It’s About the Web Site

The Undergraduate Council (UC) election last week calls for a monumental moment of reflection and refraction. In the four short days of campaigning, Harvard turned from a sleepy university where research for papers never begins until two hours before they are due and students cannot make it to early 11 a.m. section into a buzzing center of uber-competency. Platforms were drafted. Supporters were organized through complex algorithms. Slogans were crafted and pushed through numerous study groups. Strategy meetings in their Pentagonesque fashion prepared candidates for every contingency from Canada invading the U.S. to the obscure. Students hadn’t been this motivated since applying to college. However, the most amazing aspect of the process was the Web sites made to razzle-dazzle ‘em.

Upon seeing the UC’s actual Web site for the first time, any impartial observer would believe that the relationship between the UC and Web sites is not unlike the relationship between Tokyo Rose and reality. Compared to the elegant Web sites crafted for each candidate, the UC’s Web site looks like a sixth-grader’s homage to her love of Pokémon.

In honor of the recent election, we would like to suggest a few “action plans” to fix this problem:

Kill the Web site. Kill it Dead. There comes a time when many things outlive their purpose. Think Ol’ Yeller or the phrase “stay the course.” The UC’s Web site passed this point during the Clinton administration. Link by link, the Web site should die a slow, painful death.

A Culture of Collaboration. When looking at the Web site, it is quite easy to notice the lack of diversity. The Web site is composed homogenously of only bad qualities. Although we are unclear of how this fits into the racial and gender diversity on campus, the UC should nonetheless look into incentives to increase the participation of good Web design in the UC Web site arena.

A Simple Idea for a New Student Government Web Site. The flaws of the UC’s Web site lie not in the concept of the Web site, but rather in the overall structure of the Web site. By looking at ways that other Ivy League schools have constructed their student government Web sites, we can recreate a Web site that places each bit of code into a role dictated by its natural ability and interest.

A New Way of Having a Web Site. The UC’s Web site needs to stop being a weak tool that serves as a link to the UC and students. Instead, it should be free to design its own destiny. By giving the Web site an endowment and organizing a crack team of for-profit business school students, the UC’s Web site will finally become a true power player by consolidating power until it finally assumes its correct role as the hegemonic ruler of the world, er, we mean, the trusty student Web portal.

Harvard’s Promise: a Functional Web Site. Harvard’s new UC Web site isn’t a solution for the next year. It’s a vision for the next one hundred and fifty. The idealism of uncountable students who first came to this campus in hopes of changing the world has been crushed by the despotic Web site. A framework needs to be created that will solve the immediate problems yet foster a feeling of contentment throughout the undergraduate community.

It’s about the Web Site. It’s about Time. Instead of fighting with the UC’s Web site, we should learn to talk with it. Through constant advocacy, we can negotiate small changes with the Web site. The positions of links can be shifted. The color palate won’t change, but with the Web site we can discuss the possibilities of tones. And this is the year that we are in the best position to get the Web site to move the calendar a bit higher on the page.

This year is a defining year to determine which path the UC should choose for its Web site. The student body is faced with a difficult decision. After long intense meetings, we on the editorial board have finally reached a consensus for our endorsement. We endorse eventually writing a position paper for a new Web site. Expect it in a few years.