Albion Today Platform Faces Technical Struggles

A desktop with a Dell monitor showing multiple open windows and an Apple keyboard sit on a wooden desk.
The submission page for Albion Today, daily email digest and Engage, platforms used for submitting and promoting campus events. Vice President of Marketing and Communications Melissa Anderson said Albion Today “was built for the campus to have a sense of autonomy” (Photo by Lizzy Kelley).

Since what Director of Information Technology Eric Beadle said has “been the better part of 20 years,” Albion Today has served as a central hub for event promotion, sending daily email digests to students and faculty “around 10 a.m.” However, on Jan. 24, the platform experienced technical difficulties due to what Beadle said was the platform “running on a version of WordPress that is no longer supported.”

WordPress, a “free and open-source web publishing system originally designed for bloggers,” has been preparing for a major update set to roll out on April 15. In the meantime, smaller updates have caused issues for platforms like Albion Today that operate on older versions. 

This disruption left users unable to access or submit posts with links, including events ranging from community assistant applications to the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation.

Beadle said the Office of Institutional Technology (IT), in part because of Albion Today malfunctions, is collaborating with the Office of Communications to assess the best way for the campus community to share and access event information.

Vice President of Marketing and Communications Melissa Anderson said that “when things break down, people’s patience for a solution runs short.” 

“As we’re kind of moving forward, we’re really focused on ways that we can do something similar with the tools that we’ve built staffing around,” Anderson said. 

Beadle added that the offices are weighing two main options: “Whether to invest some time to get it back up to where it’s working well” or “move in a different direction.”

While the IT office does not currently track user metrics on Albion Today email engagement, Beadle said “a large percentage of the campus has (the emails) marked as spam.”

If you know a significant portion of the community isn’t even looking at it, then obviously we need to rethink how we’re communicating,” Beadle said.

Houston senior Aishat Fagun said that as a first-year she “used to check it religiously” but as a senior, only opens it “if it’s important.”

“Social media is more effective on passing on information than Albion Today, people don’t check their emails,” Fagun said.

Anderson said that her office is putting “focus on building up our social media channels, and putting together easy to fill out forms.”

Anderson added that there has been a recent change in how events are scheduled within the college’s broader communication system. Groups using 25Live, Albion’s campus-wide reservation system, will have their events automatically displayed on the college’s web calendar.

Additionally, the Office of Communications has developed an event promotion package for campus organizations to enhance visibility.

For now, students with questions or concerns are welcome to email helpdesk@albion.edu, get in touch with IT or submit another post.

About Killian Altayeb 45 Articles
Killian Altayeb is from Novi, Michigan and is a third-year student at Albion College. They are a Biochemistry and Spanish Major with a journalistic interest in all things public health. Contact Killian via email at NA12@albion.edu.

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