Whereas: there are many deep structural errors resulting from forcing our diverse community into a small number of rigid templates; for example, forcing graduate program descriptions into an undergraduate “mold” that leaves out the most salient parts of our programs and application procedures.
While some of these are in the process of being repaired, there are certainly many more problems of fact and design yet to be discovered.
Whereas: these numerous and significant errors of fact and design have a significant negative effect on many aspects of the University community, including:
- Undergraduate and graduate admissions
- Faculty recruitment
- Faculty visibility
- Competitive grant applications
- Day-to-day use of the website by all community members
Whereas: documents describing best practices in web site re-design typically highlight the importance of “[planning] carefully to ensure valuable content is transferred accurately and without loss of data or quality” (1), “Extensive proofreading” (2) and list as a common mistake, “Failing to test the site prior to launch” (3).
Whereas: the University community is in the middle of an academic semester, graduate and undergraduate admissions, and faculty recruitment, as well as ongoing teaching, research, and service. Clearly, time is of the essence to avoid loss of crucial opportunities.
Whereas: the process for repairing these errors is extremely slow, difficult and cumbersome and requires an enormous time commitment on the part of already over-worked members of the community.
Whereas: the old UMB website, while flawed, was significantly more functional for our immediate needs than the new site.
Whereas: the longer the original website remains unmanaged, the more out of date it will become and the longer the new website remains on-line, the more harm is done to our community.
Therefore: we the undersigned demand that the University:
1) immediately take down the revised website and replace it with the most recent archived version (4) of the previous website.
And, further:2) do not post the revised website until it has been thoroughly vetted by all relevant stakeholders.
We do not take this demand lightly but the number and severity of problems with the website combined with the timetable for the process of fixing these problems makes this our best option to restore this essential university resource.
References
(1) https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/website-redesign/
(2) https://markovate.com/blog/website-redesign-mistakes/
(3) https://blog.hubspot.com/agency/website-redesign-mistakes
(4) either an in-house backup or one from the web, for
example: https://wayback.archive-it.org/20591/20230724193602/https://www.umb.edu/
