SARA ROSNER
Staff Wroter
The nine professionals of Web and Multimedia Services under the Information Technology department merged with in October the University Design team of Public Affairs to form University Communications.
Vice President of Public Affairs Rick Gibson wrote in an e-mail that the move was common sense.
“The largest piece of communication that reaches the largest audience is delivered through Pepperdine’s Web presence,” Gibson said. “Bringing the team that develops and manages the Web together with the team of writers, marketers and PR professionals just made sense.”
As part of the Public Affairs department, the Web Service department will be able to effectively collaborate with Public Relations professionals to refine and effectively deliver the “Pepperdine brand.”
Ed Wheeler, director of Web and Multimedia Services, said that the reorganization was a good move because many of the Web Service projects overlapped with Public Affairs.
“It’s been great for us,” Wheeler said. “This just gave us a little bit closer relationship. It’s been a positive move.”
Gibson agreed, saying, “The benefits of the move have been obvious to most.”
University Communications is working on a renovation of the Pepperdine Web site. The plan, initiated about two years ago, includes unifying the Web site of each of the five schools of Pepperdine by redesigning them with a homogenous Pepperdine image.
“We’re going for a consistent brand-look for Pepperdine,” Wheeler said. “For the first time, all the schools will have a unified feel.”
Before the plan, each school was responsible for the design of its Web site and the lack of collaboration between each school and the entire university created some differences among the sites.
“There was a real disparate landscape of Web sites,” Wheeler said.
The plans for re-design will include improving content management. This will allow each school some independence in managing their site as well as permit the schools to keep the content current, Wheeler said.
“It’s always going to be fresh,” Wheeler said of the content. “People won’t have to see this old stale stuff.”
University Communications also is working with student organizations, such as the Student Government Association, to make their Web sites unique and better suited to their users.
Wheeler also said there were plans to modernize the functions of the sites as well as facilitate searching the site.
“We’re going to add some really nice tools to make it easier,” Wheeler said. “It will make a big difference from a user perspective.”
11-10-2005