Arcadia University is a private university in Glenside, Pennsylvania, offering undergraduate and graduate programs across a range of academic disciplines. The project involved developing and updating a custom theme for Arcadia's Drupal-based website, completed while consulting with Eastern Standard, which managed higher education Drupal projects in the Philadelphia region.
The work encompassed both initial theme development and subsequent updates to the existing codebase, indicating an ongoing or phased engagement rather than a single build. University websites require regular attention to front-end components as institutional needs evolve — new academic programs, admissions campaigns, departmental redesigns, and content structure changes all create theming requirements that need to be addressed without disrupting the broader site.
Custom Drupal theming for an institution like Arcadia involves building and maintaining a system of templates and components that serve multiple audiences simultaneously — prospective students navigating admissions content, current students accessing academic resources, faculty maintaining departmental information, and the broader public engaging with the university's research and news. The theming work needed to present this range of content clearly within a consistent visual identity.
The consulting engagement with Eastern Standard required working within the agency's established development workflow and coordinating with their team on theming decisions that integrated correctly with Drupal's content types, views, and block system.
