Roles & Responsibilities
Shared Governance of the SHSU Website
Managing the SHSU web presence is a shared effort. Content authority is distributed across departments and divisions, with Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) providing strategic oversight and final approval on brand and quality standards. Understanding your role in this structure helps ensure content stays accurate, consistent, and aligned with university goals.
Governance Roles
Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
IMC holds ultimate authority over Sam Houston State University's digital web presence. This includes setting the strategic direction, enforcing brand standards, and maintaining the integrity of the university's online identity.
Scope of Authority
- University homepage
- High-level landing pages (About, Academics, Campus Life, etc.)
- Overall website structure and navigation
- Brand guidelines for all university web properties
Key Responsibilities
- Maintain and update content on key marketing-focused pages
- Ensure consistency in branding and messaging across all university web properties
- Oversee the strategic direction of the university's digital presence
- Collaborate with departments to align their web content with overall marketing strategies
- Provide stewardship, communication, and enforcement of SHSU's web standards, policies, and practices
- Approve major changes to website structure or design
- Monitor and analyze website performance metrics to inform digital strategy
- Coordinate university-wide web initiatives and campaigns
- Develop new website features and components
- Oversee the overall user access and permission structure in the CMS
- Provide guidance on best practices for managing divisional content and user access
Individual Departments and Divisions
Each department and division is responsible for creating and maintaining their own web content within the boundaries established by IMC. This distributed model keeps information accurate, timely, and relevant at the unit level.
Scope of Authority
- Department and division-specific web pages
- Academic program information
- Faculty and staff profiles
- Department-specific news and events
Key Responsibilities
- Create and maintain content relevant to their area
- Ensure content adheres to university brand guidelines and web standards
- Regularly review and update information
- Coordinate with IMC for major changes or new initiatives
- Manage content within their assigned taxonomies in the CMS
- Coordinate with their Web Committee representative for user access changes or cross-divisional content needs
For a quick-reference list of key operational and governance responsibilities, visit
Governance: Website Responsibility Matrix
CMS User Roles
Each role carries escalating levels of access and responsibility. Your department is responsible for requesting the appropriate role on your behalf. CMS access will only be granted after the successful completion of the required training.
Full access to the entire CMS. Administrators can create, modify, delete, and restore content, and can modify system-wide configurations for all core and module-based features. This role carries the most authority and the most risk.
Reserved for IMC and select IT roles
Publishers can publish content in the CMS and have limited authority to configure features. They can create, modify, delete, and restore content, and are responsible for publishing work submitted by editors and approvers.
Publishers are responsible for ensuring content meets SHSU web, brand, and accessibility standards.
Recommended for: Division designates
Editors have access to area-specific content and cannot configure CMS features. They can create and modify content as assigned by role-based permissions, approve content submitted by contributors, and escalate drafts for publisher review. Editors cannot publish their own content without approval from a Publisher or Administrator.
Recommended for: Department leaders, administrative area representatives
CMS Access
CMS access is requested through the IMC Website Request form. When submitting a request, a department head or designated authority should specify the appropriate user role for the individual. IMC will review the request and coordinate the onboarding process.
Access is not granted until required training is completed. Depending on the assigned role, personnel may need to complete multiple training sessions before receiving full permissions to their area of the website. Periodic refresher training may also be required, particularly when training materials are significantly updated.
IMC reserves the right to remove CMS access to users who violate website policies and standards or users who have been inactive for extended periods of time. Removed users will need to submit a request for access and may need to complete the training before their status can be restored.
Editing and Publisher Workflow
Roles are enforced through designated permissions and CMS workflows.
A person may have more than one role. For example, designated college communicators are publishers for their college's department pages and editors for program pages.
CMS Workflows are a series of prescribed steps to pass content changes from editors to the appropriate publisher for review and publication.
Faculty/Staff Profiles
Profile pages for faculty and staff are the responsibility of department web editors. Each department determines its own internal process for keeping profiles current, including whether to designate a specific editor as a profiles point person. Department responsibilities include adding profile pages, deleting former employee profile pages, and maintaining current employee profiles.
Faculty profile pages embed academic information from the faculty member's profile page. It is each individual faculty member's responsibility to update their Watermark profile.
Accessibility
Maintaining accessible websites is a shared responsibility of everyone who edits, publishes, or provides content for SHSU websites.
Formal responsibilities are outlined on the accessibility governance page.
Personal Responsibility
SHSU employees are responsible for adhering to SHSU web policies and standards. The SHSU website will be routinely audited by communications partners and IMC personnel.
SHSU employees who attempt to circumvent systems designed to enforce web policies and standards will be considered in violation of university policy and may face disciplinary action. These systems include CMS limitations such as character limits and workflows, security configurations, and content restrictions.
Key Takeaways
- Web governance is a shared responsibility. IMC sets the strategic direction and brand standards, while individual departments and divisions are responsible for creating and maintaining their own content within those boundaries.
- IMC has final authority. The university homepage, top-level landing pages, overall site structure, and brand guidelines all fall under IMC's oversight. Major changes to website structure or design require IMC approval.
- Departments own their corner of the site. Each unit manages its own pages, program information, faculty profiles, and department news, but must stay within university brand and content standards.
- CMS access is role-based. Roles govern who can author, approve, and publish content. Departments are responsible for requesting the right role for their team members, and a single person may hold more than one role.
- Workflows keep content accountable. Pages move through a structured review process from editors to publishers before going live, ensuring content is reviewed before publication.
- Profile pages are the department's responsibility. Each department determines its own internal process for keeping profiles current
- Circumventing web policies has consequences. All SHSU employees are expected to follow web standards. Attempts to work around CMS limitations, workflows, or security configurations are considered policy violations and may result in disciplinary action.
Related Guidance
Updated 6/15/26