By Jade Inglada
The semester is coming to an end and the East Los Angeles College website is still lacking vital information for students, staff and faculty.
The updated version of the website became active a few days prior to the spring session beginning. The change came without any warning and confused users. Tabs and links were rearranged or completely moved to new areas.
Although it has improved some things since it launched, there is still outdated and missing information that makes the website appear inconsistent.
The search bar brings up a mix of results that are either new or really old. Some results date back to 2011.
The Academic Departments and Disciplines section has a lot of important information missing.
Some departments are missing faculty contact information, such as phone numbers and emails while others aren’t.
The Social Science Department is missing the entire list of faculty, and others don’t have discipline descriptions. Students have to go to office in the F7 building to get a certain instructor’s email and phone extension, as well as office hours.
A student may need to get in touch directly with an instructor he or she doesn’t know, and this is something that creates a barrier between communication.
New information also isn’t always posted right away and it could be something students need.
A couple of weeks after the new shuttle schedule to the South Gate Educational Center was approved, I had to stay in class late. It was late and I couldn’t remember when the next shuttle was going to arrive.
The website still had the old version of the schedule up when I looked it up. I was able to find a physical printout of the schedule, but barely made it to the shuttle stop after wasting time searching for it.
The correct schedule is up now, but it should have been updated when the new one was already approved since the shuttle is a service that many students rely on.
There should be necessary upgrades made to the website while many students are off for the summer.
A list with instructors and their recent contact information should be uploaded under each department to prepare for the upcoming school year. Old files that still appear in the search results should be pushed farther back or removed completely.
If the Events and News sections on the homepage can stay up-to-date, so should the rest of the website.