Guidelines for Promoting Blogs

University Communications provides links from the UC Davis home page to a list of blogs written by faculty, staff and students that demonstrate our leadership in major public issues and trends. Some of these links lead to external blogs and web sites not governed by UC Davis policies.

Blogging is a relatively new communication medium that has dramatically changed how public discussion occurs. By promoting these blogs, University Communications is carrying out its responsibility to promote ideas and scholarship created at the university.

The views expressed on the blogs are those of the authors and their readers. Links to a blog do not imply that the university endorses any of the views expressed within the blog, nor is the campus responsible for other content of external Web sites.

Criteria for selecting blogs

University Communications’ goal is to be as inclusive as possible, using the following criteria:

  • Bloggers need to be related to UC Davis as faculty, staff, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, students, etc.
  • The blogs should relate to the University of California’s mission of research, education and public service.
  • Bloggers should not be anonymous (in the case of collaborative blogs, for instance, the individual blogger should be identified).
  • Bloggers should follow the spirit of the UC Davis Principles of Community, which emphasize respect for other opinions and people, and discourage personal attacks. It should be recognized that popular blogs attract a wide range of comments, and some will fall short of these standards. Also, links from blog posts or comments — at two, three or more steps removed from UC Davis — may link to sites that do not meet these standards. This is an unavoidable consequence of the nature of the Internet, and it would not be practical to use these as criteria to not list a blog that would otherwise be of interest.

Guidelines for campus bloggers

  • Blogs hosted from UC Davis Web sites within the .ucdavis.edu address need to follow the policies of the University of California, including the prohibition of engaging in campaign activities during university work time. (For more, read Electronic Communications Policy Section II: General Provisions.
  • Users of UC Davis electronic communications resources shall not give the impression that they are representing, giving opinions, or otherwise making statements on behalf of the university or any unit of the university unless appropriately authorized to do so.
  • Whether blogging on- or off-campus, UC Davis affiliates should not use a campus address or affiliation to imply the university’s support for a particular point of view.