September 11, 2000

The website for the Stamford cmapus has been extensively revised - but it still looks familiar to regular users of the University's web pages.

That's because the new Stamford site has been rebuilt using The website for the Stamford campus has been extensively revised - but it still looks familiar to regular users of the University's web pages.

the templates and graphics made available when the UConnWeb was re-designed and re-launched last March.

Jacquelyn Joseph-Silverstein, associate vice chancellor and director of the Stamford campus, is enthusiastic about the change.

"We are very excited about the new site. Using the look of the University website goes with the approach we are developing for the campus marketing plan," she says. "It clearly states 'This is who we are in the larger picture of the University.'"

Oskar Harmon, associate professor of economics and webmaster for the Stamford campus, has high praise for the UConnWeb format.

"The template looks great and very professional and was easy to use," Harmon says.

The redesign of the website was coordinated by Andrea Karls, associate director for community relations, who gathered information and wrote the copy.

"The overhaul of the Stamford Campus website is a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase the changes going on at this campus," says Karls. "Technology is becoming pervasive here and the web overhaul is both a reflection of the changes and a gateway for students into the University. It is also another chance for us to communicate with the external community."

Karls says the goal for the website "is to describe our distinctive features, our talent, resources, and opportunities existing here, and provide links to the University website."

In addition to adopting the UConn-Web format, the new Stamford site includes links to emphasize some new on-line services: the new UConn Webmail system of e-mail that provides access from anywhere to UConn e-mail accounts; and the new version of WebCT, the on-line academic course system that enables students to access their course information through the Internet.

Because UConn-Stamford is a commuter campus, Harmon expects the new e-mail system and the on-line instructional materials to promote student awareness of and participation in the campus community. Also on the page:

• Search engines for the entire UConnWeb and the new on-line e-mail/telephone directory;
  
  
• A search form for finding Stamford events listed in the on-line University Master Calendar, which is maintained on the Storrs campus.
  
  

On its page for "Contacting UConn," the site also has links to all the on-line forms that students, faculty and staff at the Stamford campus may need. These include forms to request information about programs, update entries in the directories, request classroom reservations and submit Stamford events to the University Master Calendar.

Harmon says the demands of research pull many faculty off-campus and the on-line forms and calendars are a "virtual" counter-weight that will increase faculty involvement in the day-to-day activities of the campus community.

The programming for the site was done entirely by a student worker, Vincent Gullotta, a sophomore majoring in electrical engineering. Gullotta is now a junior at the main campus in Storrs. He will continue to develop and maintain the website "virtually" from Storrs.

Mark J. Roy