About the CMS
On this page:
What is a CMS?
A web Content Management System (CMS), is used to create, edit, manage, and publish digital content to the web. Content includes text, images, and digital media.
The CMS for the central NYU website (nyu.edu) is Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). AEM is a web-based CMS that enables you to create and edit web content without having to know web coding.
AEM offers a suite of drag and drop tools for creating content called Components. Our developers have customized AEM's components to meet NYU's standards for accessibility and design.
Not every website at NYU uses AEM as their CMS. The central website for NYU - nyu.edu - uses AEM. Units who have representation on nyu.edu, as well as select other sites, use AEM.
The CMS service is offered by NYU IT and managed and supported by Digital Communications (DigiComm).
CMS Terms of Use
General Statement
The Digital Communications Group (DigiComm) provides NYU CMS services in support of administrative, scholarly, and curricular communications conducted by eligible members of the University community. Published web content pages are, by default, visible to the public.
Individuals, hereafter known as the "content authors", are responsible for the content entered into the CMS repository and displayed on their assigned pages or where referenced elsewhere by another CMS user. Individuals, hereafter known as the "content approvers", are responsible for content published to their live assigned webpages, as well as for the final review of content posted by their assigned content authors.
Each CMS user must comply with all federal, New York State, local, and other applicable law; all University rules and policies, including the NYU Website Accessibility Policy, the Policy on Responsible Use of NYU Computers and Data, the Responsibilities of All NYU Computer, Data, and Network Users, and the World Wide Web Policies and Procedures, found on the NYU IT Policies & Guidance page; all applicable contracts and licenses; and these Terms of Use which describe rules and settings specific to the NYU CMS Service. NYU reserves the right to change, at any time, at its sole discretion, the provisions of the service and these Terms of Use.
Restricted data must not be stored in or posted as content in the CMS (see Electronic Data and System Risk Classification Policy). Protected or Confidential data must not be posted or collected without appropriate security safeguards in place. Please contact security@nyu.edu for any clarification regarding appropriate security safeguards.
Eligibility
Full-time faculty, staff, and enrolled students may be granted access to specific content areas within the NYU website, provided they are affiliated with and receive permission from the unit responsible for editing said content. All CMS account applications are submitted by an authorized content approver and sent to DigiComm for final approval; if an applicant does not meet the eligibility criteria, the application will be rejected.
DigiComm will securely maintain information about all CMS users within the NYU Webmasters Registry.
Non-NYU Affiliates
All Non-NYU affiliates (e.g., consultants) must have their CMS accounts sponsored by the full-time faculty or staff member who is the main content approver for that specific content area. The affiliate must first be assigned an NYU NetID as per the instructions on the NetID Assignment page.
Student Employees
Authorized content approvers submitting CMS account applications on behalf of student employees are directly responsible for any content they create or modify while in the CMS. Students are not eligible for CMS approver accounts; their supervisor is expected to review any work prior to publishing on their behalf. The CMS Training Team must be informed as soon as a student's employment with a particular unit has ended.
Responsibility for Content/ Content Ownership
An authorized content approver may designate additional eligible individuals as contributing content authors for their administrative or academic unit. Each content approver and author is responsible for the information they post to the CMS.
All materials entered into the CMS must comply with federal copyright law and NYU's Policy on Photocopying Copyrighted Materials. For further information on CMS use and copyright, visit the Copyright and Fair Use page.
CMS users are responsible for obtaining all permissions that may be necessary to incorporate works of third parties in their pages. Use of such works may be permitted by principles of fair use, consistent with copyright laws (learn more with NYU Library's Handbook for Use of Copyrighted Materials).
Content within the CMS should reflect the positive and respectful learning and working environment of NYU within which basic rules of conduct for the entire University community, as well as the general community, prevail. Such rules of conduct are discussed in the University Policy on Student Conduct, the Faculty Handbook, and the Administrative and Professional Handbook.
Monitoring
NYU does not routinely pre-screen, monitor, or regularly review most posted CMS content. However, NYU reserves the right to remove, at any time, at its sole discretion, any content that it considers to violate these Terms of Use or the terms of any other campus user agreements that may govern use of the campus networks, or that it deems in violation of University policy or local, state, or federal law. NYU reserves the right to review and/or approve content for activation for general web audience viewing where deemed appropriate and inline with existing University policies and terms of service. Should the University receive reports regarding a webpage on which it is felt that inappropriate content has been posted, NYU will investigate and contact the page's content approver to initially discuss the issue. In exceptional cases, where the content is obviously unacceptable, NYU will immediately remove the content, prior to contacting the page's content owner.
Reports regarding inappropriate content may be sent to abuse@nyu.edu.
Support and Service Availability
Training for CMS users will be provided in person on a limited basis by DigiComm. Primary support for CMS users will be available online. Users also will be encouraged to contact the IT Service Desk by phone to receive additional support.
Availability of the NYU CMS Service may be interrupted for maintenance and other updates during maintenance windows as outlined in the NYU IT Scheduled Maintenance Guidelines.
Service Enhancements
DigiComm offers a set of global components that are available to all CMS users for use on their pages. We will accept suggestions for additional components; however, any party who suggests a new component must relinquish property rights to the component as the component must be of value to the global CMS environment and be reusable by other sites on the server.
Features and Defaults
The NYU CMS Service is characterized by a large number of features and defaults, notably:
Templates
To maintain consistency and ease of component development and reuse, the standard template is required to be the base for any school that wishes to create their own site within the CMS.
Search Engine Indexing
By default, all webpages will be accessible by commercial search engines for indexing.
Access Restriction
By default, all webpages will be available on the Internet. However, CMS users will be provided with a utility to restrict access to certain pages if necessary.
Uploads
The DAM (Digital Asset Manager) will be used to house all digital media (e.g., images, videos, PDFs) that are incorporated into CMS webpages.
Syndication
Syndication is a publishing format that lets people view headlines of the latest updates from their favorite websites all from within a single newsreader program. Syndication feeds in RSS XML file formats may be produced from content on selected CMS pages.
Archive and Retention
All content loaded into the CMS is stored in the CMS repository unless explicitly deleted by a CMS user.
Versioning
Each time a CMS user activates (i.e., "publishes") a webpage, or explicitly creates a version of the page through the CMS versioning utility, AEM creates and stores a new version of the page's content. If page content is deleted, a CMS user may restore a previously activated (or specific) version. Only 140 versions per page for a maximum of 14 months will be allowed. Versions exceeding these criteria will be deleted in order to maintain system performance.
Logging
Access and error logs are maintained for system analysis purposes. The logs record the IP address of the machine from which access is made. The logs may be retrieved and parsed by NYU IT Office of Information Security for the IP information under extraordinary circumstances (e.g., server security violations or possible exposure of protected data), and only with the authorization of the Associate Provost and Chief Information Officer or pursuant to lawful process under the supervision of the University Counsel.
Policy Revision History
Approved: May 14, 2009
Revised: October 20, 2009
Revised: January 29, 2010
Revised: January 6, 2012
Revised: March 29, 2016
Revised: August 1, 2018