Cal U’s New Website

By Carol Mannix - Staff Writer

A project that has been in the works since the summer, the launch of the new university website, is scheduled to coincide with the beginning of the spring 2010 semester. This will affect students because not only will they have to learn the ropes of the new site, but their campus e-mails will also be changed.

“The public launch of the new site is scheduled for Jan. 18,” Angela Burrows, vice president for university relations, said.

There are many changes that will only be revealed along with the unveiling of the new website that the university is keeping under wraps, but perhaps the most notable change will be the inclusion of the use of sites like Flickr, Twitter and YouTube.

“We’re pulling social networking sites into the different pages to the make content more engaging,” Pam DelVerne, director of new media services said.

The new site will also be more aesthetically pleasing and will have a simpler navigation system, a virtual tour and an extensive use of video.

“It’s very colorful and it will match the marketing materials a lot nicer,” DelVerne said. “There will be consistency in branding. I think the content is also organized better so I would hope it’s easier to find things. “

There are three main groups working on the new site, but there is also quite a bit of student involvement on this massive undertaking.

“We knew it was going to be a big project and I thought the students could benefit so I offered their help and they were able to do it,” DelVerne said. “We have five students working out of the MAC lab and 90 percent of our time is spent on that.”

Additionally, students who use their campus e-mail for any personal mediums, such as mailing lists or to log into sites like Facebook or Twitter, will need to make sure they change their settings because the cup.edu domain will no longer be viable, although Burrows did say the old domain will continue to run parallel with the new one until May 2010.

Students will also need to make appropriate changes to their resumes and cover letters so they can be contacted at the correct address.

“As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t hurt to start changing the emails now,” Delverne said. “We’ve been trying to get into the habit of sending things to calu.edu. You log into a lot of things, with all the social networking sites out there now and even the staff has to be reminded. Even for newsletters you subscribe to or magazines, you definitely have to start doing that now.”