The development of a Student Web Advisory Team is underway, according to Associate Vice President of Communications for Marketing and Publications Robert Kerr. The group, expected to begin meeting in March, will give students the opportunity to "guide Bowdoin's presence on the net," said Kerr.
Participation on the Web Advisory Team has recently been advertised through the Student Digest. There is no application process and any student who is interested in participating can join, said Kerr.
"The Web at Bowdoin has evolved really quickly over the last few years," said Kerr. "It is moving faster now than it ever has before."
But the design and status of Bowdoin's Web site, as well as the College's presence on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, have been formulated by the administration.
"We need student involvement," Kerr said. "We need to have more student voices in what we are doing."
Kerr hopes that the student team will help come up with ideas to aid in the ever-changing process of Web development.
Students on the Web Advisory Team will meet three to four times a year to "put a Web strategy on the table," said Kerr.
Kerr has heard from six students but would like to see even greater participation on the part of the student body.
"The Web is something that everybody uses. You don't have to be a technologist to use it," he said.
Kern said he encourages all students interested in joining the Web Advisory Team to contact him directly.
"There are a lot of tech jobs in the world and running a large complex Web site seems to be a good opportunity" for students to gain experience, he said.
Gaining student participation will offer the College Web site and Web presence a "fresh perspective," according to Kerr. It is "healthy" he said, "to have young eyes" in the realm of social networking and Web development.
It is particularly important in attracting people to the College.
"More people will visit the site in a month than will visit the campus in a year."
"The Web site" Kerr said, "touches every audience of the College, and it has to work for all those audiences. We have to make it work for everybody."
Kerr said he does not have any specific complaints about the current Web site but he does feel that student input "can make it more dynamic."
"I used to work at Brown University," where he said department Web sites, student Web sites, and administrative Web sites "didn't match up."
"Bowdoin solved that problem years ago. It is a big hurdle, a big accomplishment," he said.
But that doesn't mean that there isn't room for change. The Web site is in a "constant state of improvement" said Kerr.
"The day we launch a site is when the work begins, not the day it ends."