Sparty, Beaumont Tower and snow-covered trees welcome Web surfers as they access ASMSU’s redesigned Web site.
The undergraduate student government’s site was recreated and came online March 16 at www.asmsu.org.
The previous site had not been changed for about a year and a half.
The Web site’s home page is split into four sections: About ASMSU, Services, Projects and People.
Caleb Marker, ASMSU’s Web site director, was hired at the end of February to update site information. He created the new site in about a week and a half.
“It had been revised too many times,” the international relations and finance freshman said. “It didn’t make sense to keep expanding it. It made sense to make a new design because there were a lot of broken links.”
Marker said he hopes to take on ASMSU’s new position as director of technology and Web affairs after the applications for the position are collected by Monday.
Organization officials combined ASMSU’s director of Web site and director of technology for the new session, which begins in a couple weeks pending results from ASMSU’s representative elections.
By combining the positions, the organization cut $1,170 per semester for the Web site director position.
Marker, who is being paid about $500 for spending seven weeks on the job, said he designed the site faster than he normally would for the organization’s elections and referendum planned for March 12-16.
“A lot of it was hit and miss, what looked good and what didn’t,” he said.
Steve Lovelace, ASMSU Student Assembly internal vice chairperson, said it was important to make a new Web site because the information on the old site didn’t reflect what was going on in the organization.
“The Web site before Caleb updated it was hopelessly out-of-date,” Lovelace said. “The skyline (pictured on the old site) looked like Gotham City. It looked like something dark where Batman would hang out. But now there’s nice Michigan State imagery.”
Marker said the construction of the site is completed, and he is adding more information and content to make the Student and Academic assemblies more visible to information-seekers.
“What I’ve been doing so far is making the Web site more interactive and strengthening existing ASMSU initiative,” he said.
Cameron Wooley, ASMSU Academic Assembly College of Communication Arts and Sciences representative, said the new site is more user-friendly than the old one.
“I think it’s more thorough and it’s not as confusing,” she said. “It’s clearly labeled and a lot more colorful.”
