There is something new on the Internet and it is not more cat pictures.

Southwestern College’s website was updated for the first time in years and the reviews are mostly positive. Vision Internet was paid $34,975 to redesign the website in 2009 following the controversial dismissal of web designer Eli Singh by former president Dr. Raj K. Chopra. A newer version was unveiled this semester.

Online instructional support specialist Larry Lambert said the website was in need of an update due to its age.

“It’s a completely new website,” he said. “We had to do something because the server it was on was old. The whole thing was just completely out of date so we had to go get another one.”

Lillian Leopold, chief public information officer, said cyber safety concerns contributed to the update. Mindful of the Mitchell Kapor wisecrack, “Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant,” Leopold said ease of use was a priority.

“The previous website was developed a long time ago and it’s not using the same kind of intuitiveness that most people are looking for when they are looking on the website for something,” she said. “It was using an old code that we could no longer support. It had issues with security because we could not update it with such old code.”

Leopold said she thinks the new look of the site will please students.

“We spent a lot of time transferring over old documents that were in the old website and compartmentalizing them more,” she said. “I think the last site may have been more for adult needs. Now it is really aimed at what the students need.”

Community members have reacted well to the remodel, said Leopold.

“People have been really patient,” she said. “They realize this is a big project and we are doing our best with the staffing we have. I have gotten a lot of help from the departments, students and feedback saying it is easier to navigate and that was our goal.”

Some of the old documents are still being transferred over and have become ineffective and are being edited, according to Leopold.

“There are still some things that we need to move over from the old site,” she said.

Leopold and a team of Interns from SWC’s Computer Information’s Systems (CIS) program are working hard to combat the problems being reported.

“The search bar, in particular, is still not functioning correctly because there are still things on the old website,” she said. “Student interns from the CIS program go through and check every single link to see which ones aren’t working so we can fix them all. Once they are all fixed we can activate the search button.”

Leopold said from a technical standpoint, things are much simpler.

“It is a lot easier for people to update it because it is not written in that old code,” she said. “If you know how to use a Word document it is pretty much copying and pasting. You can add photos to the documents and I think it has been working pretty well so far.”

While the new website has been targeting students, some, such as student Alejandra Espinosa, have reported problems.

“I noticed that the Blackboard link on the website doesn’t take you to the actual Blackboard website like the old one used to,” she said.

Lambert addressed the issue.

“As far as getting to the online classes, it looks a little different and I have had a lot of complaints about students not being able to find the login to get to their online classes,” he said. “It melds into the background and it’s not big enough and it’s just not convenient enough. Your eyes don’t go there, so I have already gone in there and changed that and as soon as the website approver approves that, it will go on there.”

Glitches can be reported through the website. Every page of the site includes a feedback button that students and staff can use to report things they see. Leopold receives emails when feedback is provided.

CIS students said they work hard with Leopold in order to fix such problems reported by the feedback buttons.

“Sometimes navigating the site can get kind of confusing,” said CIS student Angela Tam. “One of the jobs my fellow interns and I were tasked with was to go to through the entire site checking for broken links. Since we were each in charge of different sections, there were many times when I’d suddenly find myself doing work in another intern’s section.  A perfect example would be the governing board, though listed under About Us in the navigation menu, it is actually part of human resources.”

Lambert said he is optimistic about the future of the website.

“I look forward to the time when we move out of this particular website,” he said. “Because in my opinion this is not going to serve our needs for very long, maybe a few years at most. Then we are going to be at work. We are going to out grow it pretty quickly. So, we are looking forward to the time when can update and have another iteration of this website. So we can really grow it out, really make it robust.”