Mount Allison University Professor James Devine to testify at Canadian Senate Hearing

One of my professors, Dr. James Devine will be travelling to Ottawa to testify before the Canadian Senate's Foreign Affairs and International Trade Standing Committee to "Examine and report on Canadian foreign policy regarding Iran, its implications, and other related matters". His testimony will begin at 11:30am Atlantic and will be webcast live via Parliament's website.

Dr. Devine's research specialties include: International relations and foreign policy in the Middle East; the politics and foreign policy of Iran, international rivalries and protracted conflicts; democracy and authoritarian politics in the Middle East. He is also a senior research fellow with The Interuniversity Consortium for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies based out of McGill University.

Website Feedback Requested for The Argosy, Mount Allison's Student Newspaper

Hi everybody,

In case not all of you know, I'm the Online Editor at The Argosy, Mount Allison University's Student Newspaper (now since 1872). I went to the Canadian University Press National Conference in January where I learned quite a bit  (primarily at the New Media Roundtable) from other people in similar positions at student newspapers from across Canada. I've been making changes to The Argosy's online presence based on my report to The Argosy's Editorial Board. In part due to what I learned there I was able to increase online readership of The Argosy to it's highest level on record (which, taking into account low readership earlier this year and an incomplete online presence before then may mean the highest ever).

What I'm asking for at this point is anything you, the prospective, current, or former student at Mount Allison University (or other interested party) would like to see changed with the website. I know that I applied to be the paper's first Online Editor because I felt as though there should be changes made to the paper's online presence and have worked to the best of my ability to ensure the paper is as accessible as possible to the student population which funds the paper. There are five more issues this year I would like to see readership remain at this level (or, ideally, increase) and I'd like to have your suggestions as to what changes could be made to the website to make you want to visit it more often and share stories from it online.

If the numbers and positive feedback is any indication I've done increasingly well at my job. I'm always open to suggestions so please let me know if you think I should be doing anything differently.

Thanks in advance.

Best,

Geoff

*Note: Comments can made publicly below or e-mailed directly to me via my Google+ profile (because I get too much spam as it is).

The Argosy hosts a debate of candidates for the Students' Administrative Council at Mount Allison University

The Argosy just wrapped up hosting a debate of all the candidates for the SAC executive on Sunday and I was there live-streaming it to those who weren't there. If you missed it you can watch it here:

Argosy Hosts SAC Debate

Mount Allison University plans website redesign

As you may know, the University is undertaking a redesign of mta.ca. I'm on the Web Advisory Group which is providing input to the project. I talked to the Tony Frost, my boss and contact person for the project for more information. It's a vitally important project for the school and I'm excited to offer whatever helpful input I can.


I'll let you know more as the project progresses.


From The Argosy:

    If everything goes as planned, Mount Allison will have a brand new website this summer. The website redesign comes at the heels of the now-complete branding project and will easily incorporate the school’s new visual identity.The project, a joint effort between Marketing and Communications and Computing services, will involve contracting a web design firm to create a website created with input from students, faculty, staff, and alumni. The website has become an important communication tool for new students and it is important the site meet the expectations of a range of audiences, not least of which is perspective students.    Marc-Alexandre Chartrand, a fourth year international relations student said that when he was considering coming to Mt. A, the website was the only outlet he had to find out more about the school. He said he found it difficult to navigate and was concerned that the current graphics and layout of the website would not impress current students looking at it. Others were more concerned about navigability and ease of use. Geoff Hutchinson noted “It needs to be easy to find what you’re looking for. It needs to be streamlined. It needs to be intuitive.” Current students are not alone. According to the 2011 E-Expectations Report by Noel- Levitz, one in five students said they removed a school from consideration because of a bad experience on an institution’s website.    The administration, for its part is taking online communication seriously. In his community-wide e-mail in December, President Campbell seemed in agree in his e-mail, “As many in our community appreciate, a university’s web site is integral to the way it communicates internally and externally, to making a good first impression, to strengthening our reputation... Each year our community and audiences expect more from our web site, and we must be able to deliver on those expectations if we are to achieve our mission.” Julie Stephenson, VP Communication for the SAC thought it was a step in the right direction. “The website redesign project shows Mt. A is interested in developing their online presence and the services they can provide to students.”    Tony Frost, Director of Marketing and Communications noted that the new website is needed for a number of reasons, to make needed upgrades, to integrate the new brand elements, and the ability to publish content on the website more easily. He said...

The Argosy hosts a SAC all-candidates debate

The Argosy will be hosting a SAC all-candidates debate at 7pm tonight in the Wu Centre (Dunn Building). Tune in here if you can't make it in person:

Watch live streaming video from theargosy at livestream.com

Norovirus Hits #NASH74: A Case Study in Crisis Communication

As many of you have heard, including from the school administration a few of us from Mount Allison went to the 74th Annual Conference of the Canadian University Press. There were many great presentations from journalists and other experts, helpful round-table discussions from those at other papers from around the country, and inspiring, informative, and sometimes hilarious keynote addresses. However, all you heard was probably something like this headline: Painful norovirus infected 75 people at Victoria conference
Thankfully I left unscathed by the virus. however many others didn't. While it must have been a nightmare for organizers, by most accounts they did an excellent job communicating with delegates throughout the ordeal. I find myself in the majority but there are those who claim that the way in which they communicated (e-mail, door-to-door checks, and Twitter) was inadequate. I collected the most relevant posts from throughout the night and asked the interwebs (but primarily the others who were at #NASH74) what they thought. Below is that story.