WELCOME TO A REDESIGNED WEB SITE AND NEWS PAGE

Do your virtual surroundings seem unfamiliar? You are on the newly redesigned Bryn Mawr College Web site, reading the College's new online news weekly, Bryn Mawr Now. The date of our first issue coincides with the site's launch date of Jan. 16, 2004; thereafter, Bryn Mawr Now will be published weekly on Thursdays during the academic year and less frequently during breaks. Submission guidelines and a Spring 2004 publication schedule are available on all the News pages, in the red internal navigation bar at the left-hand side of the page.

The new site offers a dramatically different look and improvements in navigation. The Web Advisory Group made use of substantial research into users' preferences in developing the site and asked representatives of various groups to preview it. WAG is grateful to everyone who participated in the process and especially to previewers, who offered many valuable suggestions as the site neared completion.

A key improvement to the site is its dynamic "gateway" pages tailored to several groups of intensive users of the site: prospective undergraduates, current students, faculty, staff, alumnae and parents. Staff members who work with these user groups on a regular basis will maintain the gateway pages, as follows:

• Prospective students: Maureen McGonigle, associate director of Admissions and director of admissions communications
  
  
• Current Students: Carolyn Lloyd, assistant director of Residential Life
  
  
• Faculty: Jean Lacovara, science node coordinator and communications officer, Information Services
  
  
• Staff: David Petty, administrative node coordinator and AIS systems administrator, Information Services
  
  
• Alumnae: Sara Macro Forrest, senior project manager, Alumnae Association
  
  
• Parents: Claudia Ginanni, Web content manager, Public Affairs

The College's Web Advisory Group, which oversaw the redevelopment of the site, hopes to make the site more responsive to users by decentralizing maintenance in this way. Another move in this direction is the jettisoning of departmental pages created by Public Affairs. Departments that have their own home pages will now be linked directly; Public Affairs will continue to maintain pages only for departments that have no Web presence of their own.

WAG also aims to provide enhanced support for Web publishers around campus through Senior Instructional Technologist Laura Blankenship, Language Learning Center Director Ben Johnston and Web Content Manager Claudia Ginanni. For help with Web stewardship issues, e-mail webhelp@brynmawr.edu.

The site's "go live" date was set for Jan. 16, three days before the first day of classes, to give its developers time to correct the inevitable glitches and problems that arise with a new site. If you find problems, please contact WAG at wag@brynmawr.edu.

<<Back to Bryn Mawr Now 1/16/2004