EIU Media Relations

University Newsletter

Coordinating Academic Website Updates

EIU Marketing & Communications is working through a significant number of website updates related to the beginning of the semester and the academic reorganization. We know it is important for our websites to accurately reflect EIU’s current structure, and we appreciate your patience as we address these changes as quickly as our capacity allows.

Our web team currently includes two developers, whose work is focused primarily on applications and web development, and two web specialists who complete most content updates and site moves manually. These four staff members serve the entire University, supporting the website and web-related needs of academic, student support and administrative areas across campus in addition to this academic work.

Updating the full academic web presence is also part of the Strategic Enrollment Plan, with work scheduled throughout the academic year. While we will prioritize inaccurate, outdated, or time-sensitive information, broader site reorganizations and improvements will take additional time.

You can help us complete this work more efficiently by coordinating within your department, school, college, or other academic area before submitting a request. We have received multiple requests from the same areas that include conflicting information or different plans. When that happens, we must pause the work to determine which direction has been approved, and we may need to redo changes that have already been made.

Below, you will find some helpful information and tips.

Requesting a Site Move or Update

Before requesting a site move or significant update, please:

• Confirm the proposed changes with the appropriate department, school, and college leadership.
• Designate one person to coordinate the request whenever possible.
• Provide final, internally approved content rather than multiple drafts or separate sets of instructions.
• Identify any information that is inaccurate or time-sensitive, along with the date by which it is needed.
• Clarify which existing pages should remain, be revised, be redirected, or be removed.
• Submit the request through the Marketing & Communications job request form, rather than emailing an individual team member. This creates a record of the request, makes it visible to the full team, and allows someone else to respond if the usual contact is unavailable.

Confirm/Update Your Area's Info

It would also be extremely helpful for each academic area to provide an updated organizational chart or similar overview that identifies:

• The official name of your department/area
• Current departments, schools, programs, and leadership structure
• Department chairs, school directors, deans, associate deans, and other primary contacts
• The person responsible for coordinating website content
• The primary marketing and communications contact
• The primary admissions or recruitment contact

Having this information will allow us to develop a coordinated plan for each academic area rather than addressing individual requests piecemeal and potentially having to revise the same work more than once.

Majors/Minors Database + Program Page Upgrades

As we complete the updated majors/minors database, much of the prospective-student content related to academic programs, admissions, and recruitment will be managed through the new program pages. Department and school websites can then focus more heavily on information for current students, faculty, staff, and other internal audiences.

Josh Norman and Josh Northam have met with nearly every academic area to discuss these upgrades, and a meeting with one remaining area will be scheduled soon, so it is likely you are aware of those upgrades, but if you have any questions about it, please reach out to me or one of The Joshes™.

Job Request Form

Please use the job request form for all new website projects and updates, even if you have previously worked directly with someone in Marketing & Communications. Once the request has been assigned, you can continue working with that team member as needed.

If you have submitted a request and have not received a timely response, contact me at ckilgore@eiu.edu so I can follow up.

Thank you for helping us coordinate this work!