YU Web Site Revamped

New System to Allow Easy Faculty Access

Yeshiva University's official web site underwent a major face lift last week. New graphics and a comprehensive set of links on the front page give the site a look and feel more consistent with other major university's sites. In addition, the site was moved from its old home on the ymail UNIX server to a Windows environment. The change was made in order to make it easier for many people to create and be responsible for their own content on the site.

Tom Deering, Coordinator of Web Services for the YU MIS department, said that the project to revamp the web site began last March in search of a way to give people more access to put their material on line. With no official rules or procedures regarding what content was appropriate for the site, the prevailing attitude was to be conservative, and thus very little content made it on to the site. The new setup is designed to streamline the process of posting pages online. This is done by using software called Microsoft FrontPage, which gives people a graphical layout of their section of the site, or "web," and allows them to create content as easily as using a word processor. Deering will be giving a class on Tuesdays, starting this week, in how to create web pages with FrontPage.

Deering described the procedure for getting material online as follows: Anyone interested in working on part of the web site must apply for an account. The application can be printed off the web and will have to be signed by the person in charge of that section of the site, known as the content owner. This would be professors for their own pages and a dean or administrator for the sections of the site relating to their functions. Once someone has an account, he can use that account to connect to an internal staging server accessible only to authorized users using FrontPage, and can then create the content. This can only be done on a computer that is part of the YU Internet network. When the pages have been created or updated, the content owner will look at the new pages on the staging server, again only accessible from a computer on the YU network. If the content owner approves, he sends an email to Deering indicating which pages are ready to go up, and if the pages fit the predefined rules of style, Deering will promote those pages to the main web site for all the world to see.

To facilitate ease of access, the YC Deans' office has been connected to the YU Internet network. In addition, MIS will be installing FrontPage on the lab computers. According to Joe McGoldrick of MIS, the software will be installed at least on the new Dell machines in computer rooms 1103 and 1111. However, due to space constraints, they may not be able to install it on the library computers.

MIS has purchased a site license for FrontPage, which will cover only installations in the computer rooms. Faculty members who wish to be able to use the software will have to purchase their own copies or have their department pay for the copy. However, by purchasing it through YU, they will be able to obtain the software at a significant discount.

Reaction to the new site was mixed. Menachem Berkowitz, President of the YU Computer Science Club, said that "aesthetics aside, the problem with the YU web site is its lack of useful content. Only time will tell whether the new system will alleviate this problem." YC Dean Norman Adler had not yet seen the new site, but stressed that the major advantage of the new system would be the "proliferation of faculty pages." He was confident that the system would be met with enthusiasm by his staff, saying, "They [the faculty] have been waiting for it. It's going to take off."

Decisions on what type of content will be allowed on the site will be made by David Rosen, Director of Public Relations. Faculty and academic content will be less tightly controlled; however, Rosen will be the final arbiter of all administrative content. He stressed that admissions and alumni affairs are going to be his main priority. Currently, neither department has any representation on the web site.

As for student content, Rosen stated that he was hoping to meet with Dean of Student Affairs Efrem Nulman to discuss the possibility of giving space to student clubs and activities. When asked whether student home pages or student publications such as The Commentator would be allowed on the site, Rosen responded with a definite "no." Rosen explained that "the purpose of the site is to promote the educational and advancement functions of the university, to help faculty and academic deans teach and conduct research, and to help departments reach constituencies that they need for financial or other support. It is not a platform to enable students to express themselves individually or politically." While the opportunity to create both individual pages and sites for student publications is given to students at almost all top-tier universities, Rosen did not see any need for YU to change its web policy. He explained, "Some schools provide [their web sites] as a public service -- a free-for-all, and that is not what this site is about."