I frequently am asked by people, both on and off campus, about the make-up of our Web team in Web Communications. It always seems to come as a surprise how few people are actually full-time staff members of our central Web Communications office. In actual fact, there are only 4 people, including me, that belong solely to the central Web team. All of the other staff that reside here belong in whole, or in part, to other partners on campus who have decided to work closely with us to achieve specific campus-wide goals.
For instance, our Web Communications staff members are all I-Net Administrators, although they sometimes use other working titles to more accurately identify what level of responsibility they hold or the broad spectrum of work they do. I'll ask each of them to make an effort to talk more about their own jobs and duties here on the blog. It's always helpful to hear it directly from the person who handles the job!
In addition, we have a full-time staff member who is a dual-report to both Web Communications and Admissions. Her job title is Student Recruitment Information Specialist. This is an example of an important partnership that has been in place for about a year. Web Communications is responsible for managing the Admissions Web site. Christine Deane is the staff member who is responsible for being a functional and engaged member of both staffs so that work can be done more effectively. So far, it's been a great success!
Because the undergraduate admissions partnership worked so well, we were able to invite two members of the Graduate School to join us in our office space. While their reporting relationship is still with the Graduate School, they, like Christine Deane, split their time between both departments. The benefits go both ways. They are able to become more familiar with our practices here, learn more about the content management system and are in the communications loop that helps them integrate their Web communications more effectively. In return, we are learning more about the needs of graduate students, the goals and vision for graduate recruitment and what tools and resources are most valuable to that community. We are able to identify redundancies in our work and to determine who should be doing what, saving time and eventually dollars in the process. In return, we also invite these extended team members to join us in planning and building elements of central Web resources that will ultimately be used by their department. All around a win-win situation for our campus Web presence.
There are other partnerships in place or currently under consideration. I'll share more about these and how they are helping us build a more integrated, usable and professional Web presence across MU. I'd be happy to hear how others on campus are doing the same.
I’d like to commend all of you on your achievements thus far with the MU website. While I am no longer a student of the UM system, and actually only attended MU for a semester before deciding to return to the St. Louis campus, I have always felt that the MU campus was the only campus that had a vision for their web presence. Your achievements have only stregthened my belief.
Being a web designer myself for the past 9 years, I’ve always wondered why more emphasis was not put forth for such a powerful medium - especially in a university setting and especially in a public facing site. I am happy to hear that you are integrating usability and information architecture techniques into your model as well. These are in my opinion the most important steps that can be taken with such a large endeavor.
If you are ever looking to expand your team, I certainly would be interested in pursuing any possibilities.
Keep up the great work. It is very impressive.