Penn State Intercom......September 19, 2002

University-wide events calendar
links campuses, community

By Amy Neil
Public Information

In an effort to consolidate the many online calendars that exist within the Penn State system, a new Web-based public events calendar has been established by the University's Web Strategies Implementation Team.

Known as the University-wide events calendar project and located at http://www.events.psu.edu/, this initiative allows University staff to enter calendar events into a single database and display those events in multiple calendar locations on the Penn State Web site.

The calendar is supported by "WebEvent" software, which is available free to all campuses and colleges thanks to the Web Strategies Team, which purchased a site license for 400 calendars for the University.

Philip Burlingame, assistant vice president for student affairs and driving force behind the new calendar system, said there are many advantages to using WebEvent.

"A college's or campus' public events can be added into the database just once and it will appear in all of their customized calendars. The information also can be imported into Penn State's University-wide calendar and into Penn State's Portal," he said. "The software is very user-friendly and technical knowledge is not a prerequisite to use it."

The College of Arts and Architecture became a partner in this initiative because WebEvent allowed them to more easily coordinate calendars across the college and the University arts services. Emily Corman, editorial assistant in the college's communications office, said using the software has streamlined the process of creating a collegewide events calendar each semester.

"Previously, individual units submitted calendars to the communications office, which in turn compiled them into one calendar for placement on the College of Arts and Architecture's Web site. Now each unit is responsible for directly uploading events to the WebEvent server where it is funneled into the college-wide calendar. Ultimately it saves time by eliminating the need to recreate calendars in several locations for publication."

She said another benefit of the University-wide events calendar is the level of exposure it provides for the college.

"The events calendar offers a central location for many colleges, departments, organizations and clubs to house event calendars, thus funneling end-users to a single Web site and greatly increasing the potential traffic flow to our calendar."

LateNight Penn State is an example of one of the programs that has benefited from exposure on the University-wide events calendar. Burlingame said student attendance at Late Night-Penn State events has more than doubled since the Late Night calendar was switched to the WebEvent software.

Ed McGowan, lead applications systems analyst/programmer for student affairs, is responsible for administering WebEvent logons and calendars, and is willing to meet with college and campus staff who would like to learn about and use WebEvent. He said the colleges and campuses have a minimum of five calendars reserved for their use.

"The new calendar provides people visiting the Penn State calendar Web site with an easy yet powerful way to find out what is happening at Penn State on any given day, " he said.

The new calendar features a pull-down menu for viewers to search for programs by campus or college. There also is a list of searchable categories, including major public events, educational programs and seminars for faculty/staff, and art galleries and exhibitions. Programs can be viewed by a specific day, week, two-week, month and year.

"With WebEvent, each college can customize its assigned calendars with graphics that are consistent with its existing Web pages," added Burlingame. "College WebEvent calendar editors can add photos and banners, choose colors and fonts. WebEvent calendar entries also can include Web links to more detailed Web pages or to audio or video files."

To learn more about the software, check the Web at http://www.sa.psu.edu/webevent/. To request a WebEvent calendar, account and password, call Ed McGowan at (814) 863-9843 or e-mail him at ejm6@psu.edu.

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