CampusPress Hosting Policy

JMU Libraries offers WordPress hosting to JMU faculty and staff through its vendor, CampusPress. All sites should support the mission of JMU.

Faculty and staff interested in creating a CampusPress website should complete the CampusPress Site Request Form. Before doing so, please review the policy information on this page in its entirety.

We also recommend reviewing the CampusPress Guidelines and Recommendations for planning considerations and best practices, and the User-Contributed Content in JMU Libraries Systems policy for content, copyright, licensing, and contributor requirements that are extended by the CampusPress-specific requirements outlined on this page.

JMU Libraries will regularly review and update this policy to reflect changes in technologies, legal requirements, and university needs.

Scope

Permitted Uses

JMU Libraries’ CampusPress installation is a web publishing platform for materials that support teaching, learning, and scholarship. The following uses of CampusPress are encouraged:

• Classroom and lab collaborations.
• Research projects and scholarly initiatives.

Not Permitted Uses

CampusPress is not available for the following:

• JMU college, school, department, and academic program websites. Official web presences for JMU departments should be hosted on Cascade, the university’s content management system.
• Student portfolios and other personal websites for students.
• We recommend platforms such as Weebly, Wix, or WordPress.com, so the student can have full control over their work. We are happy to consult with you to identify the best platform. Please fill out our Consultation Request Form to request help in investigating these items.
• Student organization websites. JMU Student Affairs offers web publishing support for student organizations through BeInvolved.
• Hosting of sensitive or confidential data. See JMU Policy 1205 for more information about the handling of sensitive and confidential data.
• Web development work that requires the WordPress theme editor, a custom theme or child theme, FTP access, or other direct code-level file access.
• Websites without a JMU-affiliated site owner.
• Websites requiring long-term curation and preservation (e.g. student theses and dissertations), unless formal arrangements are made with Libraries in advance of site creation.
• Faculty and staff professional web presences (e.g. portfolios, CVs, etc.).
• Faculty and staff who wish to maintain a scholarly or professional web presence separate from JMU may wish to consider a third-party platform such as ORCiD, LinkedIn, or Google Scholar so that they have greater control over the content and can port the content over time as their career and needs change.

Strong consideration should be given to host the following web sites on the official JMU web site rather than CampusPress, as the mission of the official JMU web site is to communicate and promote JMU to external audiences:

• JMU-affiliated programs.
• JMU-sponsored conferences and events (conference proceedings can be managed and published in JMU Scholarly Commons).

However, in support of partnerships or specific site design needs, exceptions may be made. Please contact DSDC-wordpress@jmu.edu for more information or select “Digital Projects” on our Consultation Request Form.

Publicly accessible CampusPress sites about JMU-affiliated programs, conferences, and events should conform to the JMU Brand Guide for Websites, and all publicly accessible CampusPress sites should consider at least minimal JMU branding.

Visit our CampusPress Guidelines and Recommendations page for more information.

Lifespan

All CampusPress websites must have an anticipated lifespan identified during the site request process, including sites intended to remain available long-term or “indefinitely.”.

JMU Libraries will regularly review hosted websites and will, at minimum every five years, contact site owners to confirm continued use and determine whether the website should remain active.

Site owners are responsible for maintaining their website content throughout the life of the project.

Website content is not guaranteed to be preserved, archived, or migrated to future platforms unless formal preservation arrangements have been made with JMU Libraries. CampusPress provides limited export capabilities, and it may not be possible to preserve websites with full fidelity or move them to other systems.

Requirements, Roles, and Responsibilities of Site Owners

JMU Libraries

JMU Libraries provides:

• Initial CampusPress site creation.
• Access to documentation and training resources.
• Technical support for the CampusPress platform.

For classroom collaborations, digital scholarship projects, and research initiatives, additional consultation and project support may be available. Contact DSDC-wordpress@jmu.edu for more information or select “Digital Projects” on our Consultation Request Form.

JMU Libraries does not create, edit, publish, or manage website content on behalf of site owners.

Site Owners

Each site has a single “site owner” who is the person that serves as JMU Libraries’ primary contact.

Please note: CampusPress uses JMU authentication for user accounts. As a result, only users with active JMU eIDs can be added as contributors to CampusPress websites. External collaborators who do not have JMU eIDs cannot be added as contributors.

The site owner is responsible for all the following requirements:

• Be a current JMU faculty or staff member with an active eID.
• Monitor their JMU email address and respond to CampusPress-related communications in a timely manner.
• Coordinate decision-making among co-owners and other contributors, when applicable.
• Oversee all website content, including its creation, management, publication, and maintenance. While site owners may grant other users permission to create or publish content, they are ultimately responsible for ensuring that all contributors comply with applicable JMU and JMU Libraries policies.
• Regularly review and maintain the website, including updating outdated content and repairing or removing broken links.
• If the website contains graded student work, retain copies of that work outside of CampusPress. JMU Libraries cannot guarantee that websites will remain available or unchanged over time and cannot ensure that content will exist in the same form in the event of a grade dispute.
• Before leaving JMU, contact JMU Libraries at DSDC-wordpress@jmu.edu to arrange for the website to be transferred to another eligible JMU faculty or staff member, or deleted. If a new site owner cannot be identified, or if JMU Libraries determines during a routine review that the designated site owner is no longer affiliated with the university and no ownership transfer has been arranged, JMU Libraries reserves the right to delete the website.

Compliance with Other Policies

CampusPress sites must comply with all applicable JMU and JMU Libraries policies, including:

• Accessibility: All CampusPress sites must comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and any other applicable laws pertaining to digital accessibility. See JMU Policy 1211 for institutional accessibility requirements and JMU’s Digital Accessibility page for more information and guidance on implementation. Site owners are responsible for ensuring their websites meet these legal requirements.
• User-Contributed Content: Site owners and content contributors must comply with the User-Contributed Content in JMU Libraries Systems policy. By creating or uploading content to a CampusPress site, contributors acknowledge, to the best of their knowledge, that they have the necessary rights or permissions to publish that content. See the User-Contributed Content in JMU Libraries Systems policy and JMU Policy 1107 for more information regarding copyright, licensing, acceptable content, contributor responsibilities, and content takedown requests.
• Human Subjects Research: Projects involving human subjects conducted through a CampusPress site must comply with applicable JMU Institutional Review Board (IRB) requirements. Questions about whether your project requires IRB review should be directed to JMU’s Office of Research Integrity & Compliance before publishing content online.
  • If formal IRB review is not required, site owners must still obtain appropriate informed consent from all participants before hosting or publishing content online. Consent forms must clearly explain how the content will be used, where it will be published, whether it will be publicly accessible, and how it will be licensed. Unless otherwise specified or third-party copyright applies, content published through JMU Libraries systems is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) license in accordance with the User-Contributed Content in JMU Libraries Systems policy.
• Comments: If comments are enabled on a public CampusPress website, anonymous comments are not permitted. CampusPress sites are configured by default to require commenters to provide a name and email address, and site owners must not modify this setting to allow anonymous comments. Site owners are responsible for moderating comments and responding appropriately to complaints about content. See the CampusPress Guidelines and Recommendations for more information on using website comments and visitor interaction.
• Other Applicable University Policies: CampusPress sites and their users must comply with applicable JMU Computing Policies. These policies govern the appropriate use, security, and management of university computing and information technology resources. See the JMU Computing Policies for complete requirements.