WEBMASTERS COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

March 14, 2006

Present: Jamie Bethel, Tom Harmon, Charlie Kerlee, Jill Lenz, Erin Napier, Carrie Schmer, Linda Tarnoff, Sallie Varner, Merry Wright.

Tom Harmon and Erin Napier, Co-Chairs, began the meeting at 9:14 a.m.

New Business

1. Discuss ‘Student’ web page

   Currently the Student page is heavily focused on the PVM program and does not offer a link to undergraduate student information. The new proposed page, see http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/cvmbs/studentTEST.html, would have links to each of the 4 departments and the PVM student pages.

   Each department or unit listed on the proposed page needs to create an intermediary page that will be linked to from the new proposed student page to a page of information pertaining to students in the respective department or unit.

   For an example of the PVM student page, see http://www.cvmbs.colostate.edu/cvmbs/PVMStudentInfo.htm. Linda Tarnoff worked with Dr. Stewart on how to present the PVM program student information and the page Linda created has two links, one to "Prospective Veterinary Medical Student Information" and a second link to "Professional Veterinary Medical Student Information". Charlie mentioned the Clinical Sciences student page would link to graduate students only as there are no undergrad degrees and that would list links to residencies, Masters and PhD's. A brief introductory sentence may be included on your student page if desired - include whatever unique student information you think makes your page attractive to prospective students.

   It was decided that the timeline for this project would be as soon as possible, not to wait for the redesign templates. Please send your page's URL to Linda Tarnoff when done and she will activate the link to your new page.

2. Possible addition to the new look http://www.casa.colostate.edu/ - Merry Wright.

   Could the horizontal stripe background image be adopted in the new template look? Currently the background is a gradient image. Would it be too busy with the flyouts? While it is possible to do, Tom recommended this topic be saved for future discussion.

3. Request from Carol Borchert, E-Insight editor, to place a link to the Open House page or story on the college home page and the Veterinary Teaching Hospital home page. Jamie and Charlie agreed to add to their respective pages.

Old Business

1. College Undergraduate Committee Update – Erin Napier gave a report from the recent committee meeting which includes C.W. Miller, Kelly Swetich, Dave Gilkey, Erin Reichert, Lisa McCann and Susan Deines as members. They came up with the following wish list.
   • Consistent side navigation throughout all Undergraduate Web Pages. See distributed handout. The webmasters from departments with undergrad dregrees (BMS, ERHS and MIP) appreciated the well thought-out navigation created by the Undergraduate committee.
   • ‘Undergraduate’ Introductory web page text on all page. Text would be tailored to the individual department, BMS, ERHS, or MIP.
   • “Apply to CSU” needs to be more visible on Undergraduate & College Web Pages.
   • Have undergraduate students test the new look. Make modifications as needed.
   • College homepage needs more pictures of students. If you have pictures of students and an associated blurb for the College homepage "In The News" section, please send them to Jamie Bethel and he will post them for you.
2. CVMBS Redesign
   • Step One, share/review Top Navigation general categories for departments and college and determine the appropriate level of consistency throughout all college and dept Web Pages. Discussion followed.
     • Regarding the top navigation general categories, should it be "Academic Programs" or "Education"? Erin explained that MIP liked the idea of listing the 3 main missions: "Education", "Service" and "Research" although they are "iffy" on the category name "Service" and hopefully these categories will work for other departments. Merry mentioned that ERHS thought "Service" was too general and perhaps use "Service/Outreach" and they like "Academic Programs" vs. "Education". Sallie said BMS wants the categories to be more recognizable to meet audience meets but they want someone else to make the decision. Charlie said Dr. Lunn, Clinical Sciences Department Head, didn't like the mouse-over functionality and prefers the left navigation where everything is shown up front as in the current look. It was agreed the template navigation may not fit for every department page, but at least the background gradient, top navigation look and white content area would be consistent.
     • Faculty staff listings - would like to see more than just a list of names, but include what they do as well.
     • Regarding the links under the top banner, will they be the same as now? For example WebCT will most likely stay since we know many internal faculty users navigate to WebCT from that link, especially from the one on the college home page, but Tom said it's too early to say for sure what will end up there until more discussion and investigation.
     • Reminder about Paul Maffey's request for a Development link on the new templates - all agreed this should be included but are not clear about what Paul has in mind.
     • Home button. For department pages does this mean to the department home page or the college home page? What about for Linda's "Careers" page, where does the home button lead? Everyone agreed this was vague and will have rethink this one.
   • College home page reorganization brainstorming sessions. - Tom suggested that he, Erin and Linda meet for a brainstorming session and will report back to the committee.

   • Location of template files, review file structure for redesign.

     Tom will set up the following file structure, restricting search engine bots from this testing area. Shared images will be in the /images folder and specific images may be stored in an images subdirectory under your department folder. Tom will give Charlie access to the W drive, everyone else said they had access. Tom will email the group when these files are available.

     webmaster/redesign/images

     ../bms

     ../cs

     ../cvmbs

     ../erhs

     ../mip

   • Sub navigation Links need to be in the document text to meet accessibility needs. Because the sub navigation links are Javascript driven, if users have Javascript turned off the flyouts won't show, that is why these links need to be repeated in the content text or important navigation information would be missed.
   • Step Two, begin developing Department Top Navigation pages.

The meeting concluded at 10:05 am.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 11^th, 9:00-10:00 am, W1 A/Z.

Minutes submitted by Jill Lenz.

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