New website goes live

The university’s web presence, www.hamline.edu, has undergone design and software changes with the “ultimate goal of bringing the Hamline promise to the online experience,” said Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications Jen Thorson.

According to Harry Pontiff, the chief information officer, a new website for the university has been needed for at least five years, but the funds simply were not available.

“The price tag was astronomical. Now it can be done for half the price it would have cost three years ago,” he said.

Pontiff believes that the new website is important because “Web communication is how you build communities. It’s how you present yourself to the outside world.”

“The old site wasn’t very exceptional, and it wasn’t very personable,” said Thorson.

The new design comes courtesy of Larsen Design + Interactive, a Minneapolis-based marketing and communications firm.

According to Pontiff, Larsen polled staff and faculty to find a design that would satisfy the dissimilar campus departments and schools.

It took eight months of revisions before a navigation system was finalized, which made up the bulk of the effort that went into creating the new website.

The site will utilize a new software tool, a content management system (CMS). According to the website redesign webpage: “CMS allows for consistent interface and navigational cues and navigational cues for the entire site, while distributing its maintenance to the university units or departments via an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop website interface.”

What this means, according to Pontiff, is that individual schools and departments at the university will now be able to maintain their webpages without the need for highly technical web developers. The deans of the law and graduate schools, as well as the CLA, will be able to easily control and change the content of their individual pages, without having to go through a single “web guru.”

“Every department can have control of their piece of the puzzle,” said Pontiff.

Pontiff said the next step will involve the “grunt work” of going through the site’s 30,000-plus pages and reformatting all pages to the new design. “Somebody has to make a decision to keep it or throw it out.”

The Web Implementation Team, made up of the former web gurus for different university departments and led by Desta Collier, assistant director of admissions, will be responsible for making these decisions.
Pontiff predicts the process will take at least one year.

Ice cream and environmentalism

Offering flavors like “Almond Biscotti” and “Peace Coffee,” Izzy’s Ice Cream Cafe is a favorite with Twin
Cities dessert lovers. Now in its fourth year of business, Izzy’s has received rave reviews from
publications such as The Rake, which dubbed the shop “Best Place in Town for Dessert 2002.”

But will the locally owned cafe also soon benefit from environmentalists looking for a new hangout?

Plans to add a solar roof to the Marshall Ave. shop are creating a buzz with both average ice-cream enthusiasts and those concerned with alternative energy development. If the roof is completed, it will make Izzy’s one of only two cafes in the Twin Cities that runs on energy from sunlight.

*Letter to the Editor* What are all the white Americans afraid of?

Some Hamline students are afraid of their neighbors. “I’m not going to lie and say that the area around here is safe, because it isn’t,” said Regina (Oct. 12 Oracle). Also in the Oct. 12 issue, Carly Schaps raises concerns about foreign terrorists: “The only way that we can know that the people who are coming into this country are not terrorists is to keep records on them.” Everyone wants to feel safe, but many white Americans have a skewed sense of danger.

This isn’t because we’re stupid, it is because of the false information we receive from our schools, our neighbors, and the media.

Mad, mad Manchester and the strange story of ‘24 Hour Party People’

There comes a time in every young man’s or woman’s life where there exists a vast empty void, a veritable plethora of emptiness that glares back across the abyss. Unfeeling. Soulless.

And that space for me exists here, in the Entertainment section of the Oracle. I stand resolved to fill that space.

Writers in past issues have often taken advantage of these pages to bring to attention noteworthy films, music or art that deserves exposure to a wider audience. Now it’s my turn.

St. Olaf outlasts women’s soccer in 1-0 win; team hit hard by Carleton College

Despite being outshot 15-10, the Pipers were able to hold St. Olaf to a 1-0 win during 90 minutes of well-played soccer last Tuesday.

The lone goal came off Ole Kelsay Watt, who scored 21:18 into the first half to lead her team over Hamline.

Hamline (3-8-1, 1-4 MIAC) had a chance late in the game to convert a goal on a conner kick in the last 20 seconds of play, but time ran out on the clock before the Pipers could get a shot off.

Point/Counterpoint: College Republicans

Health care may be the most important domestic issue facing the United States. Even the wealthy are having a hard time keeping up with health care costs. President Bush has been doing an excellent job addressing these issues without resorting to national health care, a system that, if implemented, would do more harm than good.

The first things President Bush created were Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). HSAs offer flexible, affordable insurance options for small businesses and individuals. Americans who buy low-cost, high-deductible health care plans can save tax-free money to pay for routine medical expenses, as well as save for the future.