During the College Council meeting on Oct. 7, Mark Kelly, vice president of Student Affairs, expressed his concerns about the college’s website, stating that it neglects to accurately portray the college’s story for creative individuals.

Kelly feels that current students should be the ones who tell their stories to incoming freshmen to better present Columbia’s message because the institution is getting better at what it does. Kelly added that more vibrancy and consistency are needed for the website, which will be added through a Web committee that is forming this year, according to Eric Winston, vice president of Institutional Advancement.

“[Columbia’s website] tends to talk about events or awards, but it doesn’t show evidence of a bigger story,” Kelly said. “[The college] isn’t aggregating stories into something larger.”

According to Kelly, Columbia is a unique and special college doing things that are hard to find in other colleges in the country. However, he doesn’t think the website captures how dynamic the college is or what students are doing and accomplishing.

The website is starting to become livelier, Kelly said, but it is still uneven between the departmental sites, which are in charge of their own Web pages.

“Our students are competing nationally against other students in the marketplace, and our students are across the board winning awards,” Kelly said. “Nowhere are we telling that story effectively.”

At the heart of Columbia’s story, the college has become a great institution, and that piece of the story has to be told in a more compelling way, Kelly said. Columbia is one of the leading presenters of art and culture of any college in the country, but that is never stated on the website.

According to Diane Doyne, associate vice president of public relations, marketing and advertising in the Institutional Marketing Department, the Internet is an important tool for reaching multiple audiences, including prospective students.

“The website is really a living, evolving communications vehicle,” Doyne said. “It is frequently being modified and updated to meet changing needs.”

The most important part of the website is the audience it reaches, which varies from prospective students, parents, media and the community. Because of this broad audience, the website needs to balance its content to serve the whole spectrum, Doyne said.

The college is looking into ways to expand student-focused content across the site, which has led the institution to the early stages of a comprehensive website revamp plan, Doyne added.

“We have taken the steps to pull together all of the constituents on campus and create a Web redesign committee that Diane and her team are going to lead,” Winston said. “We will be asking everyone on campus to provide input into the development of the website. This should solve all of the problems that people might feel are prevalent within the website.”

This committee will make sure that all sectors of the college get their stories heard and seen on the website, Winston said. The goal of the committee is to come to a consensus of what the site should look like and how it should respond to all the different website audiences, he added.

“Everyone has something to say about [the website], and that’s why it was important to pull this committee together,” Winston said.

He said the committee is formed of constituents, like student services, that already have an important role in forming Columbia’s website. The committee has met a few times already to identify the proper members and how they plan on reworking the website, he added.

Kelly’s concerns will be considered as the new committee makes changes online. According to Kelly, he sees the progress the website is making, but he wants all the departments to tell their stories on the Web in one consistent voice.

“In no way do I feel that our marketing team is not effectively telling our story,” Kelly said. “But rather, because the website is the entire college, and it is owned by every department within this cyber world, the departments aren’t telling their wonderful stories as well as they can.”