Monthly Archives: November 2024

New Arkansas State University website coming in 2025

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Arkansas State University is in the process of creating the next Astate.edu website which is set to launch summer 2025.

Todd Clark, chief marketing and communications officer and member of the website redesign committee, said the website is the front door of A-State.

“Oftentimes it’s our students’ first experience with A-State, so we want to make sure we’re showcasing the university in the best light,” Clark said.

Clark said a university website lasts five to six years, and Astate.edu was last redesigned in 2012.

The committee is building the website from the ground up with external partner iFactory, a digital marketing agency specializing in higher education. They are also in collaboration with Modern Campus, a company that provides software and web content management services for higher education institutions.

“We’ve just so radically changed in the last twelve years that we had to go back and just kind of, for lack of a better word, blow it up and start over,” Melanie Wicinski, associate vice chancellor for accreditation and assessment and member of the website redesign committee, said.

Justin Coats, a junior computer science major from Cherry Valley, Arkansas, said the current website is good at overall presentation, but does a lackluster job at purveying information.

“I find that I often get lost on it. So when I heard that they were recreating the website I was certainly happy about it, because it definitely needs updating,” Coats said.

Coats said he often goes on the website to look for his class bulletins but can’t find them because they’re hidden so deep within sub pages. He said it’s difficult to find databases on the website unless his professors link directly them.

“The databases and the bulletins are both so important and they’re just kind of sandwiched in the middle of nowhere in the website,” Coats said. “I think that definitely is a symptom of having so many pages that are just thrown about and added post making a main framework of the website, as opposed to considering all of that at one time and then designing the website.”

Priorities for the new website include having program pages with more dynamic information, the ability for faculty to update these pages with ease, an accessible mobile-first design and removing the a-z index.

Wicinski said the a-z index is a crutch for faculty and staff and a well-designed website shouldn’t need one.

“I would die on the hill that we should not have to have an A to Z index,” Wicinski said.

Clark said the biggest issue with the current website is its age and how bloated it is. He said the Astate.edu domain has about 40,000 pages of information.

Clark and Wicinski hosted an open forum to provide an update on the project and share prototype designs.

Jim Washam, Neil Griffin College of Business dean, attended the open forum. He said he wanted to see what the new website was going to look like so he could start planning a layout for the new College of Business page.

Washam said the current website has too much clutter.

“I think building the new website will help us clean out a whole lot of that clutter and streamline things,” Washam said. “So I’m excited about that.”

Clark said iFactory audited every page of content on the A-State website.

“We went through and inventoried our content and audited as a committee to figure out how we can try to really reduce the amount of pages,” Clark said. “There’s no need for A-State to have 40,000 pages. If we can cut that down to 10,000 it’d be great, 5000 would be even better.”

Washam said the website redesign committee should prioritize a combination of design and content to catch people’s eye and lead them to the information they need.

Wicinski said the redesign in 2012 cost over $200,000 and the committee will keep the new website continually updated to avoid having to redesign the website in five years.

To increase governance among faculty, the committee will implement transparent rules, expectations and guidelines for updating the website.

“Modern campus has tools that will remind faculty and staff when content is dated. The new system we’re migrating to will really help us make sure that we can keep this website current,” Clark said.  “If we see a section of the website hasn’t been maintained properly or is way out of date, we’ll know who on campus is responsible for updating that information and we can work with them, work with those people to get updated.”

Clark said faculty and staff can prepare for the website launch by taking a look at the pages they have now, taking inventory of outdated information or broken links, auditing employees, getting involved in building directories and putting together a small team who have ownership accountability for their pages.

The chief marketing and communications officer said hosting the open forums is important for transparency and so the committee can receive feedback.

“The university website has so many different layers and audiences, everything from the department of biological science to the library to the A-State museum, all these users use the website differently and have different types of content,” Clark said. “It’s good to get that kind of open opinion from everyone so, as we move forward with the project, we’re best informed.”

Clark said the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

“I think people are excited about the new website, the new look and I know our campus users are excited about the ease and functionality,” Clark said.

Construction underway on new Wynne High School

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Story by DDNS Reporter Jerry Burton

Construction has begun on a new high school in the Wynne School District, more than a year
after an EF-3 tornado destroyed most of the campus. Faculty and staff are expected to transition to the new building in early 2027, assuming no delays.

Currently, site prep and dirt work for the area where the building will be constructed is complete.
Dusty Meek, Wynne senior high school principal, said contractors will bid for the concrete and
foundational construction soon. He said the rest of the bidding process will happen in January.
Aaron Russell, Wynne school district communications officer, said he thinks the reopening of the
high school will be a day of healing for the community.

“The high school is the heart and soul of a community, and losing one creates a huge missing
piece,” Russell said. “We hope that by re-opening our high school campus, we can heal that
scar and the new Wynne High School will serve as a new beginning and a lasting memorial to
the old campus.”

Meek said the new building will feature several upgrades, including a modern cafeteria, media
center, auditorium and internal courtyard. He said the building will also contain multiple stories,
which will help most facilities stay clustered, instead of being spread out. Russell said the
design will give students a more collegiate feel, with multiple indoor and outdoor learning
spaces and bright, open interiors.

The high school principal said the reconstruction is based on current enrollment to meet
eligibility requirements for insurance and state funds. Nevertheless, he said the new building
was designed in mind for future additions, if needed.

Russell also said the school will have storm shelters and safe rooms to ensure the staff and
students are protected from any future hazardous weather events.

The communications director said the school and architects met with faculty, staff and
community members in multiple interest meetings to learn what they would like to see
incorporated into the new building. He said there is a lot of excitement among the community
associated with the construction.

“The modern look and the spaces included are something unique to our area and we feel we will
be a huge draw for faculty, staff and future students,” Russell said.
However, Meek said not every suggestion will be incorporated in the reconstruction. He said
decisions will be made after the bids are finalized to see what will fit within the budget.

“Ultimately, like everything else, it comes down to affordability,” Meek said. “There are probably some things that people would love to see in it that we either didn’t have in the old buildings, so therefore it’s not going to be replaced, or it’s things that are not cost-effective.”

When designing the look of the new school, Russell said the district tried creating a campus that
integrated the Wynne brand and identity. Renderings of the new building showcase a campus
with highlights of the school’s blue and gold colors. The new building also incorporates Wynne’s
mascot, the yellowjacket, in its design. Meek said they also wanted easily identifiable front entrances and the ability to section off parts of the school for different events.

The high school principal said insurance will help with part of the funding for reconstruction and
the district is looking for further support from state partnerships and FEMA.
Kenneth Moore, Wynne school district superintendent, said cost estimates cannot be released
because insurance negotiations are still ongoing.
Russell said weather is the biggest challenge the school has faced in the reconstruction process.

“The things we cannot control provide the most significant challenges,” Russell said. “We are in
constant contact with our architect and contractor to limit delays.”

Meek said another challenge is monitoring the reconstruction project while also actively running
the temporary campus, where the Wynne High School is operating following the tornado.
Meek said the new high school building will be very exciting for the community and he hopes it
raises morale. He said moving from the temporary campus to a 21st-century building with
modern amenities will be very exciting.

“Just having indoor restrooms will be exciting for most of us, because everything we have now
you have to travel outside to it,” Meek said. “It’ll be really exciting at the time but, just like
anything else that you find, once you get into it, it just becomes your norm.”

Despite the excitement, Meek said the students who experienced the tornado and will graduate
before the construction is complete must not be forgotten. He said these students will likely never set foot in the new building and bringing it up reminds them of bad memories, so they
don’t discuss it often.

“One of the things that we’ve tried to do is provide as close to a real experience as we can on
this campus and make this campus a home in itself and understand that this is their high
school,” Meek said. “This is what they’re going to graduate from, let’s make memories here.”
Moore said he wants students to enter the new building and see a fresh start that will lead to
new memories.

Russell and Meek said they want to give their students the best opportunities possible, provide
a positive culture on campus and want them excited about coming to school.

“The biggest hope is that we will return to normalcy and continue to grow as a school and
community,” Russell said. “A disaster is a challenging time. You learn a lot about resilience and
strength. Seeing how our faculty, staff, and students carried that burden and overcame it has
been nothing short of inspirational.”