At the beginning of this school year, the home page of the CSB/SJU website had changed. As well as logging on to the internet, students also log on to the CSB/SJU intranet, or SharePoint. At first glance, the new page seems foreign, yet after further review, the CSB/SJU SharePoint homepage is very similar to the www.csbsju.edu web page. However, SharePoint is neither as thorough nor complete as our .edu page. It perplexes me why the school made this shift.
Along with recent news stories relating to the school, the SharePoint website hosts the Study Abroad Photo Contest winners. Although it is nice to see the experiences of our fellow students abroad, I am not sure what the purpose is for displaying these photos year round. In other words, one issue I have noticed with our SharePoint site is the lack of recent updates compared to our .edu site. Another example is the three links on the right side of the page under “Featured Links”. The first is “HR in Your Corner”. For those of you who do not know, HR stands for “Human Resources” and features minute information for us students. The next link is titled “IMHO” meaning “in my humble opinion” and is a blog by Glenda Isaacs Burgeson last updated on Friday, August 26th, 2011. The last link goes to the good ol’ bookstore, a tab I personally only use twice a year when buying books. I do not understand how a Human Resource update, a blog updated once in 6 months, and how the book store website are considered features of our school.
Meanwhile, our .edu page is updated both on the top with revolving pictures as links to new stories and at the bottom under “News/Events” with different tabs. Additionally, the A-Z indexes are considerably disproportionate in size. The SharePoint index lists every link available within one page. On the other hand, the .edu index requires one to click on the letter to find what he or she is looking for.
Another disadvantage is for club sports that do not have the privilege of being featured on our school’s athletic websites. These clubs have a SharePoint website that is only accessible with a CSB/SJU username and password. It is difficult for prospective students interested in these clubs and sports to obtain relevant information. This could ultimately sway a prospective student away from our schools.
These small issues with SharePoint add up in the long run. Why have our institutions made it more difficult for prospective students to find information? Why have they made it more difficult for current students to see what is occurring and is relevant around campus?
To me, the CSB/SJU SharePoint is neither developed nor accommodating enough to be our school’s homepage.