News & Events

What is news?

On your department website News can be any item of interest.  It's ok to mix announcements directed at faculty and students with longer stories directed at the general public.  The important thing is to keep up a stream of news that changes frequently and reflects the activities in the department.  Once a week is a good goal.

When you add news to the site, you will be able to indicate what kind of news it is (Category), who is mentioned in the story (People Involved), and whether it relates to a particular field of study or department (Related Fields, Related Departments).  These categories will help people find the news that are relevant and interesting to them.

Default categories for news are:

• Alumni
• Announcements
• Community Impact
• Courses
• Faculty and Staff
• Giving
• Honors and Awards
• In the Press
• Lectures and Events
• Program Innovation
• Research
• Student Success
• Study Abroad

Some departments have custom categories if they have other areas of emphasis.

News Story Ideas

Try to write a few sentences about the topic and develop the story. Use a short title that grabs reader's attention.  Follow the tips for writing on the web.

• See Tips on Soliciting Story Ideas for interview/email questions and story ideas.

Example topics:

• A faculty member publishes a new book or article.
• A faculty member, staff, or student wins an award.
• A faculty member, staff, or student is featured in local or national media.
• Program requirements are added or updated.
• A new course is approved; or, profile a course that needs more enrollment.
• A faculty or staff member joins or leaves the program.
• Applications are available for a job, program, or award.
• There is supplementary information about an event (change of venue, photos available, recruit more sign-ups).  The event itself should be entered on the calendar.
• A new program or lecture series is established.
• An alumni has won an award or engaged in an interesting endeavor.
• A graduate student has accepted a job offer at another institution.
• There is an interested community outreach or study abroad program.
• Reminders of important deadlines.
• You've added an interesting new project or page to the website.

How to Add News

1. Log in to the department website.
2. Click the "Add content" button in the shortcuts bar at the top of the screen.
3. Select "News" as the type of content you want to add.  If you don't see it in the list, you don't have permission to add news items.  Contact your departmental administrator to inquire about the permissions and roles for your department.
4. Enter a title or headline for the news story.  Keep it concise, but engaging.
5. (Optional) Upload an image to accompany the story.  You don't need to prepare it in advance.  The system will automatically resize it and place it on the page.  You DO need to enter alternate text in the field that appears after you upload the image, to help search engines, screen reader users, and others who may have images turned off.
6. Enter the body of your story.  Follow the tips for writing on the web.
7. Check the box for the appropriate category for your news (Alumni, Announcements, Community Impact, Faculty and Staff, Program Innovation, Student Success, and Study Abroad).
8. (Optional) If this story relates to a faculty member or student who has a profile on the department website, select their name in the "People Involved" box.  This will cause the news story to display in the sidebar of their profile.  Type a few letters, and when the name suggestion pops up, select it.
9. (Optional) Check the fields of interest that are related to this story.  This will help people find news and other materials related to their areas of interest.
10. (Optional) Check departments that are related to this story.
11. Save.

Newsletters

See Newsletter Issue Builder for instructions about how to build an online newsletter.

What is an event?

An event is something that happens at a particular time and location.  It may be open to the public or private.  It may require pre-registration.  Examples include meetings, lectures, talks, receptions, or fundraisers.  An event can also be an important deadline that you want people to be aware of.  Events will appear on the calendar and upcoming events listings, and they will automatically be moved to the past events archive when they have passed.

When you add an event to the site, you will be able to indicate what categories it belongs to and whether it's related to a particular field of study.  These categories will help people find the events that are relevant and interesting to them.

Holidays, registration deadlines, and dates of instruction appear on the calendar overview, but not the lists of upcoming events.  They are entered for you by the A&S Web Team.

In November 2017, we held a Department Web Framework users group focused on web calendars and events. See these Notes for ideas and best practices.

Campus Events Calendar (Trumba)

In June 2013 the University of Washington adopted a new events calendar system called Trumba.  It is a third-party commercial software. For any event to appear on the public campus events calendar, it must be added to a departmental Trumba calendar and "also shown on" the campus calendar.  For more info about Trumba, see UW IT's Event Calendar Help.

A&S Web Team staff are able to embed a Trumba calendar on your website in place of the Drupal calendar.  Some departments prefer the more feature-rich Trumba calendar (event notifications, registration form capability, sharing with other campus calendars) while others prefer the visual and behavioral customizations available with a Drupal calendar.  If you choose the Trumba option, you will be limited to using the event categories and displays that Trumba provides, and events will not be integrated with other content throughout your site. But you will only need to enter your events in one place (the Trumba calendar system).

If you prefer the customizations available with the Drupal calendar, you can post events in both places.  Establish a departmental Trumba calendar through UW IT.  Any event that you want to add to the campus calendar can then be added in Trumba.  You don't need to post all department events there, only the ones that you want to promote to a wide public audience.  That might include lectures and information sessions, but not faculty meetings and conversation groups.

We've created a Calendar Comparison chart to help you compare the differences between the calendar systems.