A recent and welcome change to the online face of the University is the newly renovated Events Calendar, which officially debuted at the beginning of this semester. Its creation was a collective effort, collaborated on by several organizations, including the Office of the Registrar, the Student Activities Office, Information Technology Services and the Office of Communications.
All who contributed to the Web site should be commended for creating a calendar that is very user friendly and aesthetically enjoyable. Equally important is that the site is open to submission from everyone, and anything sponsored by a University organization and happening on a UR campus can be posted.
This will provide both a one-stop shop for anyone looking for campus events and an effective means for organizations to communicate and advertise activities to the student body.
Found on the calendar homepage (http://www.rochester.edu/calendar), there are already full days of upcoming events listed, evidence that students have caught on to this useful tool. From there, events can be browsed by date or by category, with links to other important calendars on the sidebar.
The calendar is a big step in working toward the goal of connecting the schools of the University, giving students from Eastman, Warner, Simon, the Medical Center and the College the ability to get informed and become involved with the events taking place on any campus.
Moreover, student participation in campus events and activities is not what it could be at UR, and one of the reasons for this has been a lack of tools to become aware of and easily access information about these goings-on. This comprehensive Web site is an important instrument toward that end.
