Only a few months ago, this small college hit its two-year mark of officially being a university. As Linfield University has expanded, so has its outreach online.

The Linfield website has become a primary resource for students, faculty, and anyone who wishes to learn more about this fast-growing university. The Linfield website is being changed and revised in hopes of making a better first impression on any viewer of the website.

Today we will be looking into the website itself, and how the students at Linfield truly feel about it.

Upon opening the main link to the website, the first thing a user will see is the students. Already, the website is showing the public the diversity of the student population here, and each of the stories they bring with them.

While some other schools have menus and links to other portions of their website as soon as you open the page, Linfield’s website has a variety of categories.

After the feature story on the top, next is a current events link. This week it happens to be a dance group from Los Angeles making the trek up to Oregon and a link to the tickets. As you continue to scroll down the page, the feed turns more to news and stories. At the bottom of the main page there are a few key stories, helping to show the public what is truly happening at Linfield.

While all of these categories are a wonderful way to spread information and news, there seems to be missing information for the students. The athletics page is separate from the main website, so any student-athlete viewing the page would only know how to access it from previous experience.

There also is an absence of any information on other events happening on campus, or anything that would catch someone’s eye.

My main point of criticism is the directory. It is relatively difficult to navigate the website when trying to get further than the main page. It seems that the website is mostly geared towards the general public, which makes it an issue for any sort of student to get around, especially a first year student who is not familiar with it. 

Self-Service, one of the efficient ways for students to search and register for classes, remains very difficult to find. Many students will spend their time searching for items they may want to use, instead of having a quick direct link. 

In order to find more about the students’ true feelings about this website, I asked one of our own, sophomore Sydney Monroe. Monroe is a double major in theater and journalism studies. About a week ago, Monroe was using Self-Service and Webadvisor to determine what classes she was required to sign up for next semester, and she explained to me how difficult it is to navigate the website.

“It seems that the website tends to be geared towards the public more than the students,” she said. Monroe said it took her a few weeks to learn how to gain access to her schedule, grades, and even textbooks when she started as a freshman. As a member of the theater program here on campus, Monroe told me she felt there was a minimal representation of the program on the website as well as the other extracurriculars.

Although the website does not remain too student-friendly, it continues to appeal greatly to the general public. When talking to Monroe, she mentioned that while she was looking at colleges herself a few years back, the Linfield website was a great asset to her. Being able to browse different majors and minors, extracurricular activities, and gaining a general feel of the school benefited her greatly in her decision in which school to attend.

In addition, the website still lacks the general resources for some of the students here, making it difficult for them to navigate the website and access what they need.

Though there are many aspects the website should improve upon, it still remains a great resource for the public, as well as future students who hope to gain a glimpse into college life itself.