Website Services Overview

NMU offers website development assistance to members of the university community who create unit, departmental or other university webpages. These services are offered through University Marketing and Communications. Specifically, we are responsible for:

  • Driving website traffic from targeted external audiences and providing accurate, engaging web content.
  • Engaging the campus community in a cooperative effort to make effective use of the internet as a communications and marketing tool.
  • Design and development of the university's official website, calendar and subsites.
  • Establishing and maintaining up-to-date guidelines for publishing official and unofficial information on university-owned internet servers.
  • Providing periodic review of the official web pages.

Organizational units are responsible for creating and maintaining their own web pages. We can help ensure that your web publications are accessible and follow NMU policies. We can also help in creating web forms that can have submitted data sent to a valid NMU email account or written to a database, spreadsheet or text file.

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Website Resources

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Drupal CMS Training

UMC is responsible the upkeep of Northern's official website and subsites. NMU uses Drupal as its online content management system for website administration. Individuals can request access to their department's website to make modifications. In order to gain access, individuals must attend a training with a University Marketing and Communications staff member.

This training, held remotely through Zoom technology, will provide an overview of the content management system and how to create, edit, and maintain content on your site. UMC understands that the training contains a high volume of information, so we've created a resource guide for editors to use.

NMU Webpage Requirements

Official Information/Pages/Sites: Web pages published by or about NMU

  • divisions
  • departments
  • offices
  • centers
  • programs
  • projects
  • committees, or
  • courses

are considered official pages, presenting official information about the university.

Unofficial Information/Pages/Sites: Web pages published by or about NMU

  • bargaining units
  • student organizations
  • individual faculty, student or staff members

are considered unofficial pages, presenting unofficial information about the university.

Northern Michigan University does not edit, screen, monitor or censor unofficial information and does not accept liability for unofficial information. Unofficial publishers are solely responsible for the content of information they post, even if such information is accessed through NMU servers. Northern Michigan University retains the right to purge unofficial pages that do not adhere to this policy or that violate any local, state or federal laws. For more information, see the university Web site disclaimer.

All content must be consistent with Northern Michigan University policies and local, state, and federal laws.

No advertising of any sort for products or services outside of the university can appear on any official university page without permission from the university Web managers.

Copyright laws apply to electronic publications as well as to printed publications. Official and unofficial page publishers must have permission to publish the text or graphic matter on their pages if the publisher is not the author or creator.

Official homepages must include:

  • the words "Northern Michigan University" in the title bar of each official home page. For example: University Marketing and Communications at Northern Michigan University.
  • the text: Northern Michigan University is an equal opportunity institution.

Other official pages (including home page) must include:

  • either a title related to page content or the name of the publishing unit. For example: University Marketing and Communications Staff.
  • name or active e-mail link to the individual who is responsible for the page.
  • the date of the last update.
  • a link to the university home page at http://www.nmu.edu, and a link back to the official home page.
  • the copyright statement: © 1999 (or current year) by the Board of Trustees of Northern Michigan University. You may link to the Board of Trustees site at http://www.nmu.edu/board

Any official pages or sites found to not be compliant with the required items listed above will be notified of the items that must be added and will be expected to add them in a timely manner. Failure to do so may result in removing the link to that site from the official university website.

All unofficial pages should have:

  • the name and e-mail address of the page owner.
  • the date of the last update.
  • a link to the official university Web site disclaimer. or, you may enter the disclaimer text: "The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by Northern Michigan University."

The university does not edit or censor unofficial pages; however, unofficial pages that by design or content appear to present official information about the university may be purged from the university's servers.

Official home pages may not link directly to personal or unofficial pages. If approved by the head of the publishing unit, official pages below homepage level may contain links to faculty, staff or student personal pages.

Publishers of unofficial pages are encouraged to identify their connection to Northern Michigan University, and are allowed to use the official university signature, or logo. Publishers using the signature must present it in its normal form; no editing, changing, or modifying the signature will be allowed. Unofficial pages which use an edited or changed signature may be purged from the university servers.

Again, all page publishers, official or unofficial, are required to follow Northern Michigan University policies as well as all applicable federal, state and local laws including copyright laws.