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Senate, ITS to revamp Senate webpage

By Ryan Schwertfeger for The Yellow Jacket 4 min read

Outdated. Stagnant. Bland. Almost pointless.

Some students and members of the Waynesburg University Student Senate have used these strong adjectives to describe the Student Senate’s current webpage. However, those feelings will not be true for long.

A newly formed taskforce called the Student Senate Website Committee has partnered with Waynesburg University’s Information Technology Services to revamp, update and bring transparency to Student Senate through their webpage, found in the form of a tab located on the myConnect homepage.

John Wicker, Student Senate treasurer and chair of the Website Committee, explained this was a priority sent straight from the top of the Senate because of the current lack of outreach, knowledge and public information about Student Senate among students on campus.

“The website development committee happened to be one of the objectives [Student Senate President Joshua Dains] wanted to accomplish,” said Wicker. “For one thing, both Josh and my fellow committee members want to make it easier for people to get to know all of the senators through a biography page and show that they are human beings that want to help all of the students on campus.”

Guiding the committee throughout its webpage upgrade is ITS Applications Training and Support Specialist, Dave Patton.

Patton noted that while several steps will need to be taken to update the Senate page, the most important part would be the training of a member of the Senate to be able to make the appropriate edits necessary on a day-to-day basis.

“We will be the support to help the assigned student editor make the changes at their own pace and at their own fingertips,” said Patton.

While the official student page editor will most likely need to be confirmed by the Senate, Wicker noted that Student Senate Secretary Chelsea Dicks would be the most logical choice to assume the role.

“The administrative training process is definitely an important step, and we would most likely have our secretary be the administrator of the website since she takes care of all the minutes and agendas of the Senate meetings,” said Wicker. “She would be the one who would need to be constantly updating the website with the new documents, and so she needs to know how to use the website and upload the information so we do not have to always rely on ITS to do something for us.”

As for the actual page content, both Patton and Wicker agreed not only should information be up-to-date, but should contain a variety of information that can answer a student’s question about the Senate.

Patton reiterated that the biggest threat to the goals of the overhaul is the potential “staleness of information” that could exist, but he added that while ITS will certainly help with any problems posting or updating the page, ITS is “not in the writing business, so submitting and posting content will be up to the person in the posting role.”

Wicker said that his committee has already been working on what aspects to keep about the webpage and what will be new and improved.

“One of the most important things is that we keep our comment box where students can ask the Senate any question they might have for us,” said Wicker. “While it is also important to have the constitution and bylaws posted, most students come to our page because they are probably in need of something. For example, if that’s information about past and upcoming meetings, then meetings and agendas need to be not only up to date but also easy to find.”

Bill Dumire, chief information officer for Waynesburg University, praised the website committee in saying that the Senate is taking an organized approach to updating the site.

“This update will be very beneficial to our students so they can have easy to access information on the senate’s myConnect page,” said Dumire.

What remains to be seen is whether other groups and organizations with myConnect webpage tabs will be inspired to update their own pages upon seeing the newly upgraded senate tab.

“Some other groups who have tabs are very active, while others are more stagnant,” said Dumire. “But once people see the updated information, it is quite possible that other people may ask for a similar update or change on their page as well.”

In the short term, while the website committee and ITS continue to meet and work on getting the new senate page reorganized, the committee encourages students to check back frequently on myConnect to see when the new page is finally revealed.

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