THE TUFTS Where You Read It First VOLUME L, NUMBER 20 DAILY THURSDAY,OCTOBER 6, 2005 The towers are saved, where’s the princess? Tufts.ed-eww? Many sites yet to be updated Students stress clear navigation for new sites BY AARON SCHUMACHER described the Web site as “obso- Daily Staff Writer lete and an embarrassment.” The Senate unanimously sup- Over a year after the ported the proposal, and University’s main Web site was Kalafarski and Valentine took the redesigned, academic depart- idea to Vice President of ments are still in the process of University Relations Mary Jeka. updating their own sites. Jeka’s office had already been The main site — working on a new design, and a www.tufts.edu — is run by the revamped site was created Department of Web before the fall 2004 semester. Communications and Services, The academic departments but the department sites are were encouraged — not required under the Information — to redo their own sites. Technology Services umbrella. Freshman Greg Scott called the While the public relations department Web sites “ugly” and department is in charge of the said the ones he uses are “ten stories on the main site, each years older than they should be.” department controls its own A subcommittee of biology site’s content and appearance. faculty oversees the depart- In the spring of 2004, then- ment’s Web site, Professor Sara sophomore Tufts Community Lewis said. Union Senators Ed Kalafarski The biology Web site under- and John Valentine proposed a LISA CHOW/TUFTS DAILY went a major revision last year. Classics Professor Emma Blake spoke Wednesday on the Romans’ reuse of Sardinia’s Stone Towers, resolution supporting a redesign The two main features added called nuraghe. of the University’s Web site. At the time, Kalafarski see SITES, page 2 When it comes to e-mail, students find that size does matter Webmail’s small capacity prompts an exodus to Gmail BY REBECCA DINCE over-quota and then can’t receive messages Daily Editorial Board until they’ve discarded old e-mails, which may be many days after the message was An increasing number of Tufts students sent.” are transferring — but not to a different “There have even been instances when Gmail Webmail university. students have contacted me to ask a ques- Capacity 2,500+ megabytes 20 megabytes This ever-growing list of students are tion and I respond, only to find later that Have to delete old mail? No Yes renouncing their Tufts Webmail account the student has never received the mes- New-mail notifications? Yes Yes and switching to alternate e-mail services. sage,” Spielberg said. Users Worldwide Tufts students and The most popular alternative provider E-mail is now a vital part of communica- professors has been Google’s Gmail. Students cite tion between students and professors. A Spam filter? Yes Yes Gmail’s high storage capacity and simple study by University of Illnois at Chicago Firewall protection? No Yes presentation — something they find lack- professor Steve Jones found 98 percent of Privacy protection? Under fire Yes ing in Webmail — as reasons for the switch. professors used e-mail to communicate Special features Filtered e-mail system Router for Blackboard The greatest problem with Tufts with students. Seventy-three percent of Languages available 38 19 Webmail was storage space, students and professors said their communication with professors said. When a user’s mailbox students has increased since they started University students and professors frus- server space between the two services was exceeds maximum capacity — 20 using e-mail. trated with the Tufts service have been the server’s different purposes. “Webmail megabytes for undergraduate students — Tufts Information Technology Services turning elsewhere. Gmail offers more than [has] firewall protection and serves as a e-mails sent to the account are bounce representatives Vincent Yu agreed that lim- 2.5 gigabytes of free storage - more than router for Blackboard. There are just differ- back to the sender as undeliverable. ited space was an issue for students. 125 times the amount offered by Webmail. ent uses for a server in a college environ- “Students’ mailboxes are so often over- “Storage space wise, Webmail only allows Senior Jean Whitehead switched to ment — it’s for servicing students,” he said. quota that I can’t send them even a short 5- for 20 megabytes — that is the limit for Gmail “because of the huge storage capac- Storage capacity is not the only reason page article in PDF form,” she said. Tufts users,” Yu said. “But that’s because of ity that just keeps growing every day.” A that students have switched to Gmail. When a mailbox is full, it’s a lose-lose sit- the server capacity — there are not that counter on the Gmail Web site keeps track Several students interviewed cited a “pretty uation for students and professors. “It’s many people who use Tufts’ service. For by the second of the ever-growing amount interface,” “good organizational frustrating for everyone,” Spielberg said. Gmail, since there are so many users, the of available server space. see EMAIL, page 3 “Students don’t know when their boxes are server capacity is huge.” Yu said the reason for the difference in INSIDE Good business will fix anti-Americanism The Daily previews the BSO’s new season BY JEFF LINDSAY Reinhard’s lecture included a together on public relations cam- Contributing Writer Power Point presentation with paigns. Reinhard said business is see ARTS, page 5 video clips and images. In one better situated to affect people’s American business has the image, the falling Saddam lives than government. power to save the country’s image Hussein statue in Baghdad was “Policy isn’t up for grabs every abroad, Keith Reinhard said replaced with Ronald McDonald four years,” he said of the business Wednesday. to illustrate the common associa- world. Reinhard, the president of tion of U.S. corporations with the Unlike a government — which Business for Diplomatic Action country’s foreign policy. operates under checks and bal- (BDA), gave the year’s second BDA formed soon after Sept. 11, ances — a cohesive board of speech in the Charles Francis 2001 to combat anti-American directors of a company can imple- Adams Lecture Series at the sentiment, which the group ment changes without jumping Fletcher School. believes is bad for international through bureaucratic hoops, He spoke on “The New World of business. Reinhard said. Public Diplomacy: Business Reinhard — the chairman of Domestic businesses have an INDEX Taking the Lead” to a room full of DDB Worldwide, an advertising interest in better public diploma- News | Features 1 mostly graduate students in the agency — attributed the drop in cy as well, he said. According to Arts | Living 5 ASEAN Auditorium. international public opinion of the BDA, the U.S. has a 6 percent Editorial | Letters 10 One out of four people in Asia, a the US to three things: foreign pol- share of world tourism— down Viewpoints 11 BDA poll found, avoid buying icy, the effects of globalization, from 7.4 percent since Sept. 11, National 13 American products. The same poll and the pervasiveness of 2001. An increase of 1 percent rep- International 15 found Australians think U.S. for- American pop culture. resents $12.3 billion spent in the Comics 16 eign policy is just as big a threat to BDA tries to minimize the neg- U.S. Classifieds 17 NAEEMA CAMPBELL/TUFTS DAILY the world as Islamic fundamental- ative impacts of the second two Sports Back page Business for Diplomatic Action ism. causes by helping business work see BUSINESS, page 3 President Keith Reinhard tuftsdaily.com 2 THE TUFTS DAILY NEWS | FEATURES Thursday, October 6, 2005 DEPARTMENT WEB SITES The biology, English, and math department Web sites. The main University site, tufts.edu, was redesigned last year, but the academic departments are responsible for updating their own sites. Front page stories are nice, but information is still hard to find on main site SITES efforts to change their sites. “It was useful Though not all departments are Technology Services site that links to the continued from page 1 each time,” sophomore Dave Schaffner upgrading their Web sites, Edelman said departments’ sites is “one of the hardest were descriptions of faculty members’ said of the biology site. “I looked at the doing so would help visitors. websites to navigate that I’ve ever research and information on undergradu- major requirements, which were one link “The lack of cohesion of all the differ- encountered.” ate research opportunities, Lewis said. away.” ent sections of Tufts and the departments For departments to improve their Web Lewis is the chair of the subcommittee. The mathematics department is in the and organizations makes it difficult to sites, LaMagna had some advice: “Just “We wanted it to be informative and process of redoing its site. “Ours, in terms navigate,” freshman Michael Mandell make it easier to navigate,” she said. useful for a variety of audiences,” Lewis of design, is very old,” department chair said. “Make it clear.” said. “We’ve tried to capture the visual Boris Hasselblatt said. “We hope to have a Sophomore Erica LaMagna said navi- Kalafarski said the main Web site is appeal of what we study up on the Web.” new Web site in a matter of weeks.” gating between areas on the University’s being gradually improved thanks to the Biology Department Chair Harry After getting feedback on the current Web sites is difficult. “I’ve tried to get to dedication of the Web Communications Bernheim said the department chose spe- site over the summer, the English depart- ResLife through tufts.edu and it was way staff.