University Relations (UR) and Information Technology Services (ITS) recently launched the brand-new University Community Blog. The blog is part of an ongoing effort that began last year to revamp the University website. By next week, a new version of the website will be up and running, which will include major changes to the homepage and the Admissions page.

“Wesleyan is unique for valuing dialogue in the community,” said Mark Bailey, Director of Strategic Communications. “The idea behind this is to provide an easy-to-use, high-profile online forum for students, faculty, and alumni to post their research and ideas.”

“The Community Blog will be open to student[s], faculty, staff, and alumni,” wrote David Pesci, Director of Media Relations, in an e-mail to The Argus. “It will allow commentary and postings on…well, anything as long as it follows University guidelines. Within those parameters, the blog will be monitored, but otherwise it’s open for content.”

The blog can be used for professional or personal purposes, as well as service and event announcements. Bailey hopes that entries will benefit from critical discussion and community input.

According to Bailey, UR is developing technology with ITS which will allow the three most popular blog posts to be transferred directly to the University homepage. Bailey noted that this type of open forum is rare for a University.

“To my knowledge, no one else is doing this yet,” Bailey said. “We’ve been working for the past six months on implementing the new design.”

According to Bailey, additional changes, including those to the landing pages from ambiguous searches, will take 12 to 18 months to install.

The Blog may be accessed through the University homepage from the following address: http://community.blogs.wesleyan.edu/. Guidelines for posting may be accessed at http://community.blogs.wesleyan.edu/about/.