FAQs

The USC Dornsife website hasn’t undergone a comprehensive upgrade in more than a decade and is built on a proprietary content management system (CMS) that is no longer supported. The new site will be a much-needed update, vastly improving the experience for everyone who visits, whether they are a prospective student or a long-time member of faculty or staff.

Yes. The involvement of the USC Dornsife community is essential to the success of this project. We have included our community throughout this process and will continue to do so. Here are a few key ways they have been and will be involved:

• USC Dornsife faculty, staff, students and alumni have been interviewed to inform the development of the updated website and brand guidelines.
• Stakeholders are involved in the “behind the scenes” preparatory work helping to develop a website strategy, sitemap and wireframes (the blueprint for the structure of the website). They have also been reviewing web pages on dornsife.usc.edu, updating pages and deactivating outdated pages.
• Each unit will also be involved in the process of launching their website on the new CMS.

Here is a general timeline for the project, though dates are subject to change. The website project team will clearly communicate important dates and deadlines in advance.

2022

• April: Survey emailed to heads of departments, centers, institutes, programs and offices with a web presence on dornsife.usc.edu to identify project contacts and help guide site messaging.

• May to July: Web project team begins content development for main site with Dornsife units

• September: Website design presentation

• October-November:

  • CMS training

  • New WordPress content management system will open to website administrators to begin populating content for the new site. New pages will remain unpublished until site launch

2023

• April: Website testing

• May 2: Website launch

Content will go live on our newly design site in three phases, which are outlined below:

Phase 1 – May 2023 launch
Homepage and top levels of site (e.g., sections such as “Undergraduate,” “Research,” etc.)
Departments, centers, institutes, offices and programs currently on dornsife.usc.edu

Phase 2 – Rolling 2023 launch
Lab, personal/portfolio, conference websites will be given time to move to the new CMS after the launch of the new site. They will continue to remain live on our current CMS until that phase of the move. We will provide instructions and a timeline for making the move at the beginning of next year.

Phase 3 – Rolling 2023 launch
Sites not currently hosted on dornsife.usc.edu. These sites will be able to move to the new domain sooner, but the deadline will be after Phase 1 launch.

All USC Dornsife websites will move to the new CMS if they are currently hosted on dornsife.usc.edu. Units whose websites are hosted on a domain other than dornsife.usc.edu will be able to move to the new site, as well. Please note that, when the updated site is live, only sites hosted on dornsife.usc.edu will receive support from Dornsife Technology Services.

If you have any questions, please email webproject@dornsife.usc.edu.

The previous content management system (CMS) that the USC Dornsife website used is proprietary and is no longer supported. WordPress CMS has many benefits: it’s easier to use and customize, it’s more secure, it meets ADA accessibility standards, it uses responsive design, and it’s mobile and SEO friendly.

No, it’s not possible to use an automated process to transfer content from our current CMS to the new WordPress CMS because the new website will include design elements and functionality that do not exist in the current site. The USC Dornsife website project team will provide support throughout the move to the new CMS to make the process as smooth as possible.

Website administrators will be able to begin moving content to the new WordPress content management system (CMS) starting October/November 2022, but the new content will not go live until the new site launches at the beginning of 2023. The current site will remain live while the new CMS is being populated.

Laboratory and personal websites will be given additional time after the launch of the new site to move to the new CMS. We will provide instructions for how to do that.

Yes. We are offering robust training to make the move to a new CMS as easy as possible.

Training sessions have been recorded for those who are unable to attend live sessions. We have technical documentation for using the CMS (SSO required), Zoom drop-in support office hours to answer questions, and have created a Slack channel where website administrators will find support.

All of these resources are available here on our website project hub.

Support Resources

If you’re planning to redesign your website or create a new one, we strongly encourage you to postpone your project and work with our team to meet your short-term needs.

We realize this may cause a delay, but working with our team will be free-of-charge and will ensure that your site is in compliance with our new brand and design standards. Major design and/or branding work undertaken now may well have to be revised when we transition to the new site.

Also, Dornsife Technology Services is only able to support those sites that use the USC Dornsife CMS — either the one we use now or, after the transition, WordPress.

The website project team will support all units as they move their content from our current CMS to the new WordPress CMS.

Writers from the website project team are available to support faculty and staff in each unit with the development of externally facing, top-level content that clearly expresses the mission, priorities, and value of their unit. We have provided a guide for language that reflects USC Dornsife’s new messaging, voice and tone guidelines. While our team brings deep experience in copywriting for public audiences, chairs/directors of each unit will ultimately have final discretion as to the wording of their messages.

Website administrators designated by each unit will also be involved in helping to move content from the old CMS to the new WordPress CMS, and work within the new site framework to build pages with assistance from the website project team. In addition to written content, the project team can help by suggesting updated imagery/photography.

This is a great opportunity for each unit to modernize their online presence and put their best digital face forward.

Top-level website links will stay the same but lower-level URLs will change. Our team will work with website administrators to ensure your old links redirect to the new website.