To the Campus Community:
Over the last several years, many who love UNC Asheville – both on and off campus – have highlighted the University’s Web site as one of our most pressing and urgent "missed opportunities."
Because there is so much interest in this important initiative, I thought you’d be pleased to know that after two years of planning we have recently begun the redesign and restructure of our campus Web site. Our Web site is, in many ways, our front porch, a primary way to begin an interaction and a dialog with all the audiences that are important to our University. This effort will bring us a step closer to fulfilling one of the key public responsibility initiatives in our Strategic Plan.
Results from market research that was commissioned last year provide some rich and compelling data on which to base our plans for this project. For example, we learned that many people, both near and far, don't know UNC Asheville as well as we would like them to know us. Building this new, externally focused Web site provides us the opportunity to tell our story in ways that invite and encourage people to want to know more.
I have assembled a 33-member Web Site Advisory Team comprising faculty, students, staff and alumni to give valuable guidance during the redesign effort, which will be led by Deborah Griffith, our interim associate vice chancellor for Communications and Marketing in the Alumni & Development division. Deborah, who came to UNC Asheville in January, previously led a highly successful Web redesign project at N.C. State University. The Web team also will give guidance to a professional Web design firm that will be chosen next month.
Because our Web site is so important to so many functions at UNC Asheville, the Web team will actively seek input from the campus community and will give regular reports and updates on the project as content and designs are reviewed. A new Web page has been created to keep the campus community up to date on the project and to encourage your feedback. It can be found at www.unca.edu/redesign . Although it is an aggressive schedule, we would like to have a new home page (and many of the secondary pages that are linked to it) ready for testing over the holiday break in December 2009 and implement the site in early 2010.
It is clear that the World Wide Web has undergone tremendous changes in technology and design since our site was last redesigned more than seven years ago. We are deeply grateful for the hard work of those who have maintained the current site as it has become more complex each year. Now, we have an opportunity to take advantage of new communication tools and trends and use the Web as the foundation for many of our communication efforts both internally and externally. It’s a truly exciting project that can make a difference in UNC Asheville’s future.
Anne Ponder
Chancellor