At the Graduate and Professional Student Council meeting Tuesday night, General Assembly members voted to reallocate $6,200 from a retreat that never took place last Fall to Web site development.
A complete redesign of the GPSC Web site—based on a template created by Duke Web Services—will cost between $3,500 and $6,000 and take about 11 weeks. Unused funds will be returned to GPSC.
“The template-based development mitigates our expenses while providing fuller flexibility while designing the Web site,” said Vice President Adam Pechtel, a third-year law student.
GPSC’s Executive Board has drafted a new menu system and will decide on specific changes to the Web site to make it more user-friendly. The template, which is based on other Duke Web sites, will fit in with the “Duke Web site visual appeal,” Pechtel said.
“The key issue was that people complained that the Web site wasn’t intuitive; it wasn’t user friendly,” said Communications Coordinator Rolando Estrada, a graduate student in computer science.
Estrada said the Web site has almost been completely transferred to the Office of Information Technology servers. He added that GPSC leaders eventually hope to integrate more Duke server features, including classified advertisements and calendars.
Treasurer Emeline Aviki, a student in Fuqua and the School of Medicine, noted that it would be less expensive to hire a group of students to develop the Web site instead.
General Assembly members said they think that a group of students would not be as experienced as a professional service, and that it was worth the investment to have the Web site professionally developed.
“Trust me, if I were my boss I would’ve rather hired a... team,” said Inderpreet Jalli, a second-year biology graduate student who has Web site developing experience.
The Web site will likely be updated again in five years and redeveloped in 10 years, Pechtel noted.
To ease the transition to new leadership, Estrada said he will be available to help the new communications coordinator become comfortable with the Web site at the beginning of next semester.
In other business:
Last Thursday, the Basketball Committee elected new co-Chairs Rebecca Wilusz, a biomedical engineering graduate student, and Allison Schmitt, a graduate student in chemistry.
The General Assembly will approve Wilusz and Schmitt at its April 6 meeting, and the Basketball Committee policy meeting will take place April 1.
“This would be a great opportunity to reintegrate [the Basketball Committee and GPSC],” Pechtel said.
Students on the Basketball Committee have a better chance of obtaining a ticket to the game, said current co-Chair Felicia Hawthorne, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in genetics and genomics. A number of tickets are set aside as discretionary tickets, and committee members have the opportunity to usher games.
At the April 6 and April 13 GPSC meetings, the General Assembly will elect new Executive Board and Board of Trustees Representatives. General Assembly members will also vote on the new strategic plan, the 2010-2011 budget and bylaw amendments, and approve the Krzyzewskiville Campout policy.
Progress on the Strategic Plan can be monitored online.
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