City College website refreshed

Students and faculty like the new site despite some issues left to fix.

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The San Diego City College website went live before the spring 2019 semester. By Jonny Rico

Brian Mohler, Arts and Entertainment Editor

San Diego City College has a freshly designed website, debuted days before the start of the spring semester. But issues with old broken links remain. 

Searches through the bar in the top-right corner of the new site and through Google are currently pulling up broken links, which may confuse some students. 

Former Associate Student Government president Susana Molina-Bibian said in December at a college council meeting that she had concerns the new website could confuse students. 

At the January convocation, City College President Ricky Shabazz said he anticipated some issues, but the new site is designed to be more student-friendly and information about programs easier to find.  

“We’ve already received a lot of positive feedback about the new site,” said Roxann Solis, vice president of administrative services. 

The new homepage features an events calendar and is more conscious of diversity and equity, highlighting City College as a Hispanic Serving Institution, LGBTQIA safe space, military friendly, welcoming to Dreamers, and nondiscriminatory under Title IX. 

At a College Council meeting in December, Shabazz said the new website was designed to put everything a student needs within two clicks and web designer Victor Chen said the new site will be a “navigation tool for our students.”  

But at that same meeting, some council members, like Academic Senate President Jan Jarrell, voiced concerns.  

After the recent February Academic Senate meeting, Jarrell said the new website appeared more user-friendly but was surprised some things weren’t working. 

“The senate was supportive of the rollout because it improved on the (old) site,” Jarrell said. “But we didn’t anticipate broken links and difficulty with navigation.” 

New Associate Student Government President Andrew Leal said he likes the new website’s usability.  

“The new site is more user-friendly, but there are still a lot of missing pieces,” Leal said. “I hope in the next couple weeks we can get organizations and departments to update their own pages.” 

Jarrell said departments have been waiting for the new site and now each department will be trained on how to update their pages. Jarrell works in the English department and said the department’s aim is to offer “clearer information for students.”  

“The webmaster can’t update all the information by himself,” Jarrell said. “This is a learning process for everyone.”  

Cesar Gumapas, who was recently named the public information officer for City College, said the new website makes it easier to find and read information. 

“It rolled out well,” Gumapas said. “There are a few bugs and we’re working to fix those issues.” 

Stay tuned to sdcitytimes.com for updates.