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Hi, Drupalites,

Let us start by thanking you for your contributions to your Drupal website and your patience with us during the current content freeze. We understand that this is an inconvenience. We would also like to thank you in advance for your continued patience as we share some important updates.

The Arrival of Drupal 9 Is Shifting; Soft Content Freeze Will Be Extended

The complexity and the sheer size of Kent State's web footprint is something we all understand! Because it is our digital front door to the university, our Division of Information Technology's web presence group and the Division of University Communications and Marketing's web team realize the importance of our roles as brand ambassadors. To ensure the best website quality we can when Drupal 9 arrives, the launch date has been delayed.

What Does This Mean to You?

1. The soft content freeze will be necessary beyond Saturday, Oct. 29.
2. At this time, we tentatively anticipate the soft content freeze to extend through Saturday, Nov. 5, at noon. 
3. If you must make changes during this timeframe:
   1. You will need to duplicate those changes in your new D9 website. 
   2. Keep a log of those changes so that you can replicate them, tentatively, after Nov. 5 at noon.
   3. Replicate any necessary changes, tentatively, after Nov. 5 at noon.
4. We will formalize the dates for the content freeze and Drupal cutover and share the details with you via email early next week.

Did You Know?

As part of this transition from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9, all content on is being migrated to a new environment. To frame the scope of the work, as of Sept. 30, the kent.edu domain was home to:

• 27,385 Drupal basic pages (published, excludes those in progress)
• 10,490 Drupal internal basic pages (published, excludes those in progress)
• 11,128 Drupal profiles & directorylListings (published, excludes those in progress))
• 20,025 Drupal articles (published, excludes those in progress))
• 351 Administrative sites 
• 223 Academic sites
• 49,682 Images and files
• What we've not listed above is event pages being migrated or the number of redirects and other behind the scenes items.

Other Reminders

• If you already have working time set aside during next week for traditional web work and edits, you could consider still using that time for web work - just with a different focus. It could be a good time to conduct a content audit during which you really spend time reviewing your content and/or reviewing your Google Analytics to see if they validate the goals of your website.
• The editing experience will be different and training options have been made available. Register today.
• Organizations worldwide are undertaking this transition because (by Drupal, not us).

Please email Lin Danes with any questions. She can help triage your inquiry with the team to find the answer you need.

Thank you, once again, for your patience and cooperation.

Web team 

Jared Boehm, Lead Application Developer
Lin Danes, Director of Web Services
Rob DiVincenzo, Senior Applications Developer
Doug Flower, Digital Accessibility Specialist, DoIT
Tyrone Fontaine, Web Designer
Alison Haynes, Digital Accessibility Compliance Coordinator, DoIT
Alex Herbers, Web Designer
Eddie Lampert, Student Web Support Specialist
Tim Priester, Web Designer & Services Lead
Michael Selinksy, Student Web Support Specialist
Sara Smith, Digital Strategist and Technologist