New Web site a work in progress
Since the end of the 2008 spring semester, the University made it known that its Web site would be undergoing significant changes. When the new site went live last week, the Fairfield student and faculty did not share the same enthusiasm as members of the administration.
The University’s efforts to undertake this costly project do not go unnoticed. The new site is visually attractive, with many more multimedia aspects and pictures of current students participating in activities. But, only a few clicks into the site leads to pesky ‘page not found’ messages.
Prospective Fairfield students will visit the site in coming weeks to determine their future at the University and to find more information about the institution. But for current and future students and faculty, missing links and other minor bugs may be counterproductive to the University’s goal of making its site user-friendly.
The new Web site, like many other projects that the University wants to see succeed, is a work in progress. Fairfield.edu’s recent facelift is a step in the right direction, but more ongoing efforts among faculty, staff and students are needed to make the site close to flawless.
ResLife survey doesn’t reveal much
In September, Residence Life announced plans to hold a survey to evaluate a variety of options on how to improve the housing lottery system. Now with the results reaching the public, it is even clearer that there is no single option that is going to solve the ongoing problem.
Unless every student on campus is guaranteed the exact housing, on or off campus, that he or she wishes to have, complaints will continue to roll into the Residence Life office.
The results of the survey proved that even students, at least the 1,110 who responded, couldn’t even agree on a fix. In the survey, which was conducted in December 2008, 46 percent of respondents voted for the group random lottery (which is currently in place for the off-campus boarder lottery), 36 percent voted for a GPA/credit based system and 18 percent voted for the de-merit system.
Residence Life hopes to avoid controversy with a new process, but unless they create a system where feedback can easily be heard and where situations can be worked out in a fair manner, controversy will remain. Housing is one of the top concerns of students, right up with which courses they are taking and where they will party on a Friday night. Until new buildings are completed to house each class in housing of an equal level, Residence Life will be forced to deal with the issues that arise every year.
It is impossible to make everyone happy, but as this survey proves, no one seems to know how to make anyone happy when it comes to housing at Fairfield.
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