Boise State provides approved platforms for faculty profiles and public-facing websites that represent university programs, services, research, and other activities. The appropriate platform depends on the website’s purpose and what a reasonable visitor would understand it to represent.
Faculty and staff profile pages
Boise State’s WordPress environment supports faculty and staff profile pages. A profile may include:
- The individual’s role at Boise State
- Biography and contact information
- Publications
- Research and creative activity
- Teaching information
A faculty or staff profile is part of Boise State’s official web presence and is different from a standalone personal website. (Note that experts.boisestate.edu also features faculty profile information.)
Personal websites
A personal website is independently hosted and centers on the individual rather than an official university program or activity. It may include professional and scholarly information as well as personal interests, writing, or commentary.
Simply identifying Boise State as an employer or describing scholarly research and publications does not make a personal website university-affiliated.
When a website is university-affiliated
A website becomes university-affiliated when it functions as the public presence for Boise State work. The determining factors are what the website does and what a reasonable visitor would understand it to represent, not who created it or where it is hosted.
A website is considered university-affiliated when it:
- Represents a Boise State college, department, program, center, research lab, project, organization, or service;
- Recruits students, employees, research participants, or collaborators for a university program or activity; or
- Provides information, forms, or resources people use to access or participate in a university activity.
Why approved platforms are required
Websites outside Boise State’s managed environment can create institutional risks involving:
- Federal law and university policies regarding digital accessibility compliance
- Security and vulnerable software
- Privacy and information collection
- University branding and reputation
- Administrative access and ownership
- Connections to university data and systems
- Long-term maintenance and continuity
Using an approved university platform helps ensure that public-facing Boise State websites remain accessible, secure, supportable, and available when staffing or responsibilities change.
Platform and approval requirements
Under University Policy 8040, Boise State’s hosted WordPress environment is the approved home for public-facing websites representing university divisions, departments, programs, centers, institutes, and other units.
University-recognized student organizations must use CampusGroups.
Any public-facing website representing university work must use an approved university environment. This includes websites created by faculty or staff for a:
- Research lab or project
- Student opportunity
- Committee
- Employee organization
- Academic or administrative program
- University service
- Other university activity
Creating or hosting such a website on another platform requires advance written approval from the Executive Director of University Web Strategy.
When a third party is contracted to design, develop, support, or host a university-affiliated website, the review and approval requirements in University Policy 10050 also apply.
Existing university-affiliated websites
Existing affiliated websites may be reviewed for compliance. Depending on the circumstances, the appropriate next step may be:
- Remediating the existing website;
- Migrating it to an approved university platform; or
- Receiving written approval to continue operating under specified conditions.
Before starting a website
Faculty and staff should contact University Web Strategy through the Help Desk before selecting a platform or beginning work on any public-facing website outside Boise State’s WordPress environment that will represent—or appear to represent—a university unit, program, service, or activity.