March 3, 2009
Visitors to the Rollins home page will soon see the results of an extensive research and design effort to enhance the functionality and appeal of the College's Web site. The site will launch over the week of March 9.
The new site design is part of the overall strategic marketing initiative designed to strengthen and make consistent the brand image of Rollins College. In 2005, President Lewis Duncan charged Greg Marshall and Jule Gassenheimer, both professors in the Crummer Graduate School of Business, with conducting a Pre-Marketing Image Study to provide insight on the internal and external perceptions of Rollins College. An internal marketing audit was performed to analyze the College's current marketing strategies, tactics, and processes, as well as the resources consumed by these efforts. These studies revealed that Rollins was not effectively communicating a clear and consistent message to its constituents. A strategic marketing team was developed and an agency helped develop a clearer and more consistent identity or brand for the College. Read more about the strategic marketing initiative.
"Competition for the best students—and best faculty—has never been greater," said Greg Marshall, vice president for strategic marketing and the Charles Harwood Professor of Marketing and Strategy in Rollins Crummer Graduate School of Business. "Our efforts are focused on meeting this challenge."
Also launching the week of March 9 is “R-Net,” the new Rollins intranet. R-Net will serve as the new internal hub providing news and information of interest for students, faculty and staff. It will also be the gateway to all campus login sites such as FoxLink, Blackboard and GroupWise. Students, faculty and staff are encouraged to bookmark R-Net as their homepage so they can more easily find items that they use frequently.
"This launch is best thought of as a 'commencement'—a beginning—as there will continue to be much work to do over the months ahead to ensure that pages beneath the landing pages are upgraded in both design and content," said John Sharkey, director of Web Strategy.
For now, the launch only affects key landing pages. All other organization Web sites will not be immediately affected by this change. The new pages will link to existing Web pages. Over the summer and fall of 2009 expect to see numerous Rollins Web sites move to this new look and feel. Visitors may notice some broken links or “page not found” errors. In such cases, filling out the site feedback form, which can be found at the bottom of the new home page under the "About this Site" link, will help The Web Strategy Team address all issues as they are identified. Read more about the Web rebuild.
