Website needs faces lifted

What is not so apparent is who these people are and why they are qualified to represent the student body of CSULB to all cyberspace. No notice was posted in any school publication announcing an opportunity for students to be a part of the redesigned site or to represent the school. The chosen students just happened to be walking past the remotely located University Public Affairs and Publications office on the second floor of Brotman Hall.

Fairly and accurately representing all CSULB students does, of course, present some inherent difficulties. Featuring giant, individual student pictures only accentuates this point, especially when there are so many positive aspects to this university that might have been featured there, on the most public of all of the university's publications.

CSULB's academic side is, theoretically, the university's main focus. Why not, then, feature the numerous well-renowned professors teaching here? Their credentials, research, writings, and various achievements are, or should be, a significant factor for prospective students.

If featuring students was considered integral to the new site, pictures of President's Scholars or other scholarship recipients would have been more than appropriate. Some of our notable athletes could have been featured as well, highlighting our champion sports programs. Candid photos of students studying in the library or lounging on the grass on upper campus would have captured some of the university's ambiance.

Even pictures of our beautiful campus might have been used, as they were in the site's former design. CSULB has many picture-perfect spots, like the tree-lined walkway between the University Student Union and SSPA, or the Japanese Gardens. The Bell Tower was good enough to grace our much-heralded 50th anniversary logo, and the Pyramid is a main campus highlight, but they are nowhere to be seen.

Webmaster Doug Cox acknowledges the lack of diversity among the featured students and said the university has plans to slowly implement a more accurate selection of students, but no matter how closely the percentages follow the statistics, individual pictures are a poor sampling of the student body.

These pictures contribute nothing to the experience of the web page and convey absolutely no information about students or student life on campus. And those faces, displayed so flagrantly across the page, are not the epitome of what a student is or should be.

What a waste of precious space it is when the university chooses to bury some of the most important attributes the campus on back pages, featuring on its primary page only the empty smiles of no name faces.