CFR Web Advisory Committee Minutes
November 27, 2007
Attending: Diemer, Mehlin, Panza, Paul, West
Absent: Lutz, Morrrison, Moskal, Trudeau
1. Jon announced that he sent the updated specifications document to UW
Publications Services last Wednesday (11/21), but hasn’t heard back from them yet.
He also sent it to WAC members right before this meeting.
2. We discussed compliance with W3C DOCTYPE standards, and Tracy suggested
that we adhere to the “strict” standard, which works better with newer technology,
such as XML. We agreed that we will avoid the use of “transitional” by moving
content from the old files into the new framework and making corrections as needed.
If this proves too time consuming, we can keep track of which pages are
“transitional” and upgrade them as time permits.
3. As we started our discussions on content, Cecilia suggested that we should
consider organization before, and separate from, content. We discussed the overall
design and agreed that the current site layout does not have to be radically changed.
The only possible exception is the top-level menu item “Educational Outreach.”
Tracy said she wasn’t sure exactly what it meant. She and Cecilia will do some
investigation of other sites and see what changes, if any, we will need to make on
ours.
4. We started discussing content, and agreed that some areas will require extensive
revision. The ones we identified today are:
Undergraduate programs: Information is not easy to find. For example, Jeff
suggested that we create a page for prospective students, and specifically, that we
include information for students transferring from community colleges, as they often
don’t complete their science and math prerequisites before enrolling at CFR. Also,
there should be many photos of students doing field and lab work. Jeff mentioned
the Cornell ornithology lab as a good example.
CFR Organization chart: Steve said that this needs updating.
5. One important area that Steve brought up was that sufficient resources will be
required to maintain this website. The discussion of this topic included the need to
designate people to be responsible for ongoing content maintenance in each major
area, e.g., Student Services for the Academic Programs content area. Also, to
encourage faculty members to keep their websites/pages up to date, an item could
be included in their work planning documents and possibly included in PMT
evaluations. Most importantly, the Dean and Faculty Chair have to be behind this
effort, as the content of the CFR website reflects (for better or worse) on the College
as a whole.
6. Finally, we talked about storage space and the requirements for this website now
and in the future. Jon will look into this and report back next meeting.
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, December 4, 10-11 AM, Anderson 107A
WACMinutes112007.doc
Page 1 of 1