About Us
Brand & Licensing
Design & Editing
Marketing
News Media
Photo/Video
Web Guide

Standard Web Template Policy

July 1, 2009

"Effective immediately, any school, division, department, or other unit that chooses to redesign its Web site will be expected by the Ways and Means Committee to use the new templates and the underlying content management system. Staff from University Communications & Marketing are available to work with divisional Webmasters to determine the design and programming needs of every unit and to identify appropriate resources to support them either inside or outside the University, depending on the scale and complexity of any given project. Support is available at favorable institutional rates from the Office of Information Technology's Web Design Team and the Emory Creative Group or from an outside vendor with special expertise in the University's content management system.

"If your site requires a different outside vendor and custom programming, University Communications staff will provide your vendor with the specific requirements of the new design. The eventual goal is that all Emory Web sites will adopt the new template or add required template elements to any site redesigns that occur from this point forward. Specifically, in cases where the existing designs do not accommodate school or unit-level needs, the expectation is that the school or unit will work to extend the existing framework rather than choosing an alternative design or content management system."

  1. Existing sites are not required to redesign immediately. It is anticipated that most sites will redesign in two or three years, at which time those sites should adopt the endorsed university template in force at the time.
  2. Unit-sponsored sites that begin a redesign process will be expected to adopt the University Standard Template and take advantage of the university content management system (Cascade CMS).
  3. This policy applies to unit-sponsored sites, not to the sites of affiliate organizations, student organizations, or individual persons. This policy DOES APPLY to unit-sponsored sites regardless of where sites are hosted, whether by Emory or by third-party, external or off-campus vendors.
  4. Units that were already well-advanced in the process of redesigning a site before July 2009 -- and which had already committed time and resources toward a non-Template design and/or hosting solution -- must nevertheless work with University Communications & Marketing to incorporate elements of the template design wherever possible.
  5. Variants of the template (which must still be recognizably in conformance with its design standards) may be authorized by University Communications & Marketing for use in specific schools and divisions as warranted by compelling business or legal reasons.
  6. All new or redesigned unit-sponsored sites must be reviewed by the University Communications & Marketing Brand Advisory Council before launch. Units should budget time for unexpected revisions before launch.