Students seeking knowledge about the University can expect the help of three websites in the coming months.
Members of Duke Student Government passed one resolution and listened to two presentations showcasing online projects currently in the works Wednesday night at the final general body meeting of the 2005-2006 academic year.
Representatives unanimously passed a resolution to revamp the ACES website. Senator Craig Bohn, a senior who presented the resolution, said a series of various small improvements will make the site more user-friendly.
"These are little things," he said. "They can't be that hard to put in there."
The resolution focuses on making ACES easier to navigate. The improved site will offer links from classes listed in students' bookbags to their respective course descriptions. It will also provide links from ACES to both the DSG syllabi database and a course evaluations website.
Additional features of the new ACES will allow students to flag or star courses for their own references and make permanent notes at the bottom of the bookbag page. Students will also receive e-mail notifications of changes to their scheduled courses, including new professors, additional sections and placements on waitlists.
Senators proposed and approved several amendments to the resolution for more changes.
Senator Duncan McKenna, a freshman, suggested including professors and class locations in students' bookbags-features currently not offered by ACES.
Junior Maggie McGannon, vice president-elect of student affairs, said ACES should include lists of major and minor requirements or offer links to departmental home pages. She added that information on intradepartmental classifications would assist students in meeting requirements for their majors.
Bohn said he hopes to present the resolution to University Registrar Bruce Cunningham in the upcoming weeks so the new features will be in place by the next academic year.
After passing the resolution, representatives listened to two presentations about websites aimed at informing students of various aspects of campus life.
Bohn and Senator Nicole Cederblom, a senior, described a new website called "Dukipedia." The site-modeled after the popular "Wikipedia"-would offer students what Cederblom described as the "inside track at Duke" by allowing them to post advice for others.
"It would be an encyclopedia of Duke," she said. "It's basically talking to juniors and seniors who know what's going on."
Cederblom said she is currently working with the Office of Information and Technology and hopes the site will be running by the end of the semester.
DSG President-elect Elliott Wolf, a sophomore, and Executive Vice President-elect Joe Fore, a junior, presented a website that would offer information about classes and professors to students.
They described improvements to the course evaluations website, which Wolf created in November. The site has received almost 1,000 evaluations from students since then.
Wolf said administrators have approved making the site a permanent part of the University's databases, adding that the administration's support will make the website more stable.
"The [evaluations website] is running out of my dorm room," he said. "When I graduate, my computer is going with me."
In other business:
Members of DSG elected several officers for the upcoming academic year.
Representatives unanimously approved Wolf's nominations to the Board of Trustees Committee and his cabinet.
They also nominated and elected the upcoming president pro tempore and chief justice and voted on the chair, auditing chair and seven representatives of the Student Organization Financing Committee.
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