid jargon, and aim for an 8th-grade reading level.

 In the event of disagreement regarding content authority or editing scope:

  1. The Digital Team and department will meet to review concerns.
  2. If unresolved, the issue will be escalated to the Director of Marketing.
  3. Final escalation may involve the appropriate Dean or VP, depending on the content type.

 

All content must rigorously follow EWU’s brand voice, visual identity guidelines, and accessibility best practices. Marketing & Communications oversees grammatical standards for all materials, print and online, produced on behalf of EWU, regardless of the audience, to promote consistency. Policy 201:03 External Communications.

The Digital Team reserves the right to edit for clarity, length, tone, grammar and compliance on all content. This ensures that content is accurate, reflects EWU’s core values, and adheres to a unified style. Departments are encouraged to collaborate rather than publish siloed or duplicative content.

Key content and readability standards include: