The Chanticleer

Issue date: 4/17/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Illustration courtesy of Graham Wright A look at JSU's new Web presence, which will continue to be found at www.jsu.edu.

JSU's more than decade-old Web site is getting a facelift. The site has remained virtually unchanged since the early to mid-1990s, according to Graham Lewis, one of the remodelers. By mid-May, the team hopes to have the site in operation.

"The motivation behind the new Web site was acquiring new students," Tim Garner, director of marketing for JSU, said. "We have to communicate JSU's product, JSU's image, JSU's reputation, to that prospective student. The Web site is our first marketing line of defense that we have, and our website was outdated."

Those entering the new site will find three portals — one each for future students, parents and family, and alumni. Lewis said these portals are intended to make the site more user-friendly.

"We are hoping this will better direct people that actually come in where to go," Lewis said. "If you click future students, this gives you a link list, basically of what a student coming in would want. If you go back and do parents and family, it's going to have stuff a parent would want to know."

Garner says parents of first-generation students can click on the parents and family link and virtually get a checklist to guide them through the process.

"When I came to Jacksonville State University, my mom had one of those little manuals, and she had to go through the whole thing to figure it out. She would have loved to have had a step one, step two, step three," Garner says. "It's like sending my kid to school 101."

A banner at the top of the page will have a graphic that rotates every time the page is loaded. Each one represents a different aspect of JSU. One is a photograph of a football player, and clicking on it takes visitors to the Gamecock Sports page.

"My hope for the second round of this is to have most of this interactive, flash based — Tim (Garner) was wanting to do some podcasting — just make it more fun," Lewis said. "You know, people visit and come back. You want them to come back and say, 'What's happening now?'"

The university's admissions office is working on a virtual tour of the campus dubbed You-niversity, according to Lewis, that will eventually be included on the new Web site. A virtual tour of the library is also in the works.

The Web site is based off an entirely new system, called Luminus Content Management System, which was installed after winter break. The system is from the same company that created the Banner system the school uses.

Lewis said JSU is one of the first groups in the country to use the system.

"We are sort of a test group in that we helped find bugs for them," Lewis said.

"This will go live, hopefully (in) mid May, but it will only be six areas: the homepage, admissions, distance education, the library, financial aid, registrar, and housing," Lewis said. "We're just going to roll out the main things we thought people would visit, and then we're just (adding) on (the rest) as we finish."

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