Spring Break
SJSU modernizes Web site's directory
Lauren Bosch
Daily Staff Writer
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The general public currently has access to an SJSU faculty phone directory through the university's Web site. Through the current system, searching for members of the faculty is only possible by searching for an individual's last or complete name.
"The old system had been in place for many years and the telecom group had received many requests to update it," said Victor Van Leer, the manager of the University Computing and Telecommunications department. "We wanted to reduce the manual errors by entering the data by hand. We wanted to make it easier to use and search for people better. We also had an opportunity to have a system that maintains itself daily."
Changes that will take place will include several areas within the search options. Some changes that will take place include new search fields and improved department listings. Faculty and staff members can list their individual Web sites and supply additional contact information, Van Leer said.
Those searching will also be able to locate professors with partial e-mail addresses, first and/or last names, partial phone numbers or university departments, said Susan Kintana, office manager at the University Computing and Telecommunications department.
"That is really missing in the current directory," Kintana said. "Someone can look under university computing and it would just be a list of everyone in the department."
The changes have been done through a group of departments on campus that worked together to bring these updates to the system.
"We did face a lot of technical challenges and had a lot of cooperation from the human resources department, the Common Management System team and the UCAT team," Van Leer said. "(We did this) to bring all of the information together and do the testing and implementation possible."
The new system was tested by more than 100 students, faculty and staff members and has had an overall good report back to the UCAT department, Van Leer said. The university has demonstrated it to these individuals, to determine if the information is clear and easy to find.
The only challenge thus far, Van Leer said, is the department administrators must learn a new process for making updates to the system. There are extra features that they didn't have before, something some of them have mentioned as a concern. The learning process however, has informed others that there is a directory available to the public.
"Some students said they didn't know there was a directory out there," Van Leer said. "They said that it would have helped them get the information they needed for professors on campus had they known it earlier."
The changes will not take place until the current semester ends, as the UCAT department doesn't want to bring any confusion at the end of the semester.
"It's a timing thing," said Don Baker, interim associate vice president of the University Computing and Telecommunications department. "When you get toward the end of the semester, people at the university don't like change so we're saying 'OK' and we'll wait until the end of the semester to allow people to get used to it before the start of the next semester."
