Tarleton State University Web Site Link Policy

Links to Tarleton.edu

Advance permission to link to Tarleton’s website(s) is not necessary. However, be aware that Tarleton subpages may change at any time without notice. Entities and individuals linking to Tarleton must continuously verify links to our subpages.

Entities and individuals linking to Tarleton shall not capture Tarleton pages within frames, present Tarleton content as its own, or otherwise misrepresent Tarleton content. Furthermore, they shall not misinform users about the origin or ownership of Tarleton content. Certain information on Tarleton may be trademarked, service marked, or otherwise protected as intellectual property. Protected intellectual property must be used in accordance with state and federal laws and must reflect the proper ownership of the intellectual property.

Any link to the Tarleton site should be a full forward link that passes the client browser to Tarleton unencumbered. The “Back” button should return the visitor to original site if the visitor wishes to back out.

External Links from Tarleton.edu

This section outlines the criteria and requirements that external websites must meet to have a link on the Tarleton website. It also details how links are accepted and removed from the Tarleton website.

Tarleton reserves the right to link to external websites that it feels would provide a service or otherwise be of value to constituents.

Acceptance Criteria

Tarleton links to federal, state, and local governments that provide information and service that benefit Texas citizens, Texas local government, and Texas state agencies. At its discretion, Tarleton will consider link requests to non-governmental websites that contain information and/or service that further the purpose of Tarleton, including sites of Tarleton-contracted vendors, relevant technology-related associations and timely and relevant information technology publications.

The Tarleton website is not a forum for public communication and debate. The criteria outlined in this section have been established to ensure that the Tarleton website remains a non-public forum.

Every external website link request must undergo review to determine its relevance and appropriateness to the purpose of Tarleton. External links are approved for Tarleton based on the following criteria:

• The external website corresponds with the purpose of Tarleton
• The external site’s content is appropriate with respect to the purpose of Tarleton and the site is not a:
  • Site that appears to be deceptive in its purpose, exhibits malicious intent, or is compromised by malicious actors;
  • Site that exhibits hate, bias, discrimination, pornography, libelous or otherwise defamatory content;
  • Site that advocates or promotes the use of alcohol or tobacco;
  • Site belonging to or supporting a political affiliation; or
  • Site that furthers the agenda of a political organization or candidate running for office.

Tarleton reserves the right to deny external links if it determines that a website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the purpose of Tarleton, or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth above in numbered sections or set out below in the section on Conditions for Link Maintenance on Tarleton.

Review Process

Conditions for Link Maintenance on Tarleton

To give superior customer service to citizens and businesses accessing governmental information and service through Tarleton, we require that external websites linked from Tarleton meet the following conditions in order to maintain a link on Tarleton:

1. The linked site must provide the user with access to an email address and/or a customer service telephone number so that users may contact the site if there are problems with format, accuracy, timeliness, or payment processing.
2. Linked sites should not excessively burden the Tarleton customer support system. If the site excessively burdens the Tarleton customer support system, Tarleton has discretion to take linked site off of the Tarleton website.
3. When the user clicks on the external website link, he/she must have easy access back to Tarleton. One of two options can accomplish this:
   • A link to Tarleton can be established on the external website’s main page; or
   • The “Back” button returns the user to Tarleton.
4. Linked sites must have a privacy and security policy accessible from their home page informing the user of what information is collected, how it is collected, and how it is used. Tarleton encourages linked sites to comply with industry-accepted accessibility standards to ensure that persons with disabilities may access these sites.
5. Linked sites must notify Tarleton at the email address provide below if the site to which Tarleton links become inaccurate or inactive.

Removal Process

Tarleton reserves the right to remove external links if it determines that a website contains misleading or unsubstantiated claims, conflicts with the purpose of Tarleton, or does not meet one or more of the criteria set forth above in the Acceptance Criteria section or set out above in the Conditions for Link Maintenance on Tarleton section.

External links from Tarleton will be reviewed regularly and may be removed for the following reasons:

• The link no longer points to the original information or resource to which it was intended to point;
• The website pointed to by the link contains inaccurate or misleading information or has changed such that it is no longer in compliance with the acceptance criteria;
• The website pointed to by the link violates the conditions for link maintenance;
• Access to the information has become difficult due to non-standard formatting, lengthy download times, or intrusive advertising;
• The link is permanently unreachable or remains unavailable for a lengthy period; and
• The external website fails to comply with the written linking agreement, if any.

The decision of the Tarleton Digital Media Advisory Committee is final as to whether an external link is to be removed from Tarleton.