Letter from a Current Student

Dear President Jones,
I'm excited about the portal being designed for the university. I hope it can pull together the many services that we students want-and expect in the 21st century. Now we have to go from office to office to transact business with the university. It's a real pain although I do like chatting with Ms. Garcia in the Registrar's office. While I want to use the Web for many of my transactions, maybe there is a way that the new portal can preserve some of the human interaction? That would be fantastic. Another feature I'd like to see in the portal is a way to follow our sports teams, especially when they are on the road. Video and audio would be really cool, but I can live with a simple game recap, some stats, and maybe a picture or two. With today's digital technology that should not be too hard to do.

The ability to login once, from anywhere, and have access to services such as e-mail, campus notices, course syllabi, billing, and financial aid is vital. I have been told that having a single user ID is one of the better features of a portal. It certainly sounds like a good idea to me. I have so many user IDs and passwords that I can hardly keep them straight.

Our portal needs to be customizable as well. There is so much content and so little screen space that I'd like the ability to select the content that I want displayed when I login. I think these different sources for content are called channels and the concept makes a lot of sense.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my opinions about the
forthcoming portal.
-Phil Fields, Class of 2006

Letter from a Faculty Member

President Jones:
Thank you for soliciting my input on the university's portal project. I am not sure that I'm the right person to ask, as technology is not my forte. I do have opinions, as you know, and am glad to share them.

First, let me express my overall concern about implementing a portal. We're a small school that prides itself on personal interaction with our students. What might this portal do to those interactions? I'm also concerned that a portal is one of those immense IT projects with a sizeable price tag. Couldn't this money be used to enhance one of our academic programs?

That said, if we do build a portal, it should be constructed to minimize the amount of work required on the user's part. If the portal d'esn't make life easier, I don't see the purpose. The portal should aggregate important information about my students and especially my advisees who are so difficult to track. The ability to review degree plans prior to registration is a must!

Other "musts" include access to class rosters and student e-mail addresses. Access to my teaching schedule would also be nice.

There is much institutional information that could be shared via the portal. I am thinking beyond schedules of events and sports scores to information such as policy and procedure, committee and council minutes, effectiveness measures, and planning documents. I assume that a portal can provide controlled access to such materials while at the same time making it more convenient for the community. We talk often of our core values. Our portal should, to the extent possible, reflect and encourage these core values. The portal should contain information about our core values and should reinforce their meaning. We need to be reminded of who we are and what we represent.
-Elise Cosgrove, Ph.D.

Letter from an Alumnus

Dear Archie,
Greetings from Fredericksburg. Jodi sends her best wishes. It was wonderful to see you and Karen at homecoming. Either we are getting old or college students are a lot younger these days.

As you know, I am always interested in what transpires on campus. Superior is an excellent school and I'm eager for a simple way to learn about current happenings at my alma mater. I'm not a "techie" and will never be one, but I like to follow the men's and women's basketball teams and the fine arts events. Jodi and I try to attend four or five events a year but there are so many other fine events. If there were a way to see film clips of sports events or stage productions, I'd be happy as a clam. I have a new DSL line and my access to the Internet is great!

While you are designing the portal, could you include a way for me to see my giving history? That sure would help as I make plans for my charitable contributions. It would also be nice if the portal allowed me to find old classmates. Wasn't it great to see Harry at homecoming? Such a wonderful person and I haven't seen or talked with him in 20 years! Anything that would help us connect with each other would be appreciated.

Remember, I am not a computer whiz so this portal has to be simple.
Warm regards,
Bob Connelly

Letter from a Prospective Student

Dear President Jones:
My name is Amber Waves and I am a senior at Washington High School. I have been looking at different colleges, including yours, over the past year. I don't know much about a Web portal but I can share with you what it is like to be a prospective student.

The World Wide Web is tremendously important in researching colleges. Current high school students are much more likely to access a school's Web site than to consult the university's view book or other print literature. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to find information on the Web while that same information is elegantly presented in the view book. An online view book with all of the great pictures and video combined with some interactive features would be very useful and would be considered "cool" by me and my classmates. Is this the kind of feature that could be included in a portal?

I would also like to know more specific information about the courses that are offered. I can usually find the course catalog even though it's often in some other section of the Web site. (It seems as though one has to know how universities are organized to find information on a college Web site.) The course catalog d'esn't convey what really happens in a course. I'd like to have access to a Web page that tells me what topics are covered, what book is used, and how many tests are given. Your site might even keep track of which courses I had viewed and then present additional, relevant information-kind of like Amazon d'es when one shops for books.

Finally, I would like to interact with current students through Instant Messenger, a Web forum, or e-mail. It's helpful to get information from people who have lived the student experience.

I am very interested in your school and hope that my ideas are helpful.
Sincerely,
Amber Waves

Letter from a Staff Member

Dear President Jones:
I think that building a portal is an excellent idea!

As a staff member, I spend much time trying to find information that I need to do my job. Much information is buried in people's offices, making it nearly impossible to retrieve. If all that information were available through this portal, it would make my job much easier. Some of the information is confidential, however, so we'd need a way to protect it, probably through passwords of some kind.

Access to event schedules is also important, as I am responsible for scheduling people and departmental events. If the portal were the place for event information then all of us on campus would be working with the same information. That would be a first!

Another needed feature is a listing of job opportunities. All relevant information about the jobs could be presented through the portal every time a staff member logs in. This would ensure that all employees are aware of the job opportunities. Lastly, I think the portal would be a great place to display not only campus news, but also information such as our progress on the strategic plan and current challenges in managing budgets or in recruiting a freshman class. Informed employees are better employees.

Thank your for the opportunity to provide input.
Sincerely,
Hallie Smith

Letter from a Deposited Student

Dear President Jones,
Wow! I am so psyched to be headed to Superior University. We mailed my deposit yesterday and I can't wait until August to start my college experience.

I am pleased to offer some suggestions for the Web portal that the university is designing. I look forward to using the portal when I get to campus.

As a student who has decided to attend Superior, there are many things that I want to know. Where will I live? Who is my roommate and what is he like? Are there others from my hometown that are going to Superior? How can I meet them? What courses can I take? How big are the dorm rooms?

If I understand correctly, a portal is designed to make information readily available to students in an easy-to-use format. It would be awesome if the portal could help a prospective student answer these questions. A chat service for just admitted students would be very nice. For example, I'm interested in service opportunities and would like to meet other students with the same interest. Maybe new students could get their Superior University e-mail addresses and start communicating with each other and the rest of the university community.
Cordially,
Juan Rodriguez

Letter from Information Technology Services

Dear President Jones:
Information Technology Services is excited about the prospects for a portal at Superior University. I agree that delivery of services via the Web is essential and stand ready to design and implement the university's first portal.

The portal will provide user-friendly access to data stored in our legacy databases. It will also allow us to bring together data from disparate sources, improving productivity. Our students, who naturally gravitate to online services, will be especially pleased.

A portal can be built from scratch or can be purchased with varying degrees of customization supported. A purchased solution that allows considerable customization would probably be the best approach for us given our current project list, the size of our Administrative Computing staff, and the presumed need to have the portal available as quickly as possible.

The construction, maintenance, and operation of a portal are complicated and time-consuming processes. One must first define the information architecture, understand existing workflows, write or acquire middleware that sits between the Web interface and the legacy databases, and carefully address issues of authentication and authorization. In short, a portal is a complex, dynamic system that requires significant resources to create and significant resources to maintain.

I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss the portal concept with you at the earliest possible date that is convenient for you.
Sincerely,
Katherine Mooney