Starting in 1996 and until becoming a University in 1997, our web site looked like this and there were not many web pages behind it. From 1999 to 2000, when we started tracking activity on the University website, it took an entire year to have 750,000 hits on the home page. Today, our website has on average 855,000 hits per day and there are tens of thousands of web page files.

Beginning this fall the University’s website will begin going through a major makeover. However, it isn’t necessarily the look that we’re after, it’s the content. While the look and navigation of our website are still critical components of the makeover, the 10 million unique visitors that accessed WPUNJ.EDU over the past year are expecting to find official, timely and accurate information. The implementation of a Content Management System will provide a new and much easier way for all of us to keep our respective web pages current and, as a result, significantly improve the content of our web site.

Within the past few months an open source Content Management System, dotCMS, has been installed and is currently being configured by a web advisory team lead by Yuri Marder and Brian Publik. They are currently creating new templates and setting the database where all content will be stored and managed….

What this means for departments is a constant effort to keep your information current and your full support in helping to make this transition as smooth and quick as possible.  All of the content on your departments current site will have to be moved over to the CMS (Content Management System).  Once there you will have powerful tools the CMS provides to help you quickly update pictures, news and other information with a few clicks.  Also available will be new features that your departments can make use of right away, some of those are blogs, rss feeds, image/video galleries and email campaigns.  Infact this document is the first email campaign fully created and sent out with our content management system.  You could create email flyers to send out to your students in minutes ! 

This transition is not just a one time process but an ongoing effort by everyone to provide a better experience for everyone in the university, and those to come.