The Utah State University-College of Eastern Utah website looks and feels quite different this week after the debut of its latest revision.
The change was made in coordination with recent enhancements made to the main USU website under the direction of University Webmaster, Ben Renard-Wiart. The new USU Eastern site largely incorporates the university web template while maintaining the important distinctions of the USU Eastern brand, Renard-Wiart said.
This is the first major change in two years for the site and the first since the two schools officially joined forces nearly one year ago.
It is a notable first step in the developmental stages reflecting the merger between the former College of Eastern Utah and Utah State University. The changes are subtle but essential. The content management system provides crucial infrastructure upon which the new USU Eastern website will be built, said Tom Weidner, USU Eastern web administrator.
“The initial improvements have to do with the underlying architecture,” he said. “EzPlug provides the basis for a common visitor experience and an easy and universal web content management interface for USU web material providers.”
Actual content additions and improvements will be made in the months ahead. All existing web content has now migrated from the old website to the new one. In advance of fall semester, Weidner said those in the college responsible for web content within various academic and non-academic divisions need to coordinate with their respective vice chancellors to get started with content improvements and validations.
This work is particularly noteworthy since it reflects the new union of the two schools at a highly visible level.
“This is the public face of USU Eastern,” he said. “These improvements will eventually benefit prospective and current students, alumni, faculty, staff and the community.”
The changes took about four months in planning and roughly three months to get them ready for implementation.
While the most challenging part is yet to come, migrating to EzPlug for the new site has been highly rewarding, Weidner said. “It’s allowing us to view the end of the tunnel despite some labor-intensive months that lie ahead.”