SHANNON URTNOWSKI
Living Editor
Is it just me or did this summer fly by?
Four months gone and it seems I never stepped foot out of my little bubble by the sea.
The buildings have gathered a little more dust and the students have gained a few more college smarts, but everything else appears to be just the way I left it. The CCB staircase is just as intimidating as ever, all 109 steps of it, Alumni Park still houses that foul smell from its questionable lake, or should I say swamp, and the baseball field scoreboard still obnoxiously blinks the time all hours of the day.
But, if you’ve stayed in check with our school Web site over the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed a pretty big change there.
The news of PepXpress’s upcoming departure has spread almost as fast as Coach Paul Westphal’s dismissal in March.
So, fight the tears and wave goodbye to simplicity, dear Waves, as we enter an age of technological chaos on campus.
The culprit: WaveNet, Pepperdine’s new and supposedly improved Web portal for students, faculty, alumni and President Andrew K. Benton himself.
According to a recent announcement, it was developed to broaden the Pepperdine networking community through improved web-based e-mail, finance tools, features and feedback capabilities. Wow, what a mouthful.
Even more demanding is actually figuring out where these additions are located and how the heck to use them.
There is a laundry list of necessary improvements I have noticed, and I can guarantee I’m not alone with these.
First of all, what’s with Outlook?
I’ll admit it — I check my e-mail more than I check my Facebook, and I like being able to access it quickly.
PepXpress showed exactly what I wanted on the welcome page, saving me the extra burdensome mouse-click. Granted, it just takes a little extra effort, but this is the cherry on top of the very loaded sundae.
I will not go into all the mixes, but one I will never be able to figure out is why we have to delete items twice.
When I delete an item, I want it gone — period.
WaveNet does not seem to think so, though.
After initially deleting an e-mail, it requires students to discard it again from a recently deleted file. Strange? I think so.
Before I get too carried away, let me mention that students can experience problems with WaveNet before they even enter the portal.
I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to sign in only to be sent to a random Outlook Web Access page.
This page asks for a username and password, so you would think — being sent here — the access requirement is the same as for WaveNet. It’s not.
The requested pass codes to that Outlook page are still a mystery to me. I have given up on that headache.
And, I probably need not mention that I have yet to master any other aspect of the site. Thus, I’ve decided it best for me to strategically maneuver around the system.
After loosing the PepXpress link on Pepperdine’s Web site, I retrieved it from my roomie who happened to have the site bookmarked.
I was later informed the site is simply px.pepperdine.edu, but I unfortunately did not know that at the time.
At any rate, the link has become sacred on my laptop, as clicking there leaves me both problem and stress free.
So far so good, but some disappointing news has recently come to my attention.
Not only is WaveNet now the standardized school web portal, but PepXpress is no more for good starting Sept. 30.
Both sites are currently active, and in my perfect world we could keep it that way, allowing students the freedom to choose the portal of their liking.
In any case, the gradual shift makes me believe Pepperdine is at least trying to create a smooth transition into WaveNet.
In any case, let me just say that, in my opinion, WaveNet is as user-friendly as my upper division French textbook. In other words, not so much.
So, welcome back students. Take a good look around and bask in the familiar sights around us because times are a changin’.
8-28-2006
