SG Update 01/25

RIT Rebranding: Launching a New Web Plan

Director of University Web Services Raman Bhalla presented the newly-designed RIT website. This redesign is part of the university’s rebranding and aims to organize our web presence while creating the sense of a unified university brand. Bhalla gave Student Government (SG) a first look at the web pages as they will appear after the official launch. According to Bhalla, the outside company hired to help in redesigning and reorganizing our web presence has also worked with large universities such as University of Michigan and University of Miami, and has done work with the HBO drama series “Game of Thrones.”

The homepage of the new web design has a top bar that allows you to navigate according to your relationship to the university: future/current student, parent, faculty/staff, alumni, etc. Users can scroll down to a “Meet the President” section, and a live feed of the university’s various social media channels. One noticeable change is that the slideshow is replaced with a professionally-produced 30-second video that gives an overview of RIT student life from athletics to academics. Also, on the prospective students page, there is no longer an academic division by college; instead, they will be divided by general areas of study.

When you go to the page for a specific college, you will find that there is a 30-second video demonstrating some of the larger degree programs. This feature and the overall design are consistent with the home page and with the pages of the other colleges. Scrolling down will lead you to a “Meet the Dean” section. There will also be new professional photographs of every faculty member within a college on their respective college’s web page.

The MyRIT webpage also now shows you resources specific to your college so that students know what help is available to them.

When asked how all the faculty will be able to upload to the site or make changes over time, Bhalla responded that there will be 55 directory delegates provided on campus to assist faculty with creating updates. When asked how long it will take for the entire RIT website to be completely redesigned, Bhalla responded that he is unsure.

Housing and Dining Committee Chair

A new committee chair for Housing and Dining was elected by SG. The elected student was fifth year Computer Science major Lisa Ni. She has worked with the on-campus club Women in Computing and also has experience working with Housing and Dining committee.

Petitions

One petition asking that free parking be provided on campus during finals week was given a response. The response stated that free parking will not be allowed since Parking and Transportation Services already does not issue tickets during finals week for registered vehicles in general parking. However, parking in reserved spaces is still prohibited unless you have a reserved parking pass for that lot.

A response was also given to a petition asking that an RIT shuttle be provided to downtown Rochester. The response stated that a free weekly Friday night shuttle to Park Avenue will now be provided. It will have multiple pick up and drop off locations along the way. Pick up starts at 10:30 p.m. and ends at 2:21 a.m.

Awards

Senator of the Month was given to fifth year Software Engineering major and GCCIS Senator Melissa Laskowski.

Representative Student Organization of the Month was given to Ian Effendi, president of Global Union.

Committee of the Month was given to Liam Megraw, Sustainability Committee Chair.