Ramapo College’s director of online communications and web administrator, Stephen Schur is the newly elected president of the NJ HigherEd Webmasters Association. At Ramapo College, he is part of the Office of Marketing and Communications and reports to the Assistant Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs. Stephen and his team are in charge of the 25,000 pages of the college website maintained via a combo of CMS, HTML and CSS.
1) What’s your background? What did you do before becoming a higher education Web pro?
I attended Queens College in New York, majored in American History with a minor in Mass Communications, then went on to Hofstra University in Long Island for a Masters in Secondary Education. I’ve had several careers that range from reporting for the Associated Press Radio division, then heading daytime news operations, to working as a general manager for an advertising and marketing company, to starting my own successful advertising agency, to working as a senior administrator and marketing coordinator in the resort real estate industry where I created the first resort real estate website in 1995, and then to working in higher education in my current position.
2) What’s your biggest achievement as a higher education Web pro?
I could certainly point to a successful award winning Web site, our successful roll-out of CMS, or the creating of a state-wide higher education webmaster group, but my real pride comes from the success of our student workers who are members of our Web Team. The environment is that of a professional Web design studio tied to a strong learning experience from understanding site architecture, to usability testing, to working with campus constituents in the design of their sites. Our graduates are all working as successful webmasters in higher education, private schools, advertising agencies, businesses, and the communications industry. They have formed a strong network among themselves and the students are members of our Web Team. When we roll out a test site, the team seeks input from our extended family, and receives both constructive criticism and strong support for their efforts.
3) What’s the most difficult part of your job?
Trying to keep ahead of the curve both from the point of view of Web technology and convention, and to meet the growing demands of our campus constituents who continue to embrace the Web, and who really do understand the significance of this medium in our society.
4) In your opinion, what’s the biggest challenge we face as Web pros in our industry?
Consistency in policy, procedure, and protocols for higher education websites. When the members of the NJ HigherEd Webmasters Association gather for a meeting, we find ourselves sharing both technical and operational information. Topics like the choice of CMS program and just how to successfully implement and support it, how to define and then implement accessibility standards when there is no clear administrative direction, what is needed in the way of personnel and funding to maintain and expand a Web operation and, the critical need for higher education Web professionals to attend Web conferences and seminars as part of their professional development.
5) Any good advice to share with your fellow higher education Web pros?
Communicate, communicate, communicate with those working on your site, the faculty, professional staff, administrators, alumni and others. A higher education website is not owned by the webmaster, it is the property of the campus community. They must see a bit of themselves in the pages of the site. This requires the Web professional to spend a lot of time attending meetings, making presentations, conducting usability testing and focus groups, and seeking campus constituent “buy-in.â€
6) What about a couple of good links?
- Jakob Nielsen’s Usability Website
- WebAIM for Accessibility resources
- Yale University’s online Web Style Guide, 2nd Edition
- Vincent Flander’s Web Pages That Suck blog
