Viewers may have noticed a change on the Black Hills State University website when coming back to school. BHSU launched the new and improved look and functionality of the university website in early August. This signified the completion of the second phase of the three-phase plan of website improvement carried out by the BHSU Marketing and Communications office.

The website improvement plan started in the spring semester of 2017, as the content management system (CMS) for the old website was slow and hard to use. This meant BHSU had to search for a new CMS, purchase it and transfer the information onto the new CMS. Ultimately, the Marketing office decided on an upgraded format of the old CMS.

Web Coordinator Gustave Karinen said, “It was a group effort. The Student Technology Fellows and I have spent many hours transferring the old information onto the new CMS.”

As a result of the BHSU website having several thousands of pages, the process of transferring information took one full semester of work from the student technology fellows and the web coordinator.

After transferring, the first phase was complete. The second phase focused on updating the website’s overall look.

“A couple big reasons for the look change was to enhance marketing to the prospective students, as well as increase functionality of the website itself,” Assistant Director of Marketing Kristen Kilmer said.

The last phase of website improvement includes a collaborative effort between the Marketing and Communications Department and faculty around campus. Different departments are tasked with updating the website’s information related to their area of expertise. This phase will be ongoing throughout the rest of the academic year.