New Web Stuff is Good Stuff

Two Web projects are underway that will provide better access to UNC Charlotte for current and prospective students, parents, staff, faculty. It's fun stuff.

A complete redesign of uncc.edu, completed now and integrated step by step over the next two years (beginning in late July)will present a new face to the entire world. The new site will be easier to navigate and will tell the story of an amazing university community in more dyanamic ways. Using an open source content management system, it will be much easier, and far more affordable for web managers to update and it will accommodate print, graphic and video content much more easily than the current Web site. The new look is clean, fresh and uncluttered. The new feel is contemporary, dynamic and upbeat. The process of developing the new design, funtionality, templates and purpose has been a tremendous achievement of teamwork by more than 30 people campus-wide.

The other project is an updated, interactive version of Campus News, the web newsletter targeted to faculty and staff. Campus News was published online as a PDF only a few years ago. It moved to a web format two years ago, but has continued to be published weekly and is presented as a more traditonal one-way oracle. That will change by late August when Campus News, using the same Drupal content management system as uncc.edu will debut a whole new range of functionality and interactive features. Readers -- or better yet, patrons -- of Campus News will be able to post messages, comment on articles, send e-cards to colleagues, take surveys, and enjoy a wider range content. We'll update the site multiple times per week.

Also through the web, we made great strides with our Facebook page, with almost 8,500fans using it as a forum. We're using Twitter as well, to help tell followers about good things at the university. And our YouTube channel is packed with content for all types of viewers.

At UNC Charlotte, we're accustomed to doing good things with limited resources, but even so, the grueling recession has been an exceptional challenge. Yet we're moving forward to make communication better and more meaningful to our campus community and those interested in it. Stay tuned. More fun web stuff is on the way.