Before Web Governance at University of North Dakota

 

The site had too much R.O.T. (redundant, outdated and trivial) content. It grew to over 30,000 pages and stored several hundred thousand files that were no longer used.

 

UND had too many CMS users (~500), the vast majority of whom had little marketing, web or technology skills and little investment in keeping their part of the site up to date.

 

The Web Team constantly operated in a reactive mode, focusing on troubleshooting, setting up users, and responding to user support requests.

 

Enrollment pressure was mounting, but the site was not set up to serve prospective students.

Create Web Governance Policy

 

An official policy isn’t a guideline or recommendation, it’s the law. Without a policy, there is no authority. It took UND four years to adopt a policy. There were committee meetings, contentious open forums, a formal grievance, an interim policy, and a failed formal policy vote. Buy-in wasn’t going to happen.

 

Finally, new executive leadership changed the tone. Now, everyone on campus is expected to be more disciplined and purposeful in our online presentation.
 

It covers the use of the content management system, brand guidelines, accessibility, web applications and databases, advertising, copyright, and violations with corrective actions.

 

Governance works
UND’s site is now half the size, with half the content contributors, and is generating 3x more inquiries.