This section outlines how content moves from request to publication, including locking policies and workflow steps.
1. Standard Workflow
To maintain accuracy and consistency, UNA uses a standardized content workflow:
- Intake – Content request submitted or initiated by EMDC
- Drafting – EMDC drafts/revises using web, accessibility, and brand standards
- Review – Academic or administrative units verify factual accuracy
- Approval – EMDC finalizes for clarity, accessibility, IA, and brand alignment
- Publishing – Web Team publishes in the CMS
- Notification – Units receive confirmation of updates
2. Content Lock Policy
High-risk or high-visibility pages are locked and editable only by EMDC or Web Team. These controls protect accuracy, compliance, accessibility, and brand integrity.
Locked content includes:
- Academic program pages
- Marketing and campaign content (admissions and recruitment content)
- Tuition, fees, and financial aid
- Primary navigation elements
- Templates, components, shared modules
- Compliance, accreditation, and policy pages
Content Request Process
- Submit request through designated channel (form, ticketing system, email)
- Include all necessary details: purpose, audience, deadline, approval contacts
- EMDC reviews request within 2 business days
- Timeline communicated based on complexity and queue
- Requester receives draft for factual review
- Final approval and publication
Planning Ahead: Complex content (new programs, major sections) requires 4-6 weeks lead time. Simple updates (text changes, image swaps) typically complete within 1 week.
Emergency Updates
For urgent, time-sensitive content (campus closures, safety alerts, critical corrections):
- Contact EMDC directly by phone or emergency contact
- Provide all necessary information and approval authorization
- EMDC prioritizes publication within hours
- Follow-up review conducted after emergency passes
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
Understanding expected turnaround times helps units plan effectively and ensures realistic timelines for web content and technical requests.
Business Hours & Request Timing: EMDC operates Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm CST (excluding weekends and university holidays). All requests require a minimum of 48 business hours for initial review and timeline communication. Requests received after 2:00pm on Friday will be reviewed on the following Monday.
Standard Turnaround Times
Turnaround times align with the three governance tiers outlined in the Governance & Decision-Making Framework:
- Routine Changes: 3-5 business days after initial review (e.g., text updates, image swaps, minor corrections)
- Moderate Changes: 1-2 weeks (requires consultation, approval, and coordination; e.g., new sections, navigation updates, form modifications)
- High-Impact Changes: 4-6 weeks minimum (requires leadership review, divisional approval, and extensive planning; e.g., new programs, major redesigns, custom functionality)
Capacity & Prioritization
EMDC is an understaffed university department with limited capacity. Timeline estimates factor in:
- Current project queue and workload
- Complexity and resource requirements
- Approval and review dependencies
- Competing priorities and institutional deadlines
- Availability of subject matter experts for consultation
Emergency Requests Require Advance Approval: True emergencies are limited to situations that pose immediate risk or legal obligation:
- Site outages preventing access to critical university information
- Security breaches or active vulnerabilities requiring immediate patching
- Legal/compliance violations requiring immediate correction (e.g., ADA lawsuit, FERPA breach)
- Safety-critical updates (campus closures, emergency alerts, health/safety advisories)
Service Scope & Support Boundaries
Understanding what EMDC supports—and what falls outside our scope—helps ensure requests are directed to the appropriate teams and resources.
What EMDC Supports
- The primary una.edu website and approved satellite sites managed through the official CMS
- Content published through approved university web platforms
- Accessibility, brand, and IA standards compliance
- Strategic digital communication guidance and consultation
- Initial technical guidance for affiliate sites (limited assistance only)
Affiliate Sites & Third-Party Platforms: While EMDC can provide initial guidance and limited technical assistance for affiliate sites (such as installing security plugins), ongoing support, content management, and maintenance remain the responsibility of the requesting unit. Affiliate sites—including those with una.edu subdomains—must be built and maintained by the requesting unit or their designated vendor.
What EMDC Does Not Support
- Affiliate sites built and managed by individual units or external vendors
- Third-party platforms and external systems (these should be supported by their respective providers)
- Websites built by external vendors (these remain the vendor's responsibility)
- Custom applications or databases outside the official web CMS
- Social media platform technical support (content strategy is supported)
Planning Affiliate Sites
Units planning affiliate sites should:
- Ensure they have the necessary resources, expertise, and commitment for long-term maintenance before deployment
- Validate maintenance expectations with EMDC before committing to stakeholders
- Understand that EMDC cannot provide ongoing support for sites we did not build or manage
- Budget for vendor support contracts if the site requires specialized maintenance
- Avoid making promises like "this will never need maintenance" without consulting technical staff
For custom development requests that fall outside standard support, consult the Customization & Development Requests guidelines.
Content Ownership
Units requesting content retain factual accuracy responsibility. EMDC retains responsibility for:
- Accessibility compliance
- Brand alignment
- Information architecture
- User experience
- Technical implementation