Update, Aug. 27, 5:17 p.m.: The new AU Student Government website went down again during the night due to malfunctions of the host server, and it has been down for the entire day.
The SG came up with a “temporary fix” Wednesday in order to launch the website Thursday evening, according to Douglas Bell, interim director of information technology for the SG. But when a lot of people visited the site Thursday night at the time of the launch, “that proved that the temporary fix didn’t work,” Bell said.
As a result of the site’s server problems, the SG has decided to switch hosts for the website from Slicehost, the company that the SG has used for its website for the last two years. The new host will be HostGate, according to Bell.
In a notice on the current SG webpage, Kent Hiebel noted that other online services provided by the SG, such as Job Board, the AUTO & Bike Lending website, the form to sign up to get involved with the SG, the Facebook and Twitter pages and the YouTube page are still functional.
Bell said the entire SG website should be up and functioning some time this weekend.
Update, Aug. 26, 7:13 p.m.: The new site has launched.
Original story:
The AU Student Government’s new website, previewed Tuesday night at an Open House in the Mary Graydon Center, was experiencing technical problems with the server that should be fixed by tonight at 7 p.m.
The site encountered unforeseen problems during the process of switching it over from the domain on which it was developed over the summer to the server for the SG site, according to Douglas Bell, the chief designer of the site and interim director of information technology for the SG.
“As a result, it has the issue of if a lot of people start going to it is going to slow down and collapse, and we’re going to have to reboot the back end,” Bell said.
Memory leaks on the site caused it to move slower and slower until it would crash, he said.
“Because of the sub domain, different sections of the site for every individual section of the department, it was actually not possible to develop the website on the AUSG.org because it takes up the website,” Bell said. “We didn’t want to take the SG site down for the whole summer.”
As a result, the IT department bought cheap hosting on which to develop the site, with the intention of transplanting the website once completed, according to Bell, who said the process is like transferring a potted plant into the ground.
As a result of the problems, the attendees at the original time for the launch Tuesday were only able to view a preview of the site.
“Although our website is very much ready to go, the server decided to throw us a couple of curveballs today,” Bell said.
Despite the delayed release and technical problems, the website should be available by 7 p.m. Thursday evening.
“We are just taking one more day to make sure the site is ship shape,” Bell said.
The revamped site will feature a toolbar on the top of the screen with simple links to news events, programming, student services, media and advocacy.
Additionally, each department of the SG will have its own separate website, forming a site-within-site structure that allows for easy navigation and overall coordination of the SG, added Bell.
Student Government President Nate Bronstein gave some opening remarks at the event Tuesday on how the new website reflected the philosophy of the SG.
“We have a wide variety of services we offer,” Bronstein said. “Many of us are experts at a given field, and we all come together under one umbrella organization to do one thing and one thing only – build you a home away from home.”
A new SG logo was also developed by SG Director of Design Dana Reinert and was first shown at Tuesday’s event. It features a red, white and blue motif with an eagle head and wings surrounding a star.
“The logo represents AUSG’s core philosophy: Although we take our jobs seriously, we should never take ourselves too seriously,” SG Secretary Kent Hiebel said in a press release.
The SG has also made efforts to ensure that the logo represents the student body through its bolder design and use of school colors.
“As an outsider of the SG in the past, I felt as if the organization didn’t really represent me,” Reinert said. “Seeing the evolution of the SG this summer, I don’t feel that way anymore, and this new logo speaks to that.”
amooney@theeagleonline.com mfowler@theeagleonline.com
