Approval by MarComms, or in some cases, the office of the Dean, for use of Penn GSE’s logo is required under certain conditions. These include, but are not limited to:

• In brochures, books, and other printed or digital publications
• By funders, sponsors, vendors, community partners and other third parties
• For events, whether promoted internally or externally
• When an event is, or appears to be, formally promoted as a Penn GSE school-sponsored event
• On promotional items, such as notebooks, pens, mugs, or clothing
• Other conditions may apply

Department or Division-Led Events

In addition to the use of the Penn GSE logo, department-led entities, initiatives, and projects should clearly denote the organizing entity as part of the promotion of the event. For example, a program speaker flyer should not only utilize the school logo, but in text clarify that this is sponsored or hosted by “[department name].”

Student-Led Events

Penn GSE’s logo should not be used on promotional collateral for student-led events and initiatives unless the Office of Student Success has approved the school as a sponsor or supporter.

Logos for Penn GSE departments, centers, or initiatives must be created by the Office of Marketing and Communications and developed in accordance with Penn’s and Penn GSE’s branding standards and guidelines. Penn GSE community members should contact the Office of Marketing and Communications before commissioning a logo of any kind.

Penn University Life has developed clear guidelines for naming student organizations and the development of corresponding logos and visual identities. It should be noted that the use of Penn’s Shield (including the disambiguation and use of any elements), its wordmarks, and typography is prohibited. Please see the Penn University Life guidelines for detailed information.

Official versions of Penn GSE’s logo are available from MarComms. Please use the official renditions of Penn GSE’s logo and do not distort or manipulate the files in any way.

Promotional items and branded apparel must be purchased from vendors identified as University-approved suppliers, and should use the official Penn GSE logo. If a department or academic program needs branded materials or items related to a marketing or recruiting activity (e.g. booth at a conference), please contact Marketing and Communications to discuss.

• Penn GSE or University branding may only be used on officially authorized accounts.
• Clearly separate personal viewpoints from official Penn GSE communications.
• The official Penn GSE accounts are maintained by the Office of Marketing and Communications; please contact the director of content strategy if you have content you wish to be shared on those official channels.
• If you maintain an official account for a Penn GSE-related office, you must be in contact with the director of content strategy about this work.

When conducting Penn GSE business—whether online or offline—you must comply with all relevant Penn policies, including but not limited to:

• Copyright Policy
• Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources
• Non-Discrimination Policy
• Sexual Harassment Policy
• Solicitation and Distribution
• Policy Prohibiting Workplace Violence
• Confidentiality of Records

This reinforcement aligns with University-wide expectations around responsible and policy-compliant online behavior.

When conducting Penn GSE business, post only material that:

• You created or
• You have explicit permission to post

Penn GSE encourages respectful, inclusive engagement. Users are welcome to interact in ways consistent with Penn’s values and open-expression principles.

Penn GSE may remove posts or comments that:

• Are off-topic or spam
• Contain profanity, obscenity, or violent language
• Include racist, sexist, discriminatory, or derogatory remarks
• Contain personal identifying information
• Promote illegal activity
• Spread false or misleading information
• Incite threats, harassment, or personal attacks
• Include commercial, vendor, or political promotions not affiliated with Penn GSE

Anyone seeking to create or maintain an official Penn GSE social media account representing a School-affiliated office, department, center, or program must:

• Consult with Penn GSE Marketing & Communications (MarComms) before launching an account to review strategy, purpose, audience, branding, resource needs, and continuity planning.
• Receive MarComms guidance on naming, accessibility, branding, and compliance with community-wide Penn representation rules.
• Register the account with MarComms.
• Provide MarComms with the account password or assign the director of content strategy as an admin (depending on platform).

This ensures proper oversight, security, and continuity in cases of staff turnover and alignment with University and School standards.

For a video to be considered for public posting, it must meet the following criteria:

1. We must have signed permissions/consent forms for ALL persons appearing (whether in picture or sound) in the video. Releases are available on our Resources page. Only current Penn GSE students, faculty, and staff are exempt from requiring releases.
2. Video must be fully captioned with captions meeting a 99% accuracy threshold established by Penn’s accessibility policy. See Ordering Closed Captioning below for more information.
3. If recorded from a live event via virtual platform or in person, notice must be given in advance to ALL attendees that the event is being recorded for the purposes of public posting. Permissions/consent form language should be included in the event registration form for attendees.

If a video does not meet the above criteria, it will not be considered for Penn GSE’s official YouTube/Vimeo platforms.

If a video does meet the above criteria, the content provider must provide the following information to the Penn GSE MarComms team:

1. Video title
2. Short description
3. Thumbnail image (jpg or png format)
4. Video file, edited if necessary
5. Caption file (SRT format)
6. Intended usage (e.g., embedding on a webpage, social media or e-newsletter distribution, etc.)

To request posting, submit a Creative Services Request. The MarComms team can assist with video editing, if needed. Please see our video service level agreement for timeline requirements.

If the video is to be embedded on any Penn GSE web properties, the content provider must separately submit a web request with instructions on where the video is to be embedded.

Closed captions are required for accessibility.

An SRT file is the industry-standard format for accessible video captions. Any video published or promoted on official Penn GSE websites and social media accounts, including YouTube and Vimeo, requires a human-edited SRT file.

An SRT file (which is short for a SubRip subTitle file) is a plain-text file that contains critical information regarding subtitles, including the start and end timecodes of your text to ensure your subtitles match your audio and the sequential number of subtitles.

• Captions are mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and by Penn as part of the University’s accessibility policy.
• Because of that, closed captioning must meet (or exceed) a 99% accuracy threshold for on-demand video.
  • The current auto-transcription features on YouTube and Vimeo are unacceptable because they do not meet the minimum requirements set by the University.
  • To help ensure the accuracy of your closed captioning, we recommend that you submit the spelling of the speaker’s names and other proper nouns to your service provider when ordering. You’ll also want to review the captions before publishing. Certain words and phrases that are common to us can sometimes be misheard (and therefore mistyped) by people unfamiliar with our organization. For example, the common phrase “Penn GSE” is sometimes transcribed incorrectly as “Penn GSC” in first drafts.
• The cost for SRT files is covered by your department or program, not by MarComms.
• Do NOT order video files with the captions “burned in,” as those are incompatible with some accessibility software. A separate file is the preferred format.

If you do not already have a third-party vendor on file, other departments at Penn GSE use the University-approved vendor Rev.

• Rev charges $1.99 per video minute (as of 2026).
• This cost can be paid with a Penn Purchasing Card, and you DO NOT NEED a paid subscription to Rev—select pay by the minute instead and set up a free account if you do not already have one.
• Turnaround is typically 24–48 hours, although rush options are available for an additional fee.
• Order “Human Captions.” Do NOT order transcripts, subtitles, or AI captions.
• For more info, visit Rev's website.

Order Human Captions from Rev

The Closed Captioning policy above is for on-demand video only. For live video streamed either to on-site event screens or broadcast platforms like YouTube, the University's accessibility policy states only that "we need to provide the best type of captioning reasonably available. It doesn’t have to be live, although it is preferred."

• The cost for live captioning is covered by your department or program, not by MarComms.
• If your department or program cannot provide live captioning, auto-captioning for the live stream is acceptable; however, if the video will remain available on-demand via official Penn GSE channels after the event, an SRT file of human captions MUST be obtained and added to the recording as soon as possible following the event.
• Live or automated captions for live streams broadcast and recorded on official Penn GSE channels like YouTube CANNOT be "burned in" and should instead be available to toggle on and off so that they can be replaced by the human-generated SRT file afterward. Burned-in captions are acceptable only for on-site event screens or broadcasts where the video recording will not be hosted on-demand afterward via official Penn GSE channels.

The MarComms team can assist with setting up a live stream for certain events, like Commencement and Doctoral Hooding. For more information, contact Matt D'Ippolito.

YouTube is used by the MarComms team for hosting showpiece videos about the school, as well as curated playlists for assorted Penn GSE programming. Please note that because of the YouTube platform’s algorithms, there is no way to control what other videos may appear as recommended content or what advertisements may appear alongside videos on this platform.

Vimeo is primarily used for hosting videos to be embedded on Penn GSE’s websites. It is an ad-free platform and may be used to host videos requiring password protection in certain instances.

Cloud Storage (Box/DropBox) is a way to share large video files, for viewing or for downloading purposes, by way of hyperlinks. Privacy settings within the platform allow the owner of the file to determine the visibility of a video at a specific link. These services are not for public distribution of video.

Sharing all required assets at the start helps us provide an accurate timeline. Some website updates may take longer if they need review or approval from internal partners responsible for certain governance areas.

Minor Edits (e.g., calendar event pages, text updates, image replacements)
Estimated completion: 2–5 business days from time of receipt.

Significant Edits (e.g., layout changes, adding a new component, multiple page updates)
May require a consultation. Estimated completion: 2–4 weeks.

New Page Requests (e.g., faculty bio pages, program pages, other new content)
Will require one or more consultations. Estimated completion: 3–5 weeks.