A series of hiccups among student organization websites has prompted Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta to explore options for creating increased technical support for the websites.
The project, still in its initial stages, could result in a new organization for website facilitation and development housed in the Division of Student Affairs.
Currently, technical support for student group websites is scattered among various offices on campus. The Office of Information Technology hosts most of the Duke University Union website, while Duke Student Publishing Company programs for DevilNet and Duke Student Government. Many more student organization websites are run independently by group webmasters and have experienced little technical difficulty, although Moneta said that students are sometimes unaware of the avenues by which they can create webpages.
Student Affairs is currently considering and pricing various models for technical support infrastructure. Moneta said the process is only in initial stages, partly because no predominant model for student organization technical support has been established at academic institutions.
"It's pretty [much] all over the place because nobody's really budgeted to do that," he said.
The inquiries into technical support infrastructures come after unrelated disturbances in the flow of Internet activity among student organization websites in recent months, Moneta said. Most notably, the crash of the Union's server last June forced it to outsource its calendar of events because it could not afford to purchase a new server. OIT continues to host the remainder of the Union's website.
"Sometimes technical support is lacking," said sophomore Rio Pierce, communications director for the Union. "I know there are a lot of initiatives to develop technical support and the Union is looking forward to that."
Problems also arose during this fall's DSG elections. Although the online voting system reportedly ran smoothly, there was a frenzied period of preparation for the election due to communication failures that sparked concern in the administration, said DSPC online manager Seth Lankford.
He added that DSPC--an independent corporation that also publishes The Chronicle--has decided to shift its focus away from facilitating external groups, but that organizations such as DSG should not be left without technical support.
"We're mainly going to be working on things internal to DSPC now like DevilNet and The Chronicle," said Lankford, a junior. "Once the administration gets its plans up and operational, that should be what's going to take care of all the student groups."
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