Link Me Up, Johnny

Students are quick to complain to the Undergraduate Council (UC) about things it cannot control—downpours at Springfest and dining hall hours fit for retirement homes, among other issues—and the UC often unfairly earns a reputation for being unresponsive to these claims. But lo, there is one domain within which the UC has incontrovertible and complete authority: its pathetic website. And for it, the UC must be held to account.

At best, the UC’s website is out-of-date, unnavigable, and aesthetically unappealing. At worst, it handicaps the student government and its relations with the student body at Harvard. In today’s world of ubiquitous technology, students are used to turning to the internet to find detailed information about their friends, complete calendars of city events, and even “Live Blogs” of campus events. This presents a tremendous opportunity for the UC to use the internet to connect with Harvard students by providing them with information about issues being debated at UC meetings, creating a forum for suggestions, linking to grant applications, compiling a calendar of Harvard events, and yes, even the voting records of UC members. The UC website does none of these things.

Worse still, many of the facilities of the UC’s current website go unused. The last news update from the UC dates from May 2004. The names of the current officers and members of the UC have not been updated to include current representatives. Because the site lacks in these respects, students remain largely unable to do the proper research required to make full use of their elected representatives. A click on the UC calendar produces, “Database Error. Couldn’t prepare statement.” A tab that presumably once listed the members of the separate UC committees now leads to a “404 Not Found” error page.

The website has very recently been updated to include minutes from UC meetings, updated legislation listings, and agendas. For this, we commend the UC. But even these updates are buried under obscure headers unlikely to be reached by the typical browser. In advance of a complete website redesign, simple steps can be taken to maximize the use of what is already in place. We do hope to see the fruits of a long-promised website overhaul in the near future, and it appears this administration is committed to seeing this initiative through, but in the interim, basic information voids should be filled.

Arguably, the greatest strength of the Haddock-Riley UC ticket was the effectiveness of the campaign’s website. Organized, pleasing to the eye, and most importantly, exceptionally informative, fixtheuc.com served its purpose admirably. What is needed now in terms of a website is something that will be a valuable vehicle of communication between students and the UC. Although the UC is primarily an organization for advocacy, the majority of students who approach the UC do so in order to complain about an issue on campus, to try to get a grant from the Financial Committee, or to create a club. As the website now exists, there are no tools to accomplish any of these things.

We applaud the UC for their efforts thus far to enhance the website and hope that these steps are indicative of pending progress. However, in the interim, the website needs to be updated to the level of functionality and become more than outdated rosters and dead links.