Support & Oversight
These guidelines are a living document that will be revisited and revised on a frequent basis so that it may adapt to the ever-changing experiences and web content needs of the WPI community.
Support for digital content and the wpi.edu domain is led by a multidisciplinary team from Marketing Communications, partnering with Information Technology as needed for web-related technical services.
Marketing Communications…
- oversees and sets strategic direction and messaging for wpi.edu;
- establishes guidelines and procedures to govern current and future website standards;
- determines navigation and content structure, hierarchy, and placement;
- establishes taxonomy, branding, styling, etc., as needed;
- ensures compliance with legal and regulatory standards, including accessibility, security, and protection of privacy;
- ensures site quality and content integrity; and
- resolves website-related issues and problems.
Marketing Communications also manages the content in numerous sections of the website including, but not limited to, the following:
- All degree, minor and certificate pages (Note: These pages are updated twice a year in conjunction with the publication of the undergraduate and graduate catalogs, with very few exceptions. Any changes to program or degree names must be in writing from the department head).
- Academics
- Project-Based Learning (including subpages The WPI Plan, Global Projects Program and Project Immersion)
- Facts & Figures
- Home page
- About WPI
- Awards
- News & Events
- Research
If you have edits or changes to make to any of these pages, please email cmshelp@wpi.edu.
As part of a distributed authorship model, Marketing Communications does not routinely pre-screen, monitor, or regularly review posted content posted by Drupal users. However, the team will edit/alter content as needed for clarity, grammar, spelling, usage, style, website integrity, and to conform to university naming conventions and branding. Marketing Communications also reserves the right to edit, revise or delete content on wpi.edu that does not meet acceptable use guidelines or the standards––including website accessibility.
Logos and Branding
The official WPI branding is the only visual identity system used for websites. Existing WPI logos and branding may not be altered for the website, and in no case may you create your own.
CMS Help Desk Requests
Requests for general assistance for your site may be submitted by email to cmshelp@wpi.edu. Please allow one to two business days for a response, and at least five business days for turnaround. Examples of requests than can be handled through a Help Desk ticket include: Request a new page
- Delete or rename a page
- Move a page location
- Update site navigation
- Create a web form
- Reposition highlight boxes
- Grant editing access to an additional Drupal-trained user
- Add or update an awards listing in the Awards database
- Add or update an item in the Facts & Figures database
Copyright
Copyright violation is a serious offense that comes with strict penalties for which the university itself could be held liable. It is your responsibility to ensure that your content—text, images, video, and music—complies with all copyright laws. If content is determined to infringe on copyright issues, it will immediately be removed by Marketing Communications, and the content owner will be notified.
Mobile-first
As stated in our guiding principles, a website that it optimized for mobile devices allows visitors to access and engage with all content on wpi.edu regardless of their device, providing a consistent user experience. As such, Marketing Communications reserves the right to remove nonresponsive content (or content that does not adjust well to various screen sizes, such as charts, tables, graphics, etc.) or to deny requests to add such content elements to pages within wpi.edu.
Because website visitors expect a site to load in just seconds, page speed is another critical component of user experience and can also influence where WPI ranks in search engine results. Pages that are slow to load on wpi.edu will be flagged and the appropriate Drupal user notified to determine next steps.
Website Accessibility
WPI is required by Title 2 of the Americans with Disabilities Act to be fully accessible to everyone. For a thorough explanation of accessibility design guidelines, visit the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative website at w3.org/WAI or learn more about WPI’s Web Accessibility policy. Users are welcome and encouraged to reach out to Accessibility Services or the CMS help desk if there are specific questions about how to make their content (including PDFs) accessible.
If content added to the Drupal website doesn’t meet requirements for website accessibility, Marketing Communications reserves the right to remove, alter, or hide the content as deemed appropriate.