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Students get 'The Point' from new by Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff 
stute users of the campus's "News and Information" Web page, the start-up site for most Web users on campus, may have noticed that the Office of Information Technologies added a new link over the Labor Day weekend. "The Point," which now appears under "Other Resources" on the page, is the manifestation of a project initiated and grant-funded through Enrollment Services—aimed at helping new and existing students navigate life at the University. The casual appearance of the site is designed to attract student attention and to encourage return visits, said Amy Glynn, director of Communications and Marketing for Enrollment Services, who coordinated the project. Made to look like a bulletin-board hanging on a painted brick wall, complete with thumbtacks, paper clips, tape, photos, and notes on scraps of paper, the site gives the feel of a knowledgeable student offering a friend the inside scoop. Some notes are signed quotations by University students, others read like overheard advice, ranging from "Tutoring is NOT available during intersession" to "Don't feed the UMass squirrels—it makes them aggressive." Although there are a number of links to official campus Web sites, the user has to travel through several "The Point" bulletin boards to get to them, which reinforces the feeling that it is an electronic student space, not an administrative one. The bottom of each page reads, "This is an official page (believe it or not) of the University..." "It's a work in progress," Glynn said. "It's been in a pilot stage for some time, but we really went official for this year with the help of New Students Program." Academic Computing was basically contracted by Enrollment Services to do this," said Fred Zinn, multimedia applications designer. "One of the benefits that we brought to it is that we do a lot of our work with students. They did creative and informational brainstorming, and then we took the list back to Amy. Then they did the visual design and production of it. "There's a wonderful irreverence to it that the students brought, but we made sure that it didn't get too irreverent. We were looking for an authentic, positive student voice. That's why we did a lot of work with the New Students Program; it's students who are already excited about the University. We got pictures of them and quotes from them and got them to review the site for us. "[Senior] Charlotte Iest came up with the visual design, the idea of making the site up of stuff students would tack on their bulletin board. She really wanted to make something that would help other students. It really helped to have that kind of student passion on the project." The $40,000 for the project came from a grant received by Joseph Marshall, assistant vice chancellor for Enrollment Services, that was originally obtained to make a printed survival guide. "Two years ago I wrote a grant to create a publication targeted to all incoming students," he said. "But after a while it seemed pretty clear to us that the money would be better spent putting it into a Web site. Then we said, 'Let's do a lot of research because I don't want to create something that nobody's going to use.'" "I'm real happy with it because we used one-time money for a project that will continue for as long as the technology is available. "I don't mind paying for the research and the updates every year. All I want is to see it used. And from what I've heard so far, it's being used." Related Web sites: |
