Hi, Drupalites,
Fall semester is in full gear! With it comes our first round of updates that will impact many of your websites.
Update Alumni Statistic on Your Site Three Times Per Year, Other Data Points Too
If your site contains the number of Kent State alumni, those numbers must be updated three times per year - once after each commencement. The current number should say “the worldwide alumni family exceeds 273,500.”
Please note:
- In October, the number will need to be updated to reflect our summer 2023 graduates. The new number should be available in late September. When you make this update please use a freshness reminder set for early October to remind you to make the next update.
- Other facts and figures require regular updates so that you build credibility with our website visitors. UCM oversees a facts and figures repository with all of these data points. If you are updating any data points, awards or rankings on your pages, please verify that the information your department is using and this repository match because this is the source that is used for leadership presentations, multiple publications and references across ;
Please remember to use freshness reminders often and on all pages where dates, semesters, data points need regular updates. Don’t know how? Ask us!
Academic Website Webmasters - Have You Started Your Program Page Integration?
A first round of consultations with academic department webmasters to tackle the academic program page project is well underway - and much work has been done. Your colleagues who have gotten started with this project are excited with their progress to date. Remember, even though this is a required project, the end results will be a win-win situation for those with web update responsibilities and our prospective students who rely on this information to make their program selections as they embark upon their academic journey at Kent State. It also helps us meet legal requirements from the Department of Education.
- Find out how to get started.
- How can you tell if your site is impacted? Read our last email.
FAQ Content Type Will be Sunsetted
We are in the process of deprecating the FAQ content type. In the future, FAQ accordion sections will be handled using Internal Basic Pages rather than a separate content type.
If you have an FAQ section using the FAQ content type, you can still create new entries by cloning an existing node. However, if you want to build a new FAQ accordion section, please use Internal Basic Pages instead.
The Twitter Logo Has Officially Changed - What Needs Changed on Your Website?
Twitter has rebranded as “X,” complete with a new logo. In the near future, the web team will replace the logo in the footers and anywhere else it’s automatically generated on sites. However, If your pages have any Twitter logos in the bodies of pages or tabs or other sections, you will need to replace those on your own.
Copy Changes: FlashAlerts
Effective Oct. 5, FlashAlerts will no longer require university community members to subscribe. Instead, everyone will automatically added into the system with the ability to unsubscribe from campuses for which they do not want to receive text alert notifications. A larger communication plan is coming.
In the meantime, if you are referencing FlashAlerts and telling individuals that they need to subscribe, please remove any detailed copy and continue linking to the FlashAlerts page. The copy on that page will be updated on the morning of Oct. 5 to reflect this new approach and actions that may need to be taken. Web team has tried to edit most pages on this topic, but we may have missed a handful.
Other Copy & Link Changes: DEI, Research, Kent State Online
As stewards of content on and its websites, you need to be aware of upcoming changes and make adjustments, as they impact content on many of your websites:
- The Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has changed to the Division of People, Culture and Belonging. UCM will be sharing update needs in the near future. In the meantime, please consider identifying your own updates. Reminder: references may appear in employee profiles.
- The Division of Research and Sponsored Programs has changed its name to The Division of Research and Economic Development. Web team attempted to adjust most mentions of the full name and the initialized version on your web pages. However, if you see any we missed, please change:
- Division of Research and Sponsored Programs to Division of Research and Economic Development
- RASP to RAED
- The pages for Keep On Learning, Keep On Teaching, Online Learning and Online Teaching have now been combined into Kent State Online.
Please adjust all text and link mentions of those four pages to reflect this change and keep that in mind moving forward
As always, thank you for your continued contributions to your Drupal website,
Web Team
Amy Balsinger, Application Developer
Jared Boehm, Senior Manager, Digital Enterprise Solutions
Lin Danes, Executive Director of Digital Communications (Web Services)
Rob DiVincenzo, Senior Applications Developer
Tyrone Fontaine, Web Designer
Alex Herbers, Web Designer
Eddie Lampert, Student Web Support Specialist
Tim Priester, Web Designer & Services Lead
Michael Selinksy, Student Web Support Specialist