Website Accounts

Platforms

Lafayette offers two types of web hosting services: sites hosted on a WordPress content management system, and static sites hosted through GitHub Campus. Websites must be used in accordance with the College’s Acceptable Use Policy, and Information Technology Services (ITS) reserves the right to limit the use of technologies that might compromise the security and integrity of the College’s IT resources.

Websites can be requested for:

• Departments/Offices
• College committees
• Student organizations
• Personal sites
• Events
• Courses/Class projects

Requests for websites should be made using the Website Request form. The individual designated as the site administrator will be contacted within three business days with information about the account.

Website Types

How a site is designed and developed, its web address, and how it will be linked to from the College website depend on the site’s function.

• Departments/Offices: Official divisions, departments, programs, and offices will be provided with a WordPress theme that conveys the site’s official College affiliation. The sites have Lafayette subdomain web address (e.g., engineering.lafayette.edu, govlaw.lafayette.edu) and are hosted on forge.lafayette.edu.
• Student organizations/College committees: Sites for student organizations and College committees are expected to represent the organization as a whole. Although pages on the site may be developed by any member(s) of the organization, the organization president or committee chair will be responsible for all content. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and will have addresses that identify the organization or committee (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/asb, sites.lafayette.edu/squash).
• Personal pages: Sites that represent a student’s or employee’s personal and academic interests are the creative expressions of the authors. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and have addresses that include the Lafayette NetID (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/ballyc).
• Events: Sites can be requested for one-time or recurring events. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and have addresses that identify the event (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/stemconference).
• Courses/Class projects: Faculty members may request websites for courses and/or class projects independent of your Moodle course site. An entire class, groups, or individuals can be given access to a site’s administrative tools. These sites reside on sites.lafayette.edu and have addresses that identify the course (e.g., sites.lafayette.edu/eng240-fa19). Faculty members requesting sites for courses and class projects will be contacted by an Instructional Technologist who can consult about site development.

Getting Help

A collection of help documents on how to get the most out of (and into) your website is available on the Help website.

Site Retention

We encourage you to keep the content on your site updated and fresh. If you have not updated your site for over a year, ITS will reach out to ensure that you want to retain your site. Please see the Archiving, Renaming, and Redirecting Websites policy for more information.