Notice Board takes on a new look

Written for The Bona Venture
   With a new face, an old friend takes on a new role. Say hello to the new and improved Notice Board. 
   A redesigned Notice Board launched Feb. 22 with the objective of grabbing student and faculty attention.
   "(For) the communications office, our goal is to help different entities on campus reach out to the campus community in a number of ways, and the Notice Board is one of those," Beth Eberth, director of university communications, said.
   When the Notice Board debuted on the Web, it was not measuring up to the technological standards of the day or meeting the needs of students and staff of the university. This forced the university to make a change, Eberth said. 
   "Being able to access the Notice Board easier was the driving force behind that," Eberth said. "We also recognized that it could use a little updated look, and by making it a little more visually appealing, we also hope that that will keep people's attention and make it easier to read."





   The latest Notice Board differs a great deal from the ones in the past.
   Prior to 2002, the Notice Board appeared as a text in an e-mail, but it switched from text to links in August 2002. The Office of Communications tweaked the different versions over the years, though all still forced people to click a link to get the actual Notice Board content. 
   Before 2005, the university sent separate Notice Boards to administration, faculty and students. In 2005, however, that was changed. The Notice Board began appearing in the actual e-mail itself and became the norm until this February when the new Notice Board was born, said Michael Hoffman, executive director for Information Technology. 
   The latest Notice Board wields more new features than just an improved look.
   "The newer Notice Board has a spotlight at the top of it where we can call attention to a particular event happening on campus … it would be particularly a unique or interesting event that we would just like to call the campus' attention to," Eberth said.
   The order the notices get placed is at the discretion of the one updating or uploading the Notice Board. Once people send in a request for an event or topic to be uploaded to the Notice Board, it gets added according to the request of the sender.
   "We try to place information that is important to students up top," Eberth said.
   Some students, however, do not count on the Notice Board for their information about what happens on campus.
   "I use flyers, posters  and word-of-mouth. I only use the Notice Board if I know something is going on and I want details. My RA posts all these flyers in one hallway on our floor," said Felisha Woolley, a sophomore journalism and mass communication major.
   With that type of attitude in mind, the university set out to find the right Notice Board for Bonaventure by having Mellon & Co., a creative print and Web designer, design templates. The university then chose the one it preferred based on the hope that it would appeal to the campus community as a whole. The template was then tweaked, sent back and adjusted by the company to be the Notice Board of today, Eberth said.
   "It was what we thought the members of our campus community would definitely find the most easy to use and appealing," Eberth said.
   The Office of Communications hopes the new Notice Board will give the campus community a comprehensive look at things it needs to know about.
   "(Communicating) with all members of campus community about a wide range of topics and events is the primary goals of the Notice Board," Eberth said.
   The university communicates with the members of the campus community in other ways, such as Facebook, Twitter, the faculty newsletter, Inside Bona's and the university homepage, www.sbu.edu. A rotator on the homepage showcases information that directly pertains to the Bonaventure area.
   "Every day there are four new topics. Sometimes they're events, sometimes they're other things occurring that we drive people's attention to," Eberth said.
   Students sometimes use a mix of these resources to stay updated.
   "I use the Notice Board, but I also look at the posters hanging and by word-of-mouth," said Jessie Briggs, freshman psychology major and class president.
   The new Notice Board breaks down all the information that members of St. Bonaventure can receive and compiles it into an easy format for all to read.
   "It's kind of like a digest that goes out every day … it does the job," Hoffman said.