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Naming Conventions and URLs for Guide Pages
Guide page titles and URL conventions follow the academic structure set-up as approved by faculty governance and implemented via the Student Information System. The following rules minimize the repetition of names where used on multiple levels, when appropriate. Prepositions, conjunctions etc. are not used in the Guide page URLs.
The original rules were approved by ACPRAC on August 31, 2017.
The general URL convention is: guide.wisc.edu/[career]/[school/college]/[department]/[plan]/[subplan]/
Policy
Lumen/Guide – Guide Content
Policy Number
UW-1089Responsible Office
Office of the RegistrarType
University PolicyRationale/Purpose
Lumen is the gateway for faculty, staff, and governance bodies to propose, update, track and/or approve academic and curricular information at UW-Madison. As a large and complex organization, it is imperative the campus community follow consistent rules when utilizing the Lumen suite of tools for publication to the Guide.
Policy
Academic Programs in the Guide
All active academic programs that award credentials during the academic year for which the Guide is published must be represented with a page in the Guide. Academic ownership and hierarchy, as reflected in academic structure, defines what is in the Guide, where it is located, and how it is presented to the public.
New academic programs and credentials are to be added to the Guide in alignment with publication deadlines only after full governance approval is complete.
Academic programs that are approved for a future academic year may be published in alignment with publication deadlines, and can include limited information about the program in promotional pages.
Discontinued academic programs are only removed with the publication of a new Guide (in June) regardless of the term for which they are inactivated.
New, suspended, or discontinued elements of the academic structure (subject listings, plans, subplans) must include standard text about start and end dates.
Courses in the Guide
All active for-credit courses are to be published in the Guide.
General Publication Standards
All governed and non-governed content for the Guide must be submitted by the publication deadlines. Governed content is subject to campus deadlines for approvals, and may be subject to UW-System, Higher Learning Commission (HLC), and/or State Legislature for approval.
The Guide is published in June before the start of the academic year to support advising and student needs, however, midcycle updates in October or January occur to reflect new courses and course changes effective for spring semester or summer term, and/or to resolve egregious errors.
These midcycle updates, if not corrected, adversely impact students by delaying implementation of changes to the next Guide publication in June.
As the single source of truth, the Guide must be a stable and reliable resource that any advisor or current or prospective student can reference for an entire academic year. Any revision to the Guide during the academic year is expected to be minimal.
If a change to a course in an academic program becomes necessary during the academic year, e.g., change in subject listing, creation of a new course, or discontinuation of a course, the academic unit that owns the program is responsible for making updates to the program in Lumen Programs so that specific courses referenced in Requirements, Admissions/How to Get in, and Four-Year Plans match the current status of a course in the course catalog for the given term.
Midcycle updates to courses must precede the release of the Schedule of Classes. Changes to courses after the release of the Schedule of Classes for the given term are not permitted.
To maintain the integrity of the Guide, no pages are to be deleted in mid-cycle updates. If a plan/subplan is discontinued, the Office of the Registrar will add standard text to the Overview and How to Get in/Admissions sections of the Guide indicating the program is no longer accepting students.
Tabs
Tabs are a structured way to separate content on a page in the Guide into smaller pieces. Each section of the Guide (undergraduate, graduate/professional, non-degree) has a defined set of tabs which contain both governed and non-governed content. Governed tabs, if applicable, are required. Non-governed tabs are not to duplicate content that exists on governed tabs. Revision to content on tabs must follow publication guidelines and deadlines.
The creation, deletion or name revision of tabs requires submission of a proposal to and approval by the Lumen Sponsors in consultation with the Lumenaries, Guide Coordinators, and appropriate governance bodies. Once approved, implementation will take effect with the publication of a new Guide edition (June publication).
Related UW–Madison Documents, Web Pages, or Other Resources
Language for New or Discontinued Programs
Procedures for Promotional Pages
Naming Conventions and URLS for Guide Pages Procedures
Approval Authority
Associate Vice Provost and University RegistrarPolicy Manager
Associate Vice Provost and University RegistrarContact
Associate University Registrar for Academic Services -- Will Lipske, will.lipske@wisc.edu, (608) 890-2089Effective Date
05-30-2023Source: View policy UW-1089 in the UW-Madison Policy Library
Rules
Level 1 (Career)
The convention uses the career (not specific to individual school or college name) and is denoted by the first set of slashes after guide.wisc.edu.
URL structure
guide.wisc.edu/career/
Requirements
-
- Approved by the University Academic Planning Council to offer academic plans.
- Have an active row in the SIS table: ACAD_CAR_TBL
Current careers in Guide
-
- guide.wisc.edu/graduate/
- guide.wisc.edu/law/
- guide.wisc.edu/medicine/
- guide.wisc.edu/nondegree/
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/
- guide.wisc.edu/pharmacy/
- guide.wisc.edu/veterinary/
Level 2 (School/Colleges, Academic Groups)
The convention is for the undergraduate career and uses the academic organization and is denoted by the second set of slashes after guide.wisc.edu. This level is for the school or college in the undergraduate career.
The Graduate School and the "professional" schools (Law, Medicine and Public Health, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine) do not not include this level in the URL.
URL structure
guide.wisc.edu/career/school-college/
Requirements
-
- Has departments/department-like units owning plans/subplans.
- Offers academic awards (plans/subplans)
- Have an active row in the SIS table: ACAD_GROUP_TBL
Examples
-
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/agricultural-life-sciences/
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/engineering/
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/nursing/
Level 3 (Departments, Academic Organizations)
The convention uses the academic organization/department and is denoted by the third set of slashes after guide.wisc.edu for the undergraduate career, and the second set of slashes for the graduate/professional careers. These pages do not have a displayable list that is readily find-able to end users; they hare found via the "breadcrumbs" located at the top of the page under the red bar.
URL structure
guide.wisc.edu/career/school-college/department/
Requirements
-
- Offer academic awards (plans/subplans)
- Have an active row in the SIS table: ACAD_ORG_TBL
Examples
-
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/letters-science/atmospheric-oceanic-sciences/
- guide.wisc.edu/graduate/atmospheric-oceanic-sciences/
- guide.wisc.edu/medicine/medicine-public-health-school-wide/
Level 4 (Degrees, majors, certificates, BSE minors, PhD minors)
The convention uses the academic plan and is denoted by the fourth set of slashes after guide.wisc.edu for the undergraduate career, and the third set of slashes for the graduate/professional careers.
URL structure
guide.wisc.edu/career/school-college/department/plan/
Requirements
-
- Have an active row in the SIS table: ACAD_PLAN_TBL with a plan type:
- degree/majors (MAJ)
- graduate/education minors (MIN)
- certificate (CRT)
- capstone certificate (CAP)
- school/college honors (HON)
- Exclusions:
- No major codes, temporary readmit, intended major, and additional major plan codes are not represented in the Guide.
- Plan codes that start with SCRT, MCRT, PCRT, VCRT, LCRT do not have individual pages; they are represented in the Guide with the pages that correspond to the plan codes that start with UCRT and GCRT.
- Have an active row in the SIS table: ACAD_PLAN_TBL with a plan type:
Examples
-
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/engineering/civil-environmental-engineering/civil-engineering-bs/
- guide.wisc.edu/veterinary/veterinary-medicine-school-wide/veterinary-medicine-dvm/
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/letters-science/college-wide/college-letters-science-honors-liberal-arts/
- guide.wisc.edu/graduate/business-school-wide/business-analytics-graduate-professional-certificate/
Level 5 (Named Options and Honors in the Major)
The convention uses the academic subplan and is denoted by the fifth set of slashes after guide.wisc.edu for the undergraduate career, and the fourth set of slashes for the graduate/professional careers. The URL includes the plan and subplan for this level (duplicates the plan name). This embedding in the plan name clarifies that a student cannot earn a subplan exclusively; they are earning an option IN the plan.
URL structure
guide.wisc.edu/career/school-college/department/plan/subplan-within-plan/
Requirements
-
- Offer a named option that has a corresponding level 4
- Have an active row in the SIS table: ACAD_PLAN_TBL with a plan type of MAJ and a related active row in ACAD_SUBPLN_TBL with a subplan type of OPT or HON
- Honors in the major does not have have an individual page and the content is included on the parent page; the logic is that honors in the major may apply to all named options (if applicable).
Examples
-
- guide.wisc.edu/graduate/computer-sciences/computer-sciences-ms/computer-sciences-professional-program-ms/
- guide.wisc.edu/undergraduate/agricultural-life-sciences/bacteriology/biology-bs/biology-evolutionary-biology-bs/
- guide.wisc.edu/medicine/medicine-public-health-school-wide/medicine-md/medicine-wisconsin-academy-rural-medicine-md/