Washington University in St. Louis supports the use of WashU Sites by its community members as a way to facilitate online communication.
All Washington University community members developing a website that involves the university, its schools, departments, programs, projects, groups and organizations must agree to adhere to the WashU Sites usage policy and any terms of service detailed therein before creating a website through the WashU Sites self-service system.
Washington University representation on digital media platforms shall be authorized through University Marketing and Communications and the schools.
Any existing websites or pages that represent Washington University are reviewed routinely and may be amended or, when necessary, removed without prior consent or notice.
WashU Sites has been developed to allow participating schools or units of Washington University to create their own sites for university-related projects. This service is not for personal use. Please do not register department or office names or special university project names, unless you are the official representative for that department, office or project. Sites that are registered to unauthorized users, or for unauthorized uses, will be deleted and assigned to appropriate departments, offices and/or projects. A nonparticipating school or unit may request that any site representing the school or unit without authorization be deleted without approval from the site owner.
WashU Sites may be used by student organizations as long as the student group is officially recognized by the university. Any student organization that is not officially recognized, or one seeking a custom design for its website, should use an alternative service.
Any individual utilizing a WashU Sites website must authenticate their access using their WUSTL Key. Individuals must adhere to all university policies and state and federal law, including but not limited to policies governing the use of WUSTL Keys, information technology security, computer use, and employee and student conduct.
All WashU Sites websites must be associated with an active WUSTL Key. Websites with no active “owners” may be deactivated. Users of WashU Sites assume responsibility for ensuring that the content on their sites is routinely updated and accurate. A site may be flagged as inactive if it has not been updated in the past 12 months. After consultation wherever possible with the creator of the site, University Marketing and Communications will make a determination whether to deactivate the site, which means the site will no longer be accessible on the Web.
All policies, procedures and guidelines regarding university trademarks, names and symbols apply to websites. The university does not permit explicit or implied institutional endorsements of any kind through the use of its names, trademarks, logos or images – including pictures of campus buildings. University Marketing and Communications can offer guidance about how properly to use names, logos, etc. to resolve any branding and copyright/trademark issues.
University policies and guidelines are available online, and the following are links to policies referenced above:
- Computer use policy
- Information security policy
- System access control guidelines
- Logotypes and other symbols
- Washington University domain name use
- Commercial use of Washington University names and symbols
- Licensing and trademarks for products
- Code of conduct
- University student judicial code
Users of WashU Sites are expected to adhere to conventional standards of ethics and polite conduct in their use of WashU Sites. The inclusion of language or other content material that is illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, invasive of privacy, profane, libelous, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful or embarrassing to any person or entity, or otherwise injurious or objectionable as determined by the university is unacceptable and may be removed.
Material that is proprietary or infringes intellectual property rights, including material protected by copyright that you are not otherwise authorized to utilize or distribute, shall not be included on a WashU Sites website.
Washington University does not prescreen posted content, but it shall have the right to remove, in its sole discretion, any content that it considers to violate this and other university policies.
WashU Sites cannot secure sensitive information; do not use WashU Sites to publish or collect sensitive or protected information including:
- Protected Health Information (PHI), as defined by HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act). Publishing PHI in violation of HIPAA is prohibited. All users of WashU Sites must comply with the university’s HIPAA policy.
- Student education records, as defined by FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). Publishing information protected by FERPA is prohibited. All users of WashU Sites must comply with the university’s FERPA policy.
- E-commerce and payment information. WashU Sites may not be used to facilitate any payment processes or other e-commerce purchasing services. For information regarding available services, please see http://www.wustl.edu/etransact/.
- Other confidential information, such as personnel records or material in which one has a reasonable expectation of privacy
Version: April 2015