Web Steering Committee

Membership

Objective
The primary objective of the Web Steering Committee is to provide collaborative centralized governance for the ongoing development, deployment, delivery, and maintenance of the NIU.edu domain and to consistently represent the Northern Illinois University brand online through standard processes, roles, responsibilities and practices.

Our guiding principles for web governance of the NIU.edu domain are:

• All sites should be audience-centered (student first) and consistently use the NIU brand
• All sites should have a content strategy that features intuitive architecture that leads to current and relevant content that is optimized for search engines.

Governance Structure
It is the responsibility of the Web Steering Committee to set the direction and policies for the university’s website through the university’s Web Standards Guide (go.niu.edu/webstandards).

The committee is comprised of a group of page masters and content directors from every college/division on campus. The group meets once every quarter.

Throughout the year, the Web Steering Committee and other web visitors are invited to bring ideas, requests, problems, and concerns to the Web Steering Committee – either through meetings or the committee’s O365 group.

The Office of Web & Internal Communications will update the Web Steering Committee on project plans. The Web Steering Committee will then disseminate that information to their staff and department members.

The committee will continually look at opportunities to communicate relevant information to appropriate audiences and take input from academic and administrative stakeholders.

Responsibilities
In response to the needs of web visitors, provide oversight of and set strategic direction for niu.edu

• Establish appropriate policies, processes, and procedures to govern current and future website standards
• Evaluate effectiveness, content, standards, and policies for technology and editorial components
• Suggest global changes to taxonomy, structure, branding, look and feel, navigation, styling, etc. as needed
• Ensure compliance with all legal and regulatory standards, including accessibility, security, etc.
• Ensure site quality and content integrity
• Recommend additional templates or changes to existing templates
• Facilitate and resolve non-compliance issues

Web Steering Committee 

*chair