Coming soon: the Furman Intranet

At Furman, we receive and communicate campus-related news through several outlets. Students rely on The Paladin as their primary source for university news. Inside Furman contains news items and features that appeal more to faculty and staff.

Other communication outlets include the daily, e-mailed public announcements, the Furman home page and news page, the community bulletin board and, of course, the Stall Wall Weekly (there's nothing like having a captive audience).

Later this summer, Marketing and Public Relations will debut the Furman Intranet. And we expect it to revolutionize campus communications.

The Intranet, which will be accessible only on campus, will be Furman's version of a daily on-line newspaper. New information will be added to the site every day.

During spring term, Kevin Treu's computer science class developed a template for the site that exceeded our expectations. Ryan Fisher, Web Development Director, is working this summer with me and student intern Jonathon Swift to refine the site.

We hope to offer a sneak preview to faculty and staff later this summer, fine-tune it some more, then target early September for a "strong" launch. In keeping with Furman tradition (and that of most institutions of higher education), we formed a committee composed of faculty and staff to gather feedback about the site.

Thanks to Doris Foster, Aynoka Bender, Cathy Frazier, Kevin Treu, Mark McCain and Jane Chew for serving on this committee. In addition, Ryan and I have also met with members of the Association of Furman Students and other student groups to hear their ideas and concerns.

Besides headline news, the site will include public announcements and a campus calendar. The dining hall menu for the day, upcoming CLPs, FU-Bay (want to sell something?) and a message board (need to sound off?) will also be accessible through the site.

A unique feature of the Furman Intranet will be that you, the university community, will supply the news and content. About 80 percent of the site will be interactive. Furman faculty, staff and students will have the option of adding their own public announcements, calendar events and postings to the message boards and to FU-Bay.

Lastly, the Furman Intranet (we do not have a catchy name for it yet) is not meant to replace Inside Furman. Your beloved newsletter will continue to be published monthly during the school year. Some of the Intranet content, however, may be revised for Inside Furman.

I hope this has piqued your interest. I will be posting the site's on-line address later this summer, so stay tuned.

John Roberts is Director of Internal and Electronic Communications and the editor of Inside Furman