Overview
Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences websites created by SAS IT ensure that our school websites meet all federal, university, and school policies and regulations such as those set by the Americans With Disability Act and all others that set usability requirements and security standards. It provides a coherent standardization of look, navigation, and technological functions with flexibility to meet the needs of the unit, school, and the unit’s various constituents.
In order to serve our students well, the departmental websites include a standardized section for undergraduate education information. The goal of the undergraduate website navigation is to allow students and academic advisors to move between department websites with ease, knowing where they will find the information they need.
The Office of Communications and Undergraduate Education are available to help you develop new content and images for the website. If you need assistance, please contact:
Susan Lawrence, Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education, slawrence@sas.rutgers.edu
Kara Donaldson, Associate Dean of Communications, kdonaldson@sas.rutgers.edu
SAS Undergraduate Rubric
This document will help develop an undergraduate section for degree-granting program websites. For quick reference, see the list under "Undergraduate Menu" below.
Undergraduate Menu
Mandatory pages for undergraduate sections of SAS websites:
- About Us or Why (major or department title)?
Departments should choose one of these titles for their undergraduate program landing page. - Prospective Students
This page should include information for prospective majors and minors. We recommend identifying program alumni or current students to feature on this page. You can send alumni and students a questionnaire (see Prospective Students Questionnaires below). - Learning Goals
The most recent departmental learning goals we have on file for you can be found here. - Major(s)
This is mandatory only if the department/program offers a minor. - Minor(s)
This is mandatory only if the department/program offers a minor. - Certificates
This is mandatory only if the department/program offers a certificate(s). - Course Schedule
We provide a utility (RU Course List module) that automatically pulls course information from the Rutgers Schedule of Classes. - Course Synopses (preferred) OR Syllabi
Individual synopses or syllabi should be listed for each course to give prospective students an idea of what to expect.- Enhanced course description pages (or "synopses") are preferred. They should be more detailed than generic catalog descriptions. For an example, see the sample Courses Description/Synopses page.
- Any syllabus files posted to the website should include a note to convey they are samples only and not the official course syllabus. Students enrolled in a course should refer to the official syllabus which is located in the course LMS (Canvas or Sakai).
- Advising
Indicate how students can get advising in your department.
Optional pages for undergraduate sections of SAS websites:
- Honors
- Transfer Students
Include any special information about policies on accepting winter and summer courses taken elsewhere. - Nontraditional Students
- Careers
- Any additional menu items would follow "Careers"
Prospective Students Questionnaires
This page should include information for prospective Rutgers students and majors and minors. We recommend identifying program alumni or current students to feature on this page. You can send alumni and students a questionnaire. There are four sections to this page: the student and young alum feature; the benefits of choosing this field of study; featured student/alum, usually a story from SAS Communications; and three to four fun bullet points about the field. See content sheet and Prospective Students Questionnaires below.
