Students, faculty members, and staff members are in the minority of a typical site's visitors. Wabash redesigned its Web site in March. That link is important for alumni who may not come back to the campus for years at a time. Wabash's site offers images of the campus, of student life, and features the college's signature bell tower. Rob Herzog, director of new media for Wabash, says a Web page is a way for an institution to build its name recognition.
Some institutions use their Web sites to ease town-gown communication.
Tom C. Bruce, director of university relations at Anderson University, says local community members follow university events and programs on the Web. Anderson, which is affiliated with the Church of God, also uses the Web to communicate with churches throughout the United States. When it comes time to design the campus Web site, administrators must take into account those multiple audiences to determine what to include in their pages. Albert DeSimone, Jr., the university's Web-services coordinator, says the principles embody the ideal elements that any college or university Web page should have. When his designers sat down to plan the new site, he says, they looked at ways to put those ideals into practice.