Redesigned University Website Begins Launching Today
January 19, 2022
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
We have reached an important milestone in the redesign and redeployment of the university’s website. The first—and most pivotal—phase of the launching of Purdue Fort Wayne’s new website began overnight, and we’re pleased to announce that the site is now live.
Throughout the redesign process, the Office of Communications and Marketing has been committed to creating a first-rate site driven by a comprehensive content strategy that is focused squarely on the student experience. The new site, which will continue to evolve, is designed within the refreshed Purdue Fort Wayne brand that was introduced in fall 2020 and also aligns directly with the Purdue University brand. The site adheres to best practices, including responsive design tailored to all mobile platforms, integrated feeds from other PFW data sources, and strict compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Today’s initial launch includes top-level university pages, the home page, landing and audience pages, new features, enhanced navigation, and streamlined templates. Among the new features being introduced is a program finder that provides both prospective and current students with a user-friendly search tool to help them learn about all academic offerings. A completely reenvisioned university calendar creates a new environment for featuring a wide variety of university events—and also completes one of the top priorities identified by the Quality of Place Action Planning Team during the university’s strategic planning process. And a reimagined News Center will serve as the hub for telling the multitude of diverse stories about our students, faculty, and staff.
The next phase of the website launch will include new sites for the colleges and schools, which have been in development with the deans and their teams for the past year. The first college site will launch in February, and other colleges and schools are targeted to go live—on a staggered schedule and based on readiness—through the remainder of the spring semester. Following the launch of academic sites, work will begin on the redesign of remaining university sites, with a strategic focus on student recruitment, engagement, support, and services sites.
Today’s launch also marks the university’s move to the new and much-anticipated Drupal content management system. As new sites are launched, they will transition to this platform. During this transition, the university will continue to maintain and support the dotCMS platform until all sites have been redesigned within the Drupal environment.
An essential aspect of implementing a project of this magnitude is training. For the past two months, the communications and marketing team has provided Drupal training for individuals campus wide who create content for the events calendar. Likewise, a plan is in development for providing Drupal training and support for website publishers across the university who will maintain content for their sites. More information on training will be available in the near future.
As we’re sure you all know and appreciate, this has been, and continues to be, a monumental task. We want to thank and congratulate the central communications and marketing team for their creativity, ingenuity, and dedication on this project. In close collaboration with dozens of campus colleagues, they have been working at an extraordinary pace, despite the demands of responding to the pandemic.
This is an exciting step forward for Purdue Fort Wayne. Thank you for your enthusiasm and support as we transition to this dynamic new era in the university’s digital presence and engagement.
Sincerely,
Ron Elsenbaumer
Chancellor
Jerry Lewis
Vice Chancellor for Communications and Marketing