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Web Council Meetings

Web Council meetings are on the first Thursday of the month at 9 a.m. via Zoom.

Web Council Meetings

September 2026 Web Council

Meeting date and Zoom link

  • Thursday, September 3, 2026 at 9 a.m. via Zoom
  • Zoom meeting link (UW NetID required)

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: UX Specialist Shelby Schumacher will give us news and notes from around the UW and beyond as we begin the academic year, including a roundup of key dates.
  • Improving code security with LLMs: Peter Giles, a Senior Engineer on the UWIT Information Security team, will share practical techniques and prompts to get useful security-oriented code reviews from an LLM. He’ll share pitfalls he has encountered and how to avoid them, along with some thoughts on how this approach complements and contrasts with static code analysis.

June 2026 Web Council

Meeting date and Zoom recording

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, will give us news and notes from around the UW and beyond as we wrap up the academic year.
  • Homepage Redesign: Get a project overview and sneak peek of the new University of Washington homepage that is currently under development.

May 2026 Web Council

Meeting date and Zoom recording

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, will give us news and notes from around the UW and beyond as we head into the home stretch of spring quarter.
  • Web Accessibility at the UW: Terrill Thompson and Beth Somerfield will present on the History and Future of Web Accessibility. Their talk will center in part on the recently passed (and extended) deadline for compliance with the ADA Title II rule, but they will also explore this rule within a greater historical context. How did we get here? Where do we go now?

March 2026 Web Council

Meeting date and Zoom recording

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, will give us news and notes from around the UW and beyond as we wrap up winter quarter.
  • University Policy Framework: Structure, Authority, and Web Implications: An overview of the University’s Administrative Policy Statements, Executive Orders, and related governance structure, including how policy authority functions and what it means in practice for web content, publication, and compliance responsibilities.

February 2026 Web Council

Meeting date and Zoom recording

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, will give us news and notes from around the UW and beyond as we reach the mid-point of winter quarter.
  • Digital Accessibility: This meeting will be focused on digital accessibility as we enter the final stretch to bring our websites into compliance with the ADA Title II rule, which goes into effect on April 24.
    • Terrill Thompson of UWIT Accessible Technology Services (ATS) will provide an overview of the accessibility of the UW web estate, including where we are, where we need to be, and what we’re offering in the way of tools and services that can help.
    • UW Drupal User Group members will share some of the ways they’ve been tackling accessibility over the past year and a half. Topics include theme development, prioritization through project management, bug hunting and file cleaning.
    • Finally, Alaina Foust of ATS will provide another in the series of Accessibility Shorts

January 2026 Web Council

Meeting date and Zoom recording

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, will give us news and notes from around the UW and beyond as we begin winter quarter.
  • Introducing Blocks in the UW WP Theme: Tiffany Sevareid and Teri Shelton from the Web Strategy team in UMAC will give us a preview of an upcoming theme release with support for the WordPress Block Editor. This theme release will introduce UW-branded styling through the Block Editor. They will share how to get started with blocks and the theme update, what to expect once activated, and a demo of the blocks experience.
  • Security Short: In the course of our day-to-day work there are any of a number of concerns that can impact your online privacy. Protecting yourself and our community can seem daunting. IS security analyst Mike Lane will take a deeper look at VPNs, including Husky OnNet as well as general VPNs, to help you understand what is protected and what is not.

December 2025 Web Council

Meeting date and Zoom recording

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of web strategy, will give us news and notes from around the UW and beyond.
  • Campus Maps Updates: Courtney Coster, senior director of brand strategy, will give us an overview of the new campus maps and outline next steps.
  • Accessibility Short: Jeane Marty, a developer with the UW-IT Accessible Technology Services, will present the next installment of our series on common DubBot issues.

November 2025 Web Council

Meeting date and recording

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, director of Web Strategy, will lead us through the Big Dark with news and notes from around the UW and beyond.
  • Dealing with Burnout: Feeling exhausted, cynical, or overwhelmed by increasing workload and decreasing resources? Thom Thorpe, director of Web Strategy and Certified Compassion Fatigue Professional, will explain why burnout is an organizational issue (not a personal failing) and will provide actionable tools you can use today to cope with stress while working toward longer-term change.
  • Security Short: Josslyn Lewellen, security system administrator in UWIT, will share an updated presentation on password security.

October 2025 Web Council

Meeting date

On the agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, Director of Web Strategy, will lead us into autumn quarter with news and notes from around the UW and beyond.
  • Storytelling modules update: Teri Shelton from Web Strategy in University Marketing & Communications will give an update on the latest features in the UW Storytelling Modules plugin, highlighting the new Call to Action module, and providing a sneak peek at the upcoming release.
  • Accessibility Short: Alaina Foust, lead digital accessibility consultant for UW-IT Accessible Technology Services, will join us.

September 2025 Web Council

Meeting date

  • Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 9 a.m. via Zoom
  • Meeting recording (UW NetID required)

Agenda

  • Word on the Street: Thom Thorpe, Director of Web Strategy, will kick things off with news and notes from around the UW and further afield.
  • Back to School: Courtney Coster and Jacob Kelly will present our “Back to School” communications and social media campaigns.
  • Canva for Web Pros: Analya Cannon will share all kinds of great tips and tricks for those of us looking to incorporate Canva in our workflows.