Campus Calendars

Processes and Policies

• Overview
• Adding your events
• Setting up a Webtools Calendar
• Tips for maximizing your event visibility
• Calendar policies
• Calendar setup

Overview

• Advising & Placement
• All Events
• Cultural & International
• Exhibits
• General Events
• Outreach
• Performances
• Recreation
• Speakers
• Staff Training

Adding your events

Units that want to see their events listed on any of the campus calendars or featured on uiuc.edu must have those events loaded into a Webtools calendar. Public Affairs can no longer hand-enter events. Units that wish to continue to use an existing, non-Webtools calendaring system may create a parallel Webtools calendar, either for all their events or for only those events they want to share campuswide.

Non-Webtools Calendars for key campus units will continue to be linked from campus calendar pages, but their events cannot be placed on the homepage (uiuc.edu) or on any of the campus calendars.

Setting up Webtools Calendars

Setting up a Calendar is simple and takes only minutes. Web Services will be happy to walk you through the process. To get started immediately please visit the Toolbox. At this site you can also check a schedule of Web Services workshops that will walk you through the process.

Once you have established a Webtools calendar, your events can be pulled into any other calendar created in the Toolbox. Likewise, your calendar can pull in (include the events from) other Webtools Calendars, such as the Campus Holidays Calendar, the Academic Dates Calendar, etc.

You are strongly encouraged to create several Webtool calendars, especially to highlight different types of events within your unit. If your unit regularly has guest speakers, but also hosts performances, exhibits and student advising sessions, create separate calendars for each event type as well as a unit-wide calendar that includes the others. There is no redundancy in work for your unit, and your events are much more likely to be listed on appropriate campuswide calendars.

Units that choose to retain a single calendar may find, for instance, that their 'performances' appear only on the campus general events calendar. Those items will be discovered with a search for specific event types on either the all events campus calendar or on any of the campus categorized calendars, but they may not be listed where a user would expect to find them. Public Affairs only has a choice to wholely include or wholely exclude any single calendar in campuswide categorized calendars.

Tips for maximizing your event visibility

1. Public Affairs will include your Webtools calendar in the campus calendars based on the preponderance of your events and where a user might intuitively look for your events. Your events are much more likely to be discovered quickly if you create separate calendars for each category of events. (Again, this does not have to represent redundant work on your part, since your unit's performances calendar can be included in your main calendar.)

2.Give the most complete information possible when entering new events. Remember that your events will appear in campuswide lists and need to be unwaiveringly identified with your unit. List buildings as well as room numbers, name your unit as the event sponsor, and list contact information. Make the event title a link, either to more information or to your unit's homepage.

3. For events that are not open to the public, check the box that says "This event can only be viewed in this calendar" when entering the event. This will keep them from being posted on campuswide calendars. Classes, department meetings and "invitation only" events are all examples of events that should not be shared with other calendars. Calendars that continually share events that are not public will be pulled from inclusion in campus calendars.

4.Consider a calendar name change. An a-z listing of all Webtools calendars will be linked from the main calendar pages. What is the title of your calendar? Is that the name someone would look for intuitively? Are you listed under the O's for Office of...? Or is your calendar listed under T because its name begins with "The"?

5. A very limited number of items of the broadest general interest can be placed on the uiuc.edu homepage. These events are selected by . Use this form to suggest an event for inclusion on the campus homepage.

6. All events listed in Webtools calendars have an event ID number found at the end of the Web address for that item. In suggesting events for the homepage, you should reference event ID. Thus, you would suggest item #18506 for this item:

• http://webtools.uiuc.edu/calendar/Calendar?calId=7&eventId=18506

Calendar policies

Calendar setup