//IST2U Redesign Aims to Solve Communication Issues//
By: Jacob Thorwart - jlt273@psu.edu

IST students are an extremely fortunate group of individuals at Penn State University. The volume of opportunities they receive that advertise involvement, leadership, scholarships, and employment are arguably the greatest offered to any academic faction, when taking into account the relatively small size of the College of Information Sciences and Technology. With these news items, however, comes the obligation to announce them in an organized and consistent manner.

Though IST2U has been serving this requirement since the spring semester of 2005, it has been met with mixed sentiment. Now in its third major incarnation, the service is at a cross-road. “Many students are not aware of how useful IST2U can be in keeping them connected,” said Jason Conrad, member of the IST2U re-design team and current IST2U media director. This lack of knowledge has lead to a general consensus among those in charge that things are in need of a major overhaul.

Enter: the IST2U re-design effort. The core re-design team has been meeting regularly this year to find out how the service can evolve to best meet the needs of current IST students. Among other things previously discussed this year, the team has studied the potential benefits of developing a weekly e-mail system that highlights news items, a new look and feel to the site, and even a radically changed name for the service, itself.

Those interested in giving their input can visit ANGEL, search for a group titled “IST2U,” enroll in the group, and take the survey inside of the group. This survey has been designed to gauge how effective the current system is at delivering news as well as examine what alternative methods could be explored in passing along information.

Stay tuned throughout the year for updates to the site. If you have any questions about the re-design or would like to give personal input, feel free to contact this writer (also a member of the re-design team) to provide your feedback.