General Policies

Abide by University Policies and Guidelines

Information Technology Services provides Temple University students, faculty, and staff the ability to create and host web sites and blogs on sites.temple.edu. Web sites created and hosted on sites.temple.edu are subject to both the Temple University and Information Technology Services policies below.

• Temple University Policies and Procedures
• Information Technology Service Tech Policies

Use will be revocated for policy violations

Temple University may, at any time, without prior notice, and at its sole discretion, remove any post or terminate access to content on sites.temple.edu for violation of Temple University, Information Technology Services, or sites.temple.edu policies. Use of this site may be restricted or prohibited if it is determined that an individual is non-compliant with University, Information Technology Services, or sites.temple.edu policies.

Owners must be Temple University students, faculty, or staff

Sites.temple.edu has been created for use by Temple University students, faculty, and staff. Its purpose is to encourage the sharing of ideas and collaboration with one another and for official student organizations to communicate with members of the Temple community. Individuals not affiliated with Temple University may view content, but may not post or edit content. Certain content is restricted to Temple University use only, and may not be distributed without permission of the original author, and/or Temple University.

The user who creates a web site or blog on sites.temple.edu is considered the “owner” of all the content and comments associated with that site or blog.

All content should be considered public

Confidential data should not be discussed or shared on sites.temple.edu. Even if a site or page is marked “private,” do not consider the content to be private. If two or more individuals wish to share confidential data with one another, a secure mechanism such as encrypted file transfers, should be used instead.

This is an open-source initiative

Sites.temple.edu is based on free and open-source software built by hundreds of community volunteers. There are thousands of plugins and themes also built by volunteers. As such, if issues arise with sites.temple.edu or plugins/themes used on sites.temple.edu, there is no vendor obligation to assist in a timely manner (or at all). If issues arise,Information Technology Services will make a reasonable effort to resolve them as quickly as possible, but cannot make any guarantees. In addition, Information Technology Services may have to remove plugins or themes without notice due to security vulnerabilities or other possible issues.

Service outages will be posted on the System Status page

Information Technology Services will announce routine maintenance and planned service interruptions via the System Status page.

You will be notified if the website will be decommissioned

Temple University may, at any time, decommission Sites.temple.edu and the associated services. If this happens, email notification will be sent to your TUmail address at least one month prior to allow you time to archive any content you may wish to retain.

Content

Owners are responsible for content

Web site and blog owners are responsible for all content on sites.temple.edu, not Temple University.

Content must adhere to Temple University policies and guidelines

All content on sites.temple.edu must adhere to Temple University’s Tech Policies (such as no copyright infringement, acceptable use, privacy, etc.) including, but not limited to, the Electronic Communication Guidelines. Users must not:

• Post or link to any content that is abusive, vulgar, obscene (including but not limited to sexually explicit), hateful, fraudulent, threatening, harassing, defamatory, or which discloses private or personal matters concerning any person
• Post or transmit personal correspondence or email communications without the author’s permission
• Post or transmit any material that you don’t have the right to transmit under law
• Post or transmit any advertising, promotional materials, or other forms of solicitation including chain letters and pyramid schemes
• Intentionally violate any other applicable law or regulation while accessing and using our site
• Post or transmit any file that contains malware, including viruses, corrupted files, “Trojan Horses,” or any other contaminating or destructive features that may damage someone else’s computer

At the discretion of Temple University, inappropriate content, including sites, bogs, postings, images, videos, or other content may be removed at any time.

Owners are responsible for comments

Owners of Web sites and blogs on sites.temple.edu are responsible for all comments. The approval of inappropriate comments may result in the revocation of the site or blog. Permitting anonymous comments requires written approval from Information Technology Services.

Use of the Temple University logos are prohibited

Temple University logos, including the Temple T and Temple Owl, are for use on official University Web sites only. Student organizations are prohibited from using Temple logos. Please review the branding guidelines.

Backups and Retention

Backing up content on sites.temple.edu is the responsibility of the owner

Information Technology Services performs nightly backups of all content on sites.temple.edu. The purpose of that backup is to ensure, in a catastrophic event, the entire sites.temple.edu system could be restored. Backups of sites.temple.edu do not enable individual web sites, blogs, or postings within sites or blogs to be recovered from system backups. Therefore, it is the responsibility of web site and blog owners to maintain backups of their sites, blogs, and any files uploaded to their sites and blogs.

Content will be deleted after two (2) years of inactivity or when the owner has left the university

Web sites and blogs will be removed from sites.temple.edu when the owner has left the University or after two (2) years of inactivity. Inactivity means that there have been no new posts or pages created or edited on the web site or blog in two (2) or more years.

Collection of Personal Information & Funds

Collection of personal information is restricted

The collection of information (such as through comments or the use of forms) is restricted to official University business. Selling, renting, or otherwise allowing the information collected to be used by non-University entities or using it for non-University business is expressly prohibited. Information collected that contains Personally Identifiable Information must be handled according to the proper University guidelines and policies. Collection of Social Security Numbers, passwords and credit card or bank account information is expressly prohibited.

Collection of funds requires Bursar approval

The collection of funds (for example, for conference registration fees or memberships) is prohibited unless approved by the Bursar’s office and using a mechanism they sanction.

Storage

Web sites and blogs have a 250 MiB quota

All web sites and blogs on sites.temple.edu have a default quota of 250 MiB that should not be exceeded. Please use your storage wisely. Consider hosting large media elsewhere (e.g. on your TU Gmail account) and linking to it from your site. If you are a university school, college or department, you may request additional storage by submitting a TUHelp request.

Privacy

Course-related sites must protect student contributions

Sites.temple.edu is not a course management system, and, as such, does not offer the inherent privacy settings and other features provided by a course management system like Canvas. Please use Canvas as your primary course management system. If you use site.temple.edu for collaboration with students, choose a privacy setting appropriate for protecting your students’ contributions.

Site Names

Web Site and blog names are subject to review

Web site and blog names are provided on a first-come, first-served basis, and are subject to review. Taking the name of a known campus entity for which you are not an authorized representative is prohibited and will result in the loss of that web site. Inappropriate names are not permitted.

Redirects must adhere to university policy and gain approval

Content on sites.temple.edu may obtain a redirect if the content is sponsored by an official university department or administrative unit and approval is gained by the Temple University Web Committee. Content redirects must adhere to the university domain name policy. To initiate a request, submit a TUHelp request. Redirects for faculty, staff or student blogs or for student organizations will not be issued.

Developers

Plugins

Information Technology Services reserves the right to remove any plugin without prior warning. This may happen, for example, if a security vulnerability is discovered or if a plugin is no longer compatible. New plugins can be requested by submitting a TUHelp request. Please note, new plugins will only be installed if there is a specific and significant need for it. Plugins must be compatible with the version of WordPress currently installed and must have a business case for its use. In addition, there must be significant demand for its functionality and not duplicate existing functionality, and it must be actively maintained by its developer. All plugins will be evaluated very carefully before installation and must gain approval by the sites.temple.edu advisory group.

Themes

Information Technology Services reserves the right to remove any theme without prior warning. This may happen, for example, if a security vulnerability is discovered or if a theme is no longer compatible. If you’re a designer/developer at Temple University and have developed a theme compatible with the installed version of WordPress, you may submit a request to install that theme by submitting a TUHelp request. Themes will rarely be installed. All themes will be evaluated very carefully before installation and must gain approval by the sites.temple.edu advisory group.