Why.Harvard.Edu?

Harvard students should all know that “pain relievers provide high blood pressure risk for men” and recent discoveries in “medieval Islamic architecture [presage] 20th century mathematics.” At least that’s what one would think after looking at my.harvard.edu, Harvard’s ubiquitous web portal, where such information is prominently displayed under the banner “Harvard Happenings.”

Indeed, for someone who hasn’t seen the Web site before, the notion that my.harvard, which turns seven years old in just a few months, was meant to be an informative and intuitive nexus for Harvard undergraduates must seem like a bad joke. Showing its age more like vinegar than a fine wine, Harvard’s portal site is cumbersome, irrelevant, and dated. It’s no wonder that the only time many College students log on to my.harvard is when they’re forced to on study card day.

My.harvard’s woes begin with its near obsolescence. It cannot, for instance, take complete advantage of new syndication tools to gather customized, pertinent information for Harvard undergrads. This leaves the determination of much of my.harvard’s content to the staff of Harvard’s IT department.

While this explains the portal’s emphasis on university-wide news and resources, most of which holds little significance for undergraduates, it does little to explain why a rethinking of the site has not yet occurred in the face of such utter mediocrity, of which “Harvard Happenings” is but one example. The weather tool provides minimum and maximum temperatures for the day but not an intelligible forecast. The “campus resources” tab is headed up by a “women’s center search committee” box (the search finished over nine months ago). And useful links are often so buried that they often go unused. These deficiencies are particularly frustrating when considered in the light of robust, student-friendly portals at other schools, like the highly successful yalestation.org.

Yet while it seems obvious that my.harvard needs at least a facelift, the staff of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) IT department has also shown reticence toward the prospect of cutting-edge “Web 2.0” opportunities for information gathering, instead touting my.harvard’s existing customization capabilities, which are scant. Indeed, FAS IT seems to be headed in the other direction, if the shift of course websites to my.harvard this year is any indication.

One potential solution is a student-made portal—an effort to create one is being spearheaded by former UC presidential candidate Thomas D. Hadfield ’08, who is also a Crimson editor. We are far more optimistic that students will be able to understand fellow students’ needs.

Some things on our wish-list of features, however, require official University support. Students on their own could not, for instance, produce a Web site with GPS maps of shuttle locations (see http://www.yale.transloc-inc.com for a rare pang of New Haven-safety-school jealousy) or a more intuitive course selection tool. Unless FAS IT suddenly supports a student-run portal, we can only hope that the powers that be reinvent my.harvard before it turns eight.