DEN Guidelines

Audience

The D.E.N. (Dorm Edutainment Network) audience consists primarily of approximately 2500 male and female students who live in the residence halls at The University of Montana (Missoula). Much of the audience is between the ages of 18 and 22 and most are incoming college freshmen every fall. Students have access to the D.E.N., free of charge, through permanently mounted, well-situated, lobby TVs and/or through channel 3 as part of the in-room expanded-basic television. Students occupy all residence halls throughout the academic year that runs from late August through mid May. In the summer months, residence halls are busy with a myriad of conference attendees of every age, prospective students and families attending orientation, and younger students involved in various campus programs. The DEN is also displayed in the GrizCard Center and the Curry Health Center in lobby or waiting areas.

Content Policies

The following content policies do not represent an exhaustive list of policies that may be required for unanticipated situations. We reserve the right to change or refuse any content submitted to our office, for clarity or to fit the available space. A final draft can be made available for review by the requestor upon request. The Director of Residence Life, or an appointed representative, shall serve as the final determination of appropriate content and/or message placement.

Cost Per Slide Per Week

Student Affairs	Other University Departments	Off Campus Entity
Free	$15	$25

Departments outside the division of Student Affairs must include a corresponding University billing code for that Department. Still pages will rotate throughout the slideshow with each page displaying for and average of 15 seconds. Therefore, if there are 20 total slides each message will display every 5.6 minutes. At this rate, your posting will appear 257 times every 24 hours with a total runtime of over an hour! Postings must adhere to the technical requirements outlined under "Conditiions" (see below). Postings that do not meet technical requirements must be changed before they are posted. Either the requestor or the DirectConnect Office can correct slide problems. The requestor will be charged $15 per hour (with a minimum charge of $15) for all corrections made by the DirectConnect Office. Requestors will be notified if corrections are necessary or recommended.

All posting requests must include:

• contact name
• phone number
• name of department/entity
• official university billing code (if campus entity)
• official university account code (if campus entity)
• billing address
• e-mail address

Conditions

• PLEASE submit stand alone slides only. If multiple slides need to be posted they will be billed individually. Although, animations using multiple sequential slides within 60 seconds are allowed and encouraged.
• If submitting Power Point slides, please do not send Power Point 2007 slides (slides in pptx format). We request that you send them in ppt format.
• Postings must abide by all state and federal laws and may not be deemed inappropriate or offensive. Any slides depicting in any way the use or solicitation of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco may not be allowed. Businesses that promote, sell, or associate with drugs, alcohol, and tobacco may not be considered. Explicit language or revealing photos/images are not permitted.
• Slides can be posted for a maximum of two weeks. Submitters are allowed to advertise a service or event longer than two weeks, but they must send us a new slide for each two week period in order keep variety on the DEN.
• Music and other audio are not recommended as most public monitors have volume muted.
• All materials and media submitted will not be returned without regard to whether they are displayed.
• Advertising rates must be paid for in advance of the first broadcast unless prior arrangements are made.
• DEN may not be able to run all requested postings, and may have to restrict the run time of some postings.
• We reserve the right to ask the submitter to redo it or offer our editing services at the rate of $15 per hour.

Prioritization

- Organization

First priority will be given to departments within the Division of Student Affairs, followed by other UM administrative or academic departments and officially recognized student organizations, and finally any third party or private enterprise.

- Time of receipt

Posting requests will generally be honored in the order they were received. Requests must be received at least 4 business days prior to the date you wish the posting to begin running.

- Size of target audience

Postings aimed at a wide student audience will receive priority over those with more limited appeal (to members of a single organization for instance).

Suggestions

• Use contrast between the text and backgrounds; so its easier to read.
• Font typefaces should be a rounded sans-serif typeface (Such as Arial or Helvetica).
• Keep your slides simple and uncluttered, using minimal text with large fonts in order to grab the viewers' attention.
• Although bolder fonts are recommended, avoid Hollow and cursive fonts as they are difficult to read.
• Colored fonts do not show up well unless the color is very dark and the background is very light.
• THE EXCLUSIVE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS appears unprofessional and is not recommended.
• We recommend that slides have at least 32 point font. We prefer 40 point and above. If we post your slide and determine that it is unreadable or hard to read while playing on dorm TVs, we will remove the slide and ask for a new slide that contains the changes that we require.

Keep in mind these slides are most likely to be viewed at a glance. Short and sweet is most effective; images of people are very effective. Don't make the viewer work to read or understand your message. If you have an ideas, questions or comments for the DEN, please email the RTA Media Team. Still postings can be submitted via e-mail rta.media@mso.umt.edu