College Adds Parents’ Info Tab to Web Site

Harvard College is trying to make it a bit easier for parents to stay on top of campus news that may affect their children’s lives.

Today the College is releasing a new parents’ tab on the recently redesigned College Web site, which will provide a collection of information and links relevant to undergraduates’ parents.

The Web site is in part designed to mitigate parents’ concerns about the potential risks of H1N1 influenza at Harvard and to help the spread of information pertaining to the disease. The University also recently created a phone hotline for parents to call with questions about H1N1.

In addition to the latest Harvard Gazette story about the prevalence of H1N1 on campus, the parents’ tab currently contains a letter from Dean of the College Evelynn M. Hammonds and an article written by an undergraduate student. The second page of the site provides parents with a detailed list of relevant links meant to help them navigate Harvard’s sometimes complicated network of resources.

Parents will also be able to register for a newsletter and other updates from the College designated for parents.

College spokesman Jeff A. Neal said that he hoped that the section would be a “one-stop online resource center.”

“We recognized that it wasn’t entirely clear to parents where they should go for information,” he said.

The administration has been working on developing the parents’ section since August, Neal added.

The new tab comes as part of an effort by the College to improve its online presence. On August 27, the same day that freshmen arrived on campus, the College released a redesigned Web site. The setup of the new Web site allows the college to more easily update the site’s content, said FAS Communications Specialist Amy A. Lavoie.

Besides the new parents’ tab, the College Web site includes tabs directing visitors to pages such as academics, admissions, and my.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Lauren D. Kiel can be reached at lkiel@fas.harvard.edu. —Staff writer Eric P. Newcomer can be reached at newcomer@fas.harvard.edu.