Sul Ross State University
A Member of the Texas State University System

Starting a Personal Web Site (Employees)

Getting Started

Any full-time employee of Sul Ross State University may start a personal web site at faculty.sulross.edu. To request server space and an FTP account, complete the Request for Personal Web Site Setup and submit it to the webmaster. The webmaster will complete the setup and provide the necessary access information.

Before requesting setup, individuals should read the Web Publishing Guidelines in the Administrative Policy Manual as well as the guidelines set out in the request form. Reading the Employee Web Site FAQs is also recommended.

Each individual is responsible for the maintenance of his or her own site, and requests for a personal web site should not be made for the individual by anyone else. Logins and passwords may not be shared with another person.

Creating and Posting Web Pages

Each person requesting a site is expected to have the skills and software to maintain it. Nobody else, including a member of OIT, may maintain a personal web site for any individual. The webmaster will assist with general troubleshooting as needed.

OIT has created Dreamweaver templates that faculty and staff members may use for their personal web sites. Use of templates is not required, but it is useful for employees who are not interested in web design or do not have time to develop designs of their own. Further information may be found at faculty.sulross.edu/designs.

Pages are posted to the web via FTP. The webmaster will set up this account when the request for a web site is set up. For more about FTP, see the Employee Web Site FAQs.

Web Site Content

Appropriate content for personal web sites includes personal information such as a vita, family information, hobbies or interests, professional publications, articles, research and supplemental material for classes.

Content that should not be posted includes any material that would be considered illegal, content that violates state or university policy and pages for commercial activities. Student information that is restricted by FERPA and other privacy laws should never be posted on any public web page.

Official functions and information for SRSU should be included on the university's official sites (www.sulross.edu and rgc.sulross.edu), not on an individual's web site. Degree plans, class schedules, forms for conducting university business and other such content should only appear on personal webs as a secondary source of information.

Due to the increasing number of laws and regulations governing Internet security and the protection of personal information, no individual should post forms or applications that collect or store any personal information.

Policies and Guidelines

While the Web Publishing Guidelines in the Administrative Policy Manual comprise the primary policy document, several other SRSU policies are relevant to personal web sites. These include the:

• Acceptable Use Policy
• Accessibility Policy
• Intellectual Property Rights Policy
• Links Policy
• Privacy and Security Policy

Links to IT policies may be found from the OIT home page.

Technical Assistance

Employees should contact the webmaster if they have trouble with an FTP account or encounter page problems they cannot resolve. If the webmaster is unavailable, call the OIT Help Desk at ext. 8765.