LEHMAN COLLEGE WEB POLICY 

Access to modern information technology is essential to Lehman College’s 
missions of teaching, research, and service. As elaborated in the Lehman College 
Information Technology Strategic Plan (June 2003), “Lehman College seeks to take a 
leadership role in the application of information technologies to improve its teaching and 
learning environment, and to extend its reach to new and diverse constituents.” The 
pursuit and achievement of these missions require the use of computing systems and 
access to the world-wide web, including access to web resources for scholarly work and 
other legitimate College activities. 

The Lehman College Web Policy seeks to encourage the development of web 
pages, a powerful communications tool, at the College. At the same time, it recognizes 
that web sites emanating from the College’s domain–<www.lehman.edu>–present the 
College to the public and, in case of official home pages, are official documents of the 
College. Consequently, the preservation of the ability of the College community to 
make the most effective use of web sites requires that authorized users of the College’s 
domain name follow College, University, and external standards for appropriate use. 
This policy statement sets forth the College’s standards and guidelines. 

A. Content Management 
The Office of Media Relations and Publications is directly responsible for the 
contents of the Lehman College home page and facilitates web pages for College 
entities. In addition, the Office will provide an approved basic template for academic 
department and administrative office web sites, which must be used for department and 
office home pages unless otherwise approved by the Office of Media Relations. The 
Office of Media Relations will maintain the departmental and office home pages until a 
content management system is implemented, at which time departments and offices will 
be able to take over the function. The academic department home page will include a 


basic template for information about each full-time faculty member. Individual faculty 
may develop supplemental web pages, which will be linked to the faculty member’s 
name on the basic template, with information about his or her research, scholarship, or 
teaching. (See below.) Faculty with existing supplemental web pages may migrate 
those pages to the College’s new content management system; these pages will be 
linked to the faculty member’s name on the basic template in the official departmental 
web page. The Office of Media Relations and Publications is responsible for 
implementing this Policy. 

B. Web Pages 
Only pages developed by or for College offices, College-related entities, 
administrators, faculty, recognized student organizations, or student academic work will 
be housed on the College network. Each document’s home page must identify its 
connection to Lehman College and its author or administrator, who is responsible for 
any communication the page may produce. 

There are several types of web pages that may exist on the College’s network. 
They include: the official college home page (level IA); home pages for official College 
entities, including academic departments, administrative offices, centers, institutes, and 
College-related entities (level IB); supplemental pages for individual faculty (level II); 
pages for student organizations (level III); and pages for student academic work.. 

1. Official College Home Page (Level IA) 
The official College home page is the responsibility of the Office of Media 
Relations and Publications. It should include links to all level IB web pages. These 
pages, in turn, should maintain links to the College home page and to any related level 
IB and level II web pages. 

The official College home page shall include the College’s computer use policies, 
including the CUNY Internet Privacy Policy adapted for Lehman College. 

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2. Pages for College Entities (Level IB) 
A web page shall be maintained by or for each academic department and major 
administrative office of the College. A web page for each College institute, center, and 
other college-related entity may be maintained with the approval of the appropriate 
divisional dean or vice president. These pages should maintain links to the College 
home page and to any related level IB and level II web pages. The format of level IB 
web pages shall be established by the Office of Media Relations and Publications. 
Substantive content shall be the responsibility of the department chair or head of the 
office involved. 

3. Individual Faculty (level II) 
Faculty who wish to do so may create a supplemental web page [on the College 
network or linked to the College network] linked to their name on the departmental 
home page. Media Relations will create and maintain a limited supplemental web page 
until a content management system is in place, when departments will be able to 
manage this function. Faculty members who wish to have a more extensive 
supplemental page are invited to provide the address to their individual page home 
page, which will then be linked to their name on the departmental web page. 
Substantive content for the supplemental page is the responsibility of the faculty 
member, and the content must be consistent with these guidelines. The page should 
contain a link to the department home page. 

There must be a clear and explicit indication at the point of transition from the 
department home page to the individual faculty member’s supplemental page (level II). 
The indication must state explicitly that any opinions, views, or recommendations of any 
kind encountered on the faculty member’s page are not the policy of the College but the 
view of the faculty member, and a dialog box shall ask the user whether he or she 
wishes to continue. [“The views and opinions expressed on this page as well as any 

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links are those of the page developers and not necessarily those of Lehman College or 
The City University of New York.”]1 

4. Student Organizations (level III) 
A recognized student organization may create a home page that is linked to the 
Office of Campus Life with the approval of the Director of Campus Life. Substantive 
content for the student organization home page is the responsibility of the officers of the 
organization, and the content must be consistent with these guidelines and reviewed by 
the Director of Campus Life or his or her authorized representative for compliance with 
this and other pertinent policies. The page should contain a link to the Office of 
Campus Life home page. 

There must be a clear and explicit indication at the point of transition from the 
Office of Campus Life home page to the student organization home page (level III). The 
indication must explicitly state that any opinions, views, or recommendations of any kind 
encountered on the student organization’s page are not the policy of the College or the 
University but the view of the student organization, and a dialog box shall ask the user 
whether he or she wishes to continue. 
[“The views and opinions expressed on this page as well as any links are those of the 
page developers and not necessarily those of Lehman College or The City University of 
New York.”]1 

C. Web Page Guidelines 
Web pages are the equivalent of written publications and communications. 
These Guidelines exist to help creators of Web pages at Lehman College take 
advantage of the possibilities inherent in this communications tool, while avoiding 
potentially serious problems. Individual level IA units may have their own supplemental 

1 In Spring 2010, the format of the required “indication” was updated from a dialog box to an External Links 
Disclaimer posted in the footer of all College web pages. 

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guidelines for publishing organizational, instructional, and professional web pages. 
However, any supplemental guidelines are subject to these College guidelines, as well 
as applicable Federal, New York State, and New York City laws and regulations and 
City University regulations. 

1) Each web page must have a person designated who is responsible for its content 
(the author or content provider). The content provider is responsible for reviewing and 
updating the page periodically. Each page also must have a content administrator who 
is responsible for approving the page’s editorial and graphic content. For a level IA and 
level IB web page, the content provider must be an employee of Lehman College or, 
with the approval of the appropriate divisional dean or vice president, an employee of 
the College-related entity. For a level III web page, the content provider must be a 
current, registered Lehman College student who is a member of the student 
organization. All home screens of web pages, including faculty supplemental pages, 
must include clear identification of “Lehman College” and the sponsoring entity. 
2) Web pages on the Lehman College network are a reflection of the College. It is 
important for all contributors to ensure that their information is well-organized, accurate, 
and timely. Level I, II, and III home web pages must state the date on which they were 
last updated. 
3) Content providers are encouraged to use good judgment regarding the impact of the 
content of their pages on the audience that accesses the College’s web site. 
4) All web pages on the College network must adhere to all applicable Federal, New 
York State, and New York City laws and regulations and CUNY policies. 
5) Web pages on the College network may not be used for illegal or non-College 
commercial purposes. 
6) All web pages on the College network must adhere to all applicable copyright laws. 
Any unlawful use of copyrighted material by web pages on the College network is 
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prohibited. 

7) Web pages on the College network may not be used for personal for-profit activities. 
8) Web pages on the College network may not be used to support political candidates 
or political parties (with the exception of level III student organization clubs identified 
with a political party). 
9) Any use of a web page to conduct research that identifies or collects personal 
identifiers must adhere to accepted protocols on informed consent and must be 
approved in advance by the College’s Institutional Review Board. 
10) Content providers who select links are expected to use good judgment regarding 
the impact of the content of links on the audience that accesses the College’s web site. 
11) The College reserves the right to remove from or limit access to its network for 
content providers when applicable College or University policies, contractual 
obligations, or Federal, New York State, or New York City laws are violated, these 
guidelines are ignored, or a network malfunction is caused. If a web page is removed 
from the College network, the content provider must be notified and may appeal in 
writing within 10 days to the appeals committee which will decide the appeal after 
investigation. The appeals committee will consist of: (1) the Provost, (2) the Divisional 
Dean (of the faculty member who is filing the appeal), (3) the Vice President for 
Institutional Advancement, and (4) a tenured faculty member chosen by the President 
from among three tenured faculty members nominated by the College Senate. In the 
event of student organizational appeals, the Vice President for Student Affairs (rather 
than the Divisional Dean) will serve on the Appeals Committee. 
12) All content providers will be provided with a copy of these Guidelines by e-mail and 
must acknowledge receipt of the Guidelines. 
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13) Level IA and IB web pages will be copyrighted by the College. 
14) This policy shall not be interpreted so as to constitute interference with academic 
freedom. 
Dated: December 12, 2005 

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