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OVERVIEW
Over 114,000 page views have
been recorded by NedSTAT since March 12, 2003. Since January
6, 1999, we have recorded over 220,000 visits to the
site. Visits have come from all around the world including
China, India, Luxembourg, Germany, South Africa, and
New Zealand. On average, we will receive between 35 to
50 emails each day from prospective students who want
to know more aobut the various Programs of Study we offer.
To see some of the past designs and content,
Go to the Internet Archive for the site at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://pharmacy.rutgers.edu
THE FIRST HOMEPAGE
In 1995, an enterprising student named Daniel Ringer (Class
of 2000, BS) coded and developed the first
College of Pharmacy website in that year. His initial idea
was to provide information that would best serve students
at the College as well as provide useful links to a number
of authoritative sites with information that would be useful
to the general public.
THE NEXT STEP
Over the next several years, many students, faculty,
and staff contributed to the growth and development of
the site. The next major redesign of the site came from the
ideas
of Veena Booncharoen (Class of 2000, BS) and Jason Gallagher
(Class of 2001, BS and Pharm.D.) in 1997. In conjunction
with then-Dean Norman and Marc Kollar, then-Coordinator
of Academic Services, the original site was redeveloped to
recognize
the changing nature of the Web, the needs of students to
have greater access to resources, and the need for prospecitve
students to have a place to show others where their interests
lay for their education. Thus, Ms. Booncharoen and Mr.
Gallagher took the time to write the original code for the
site as well as
provide insight to the type of information that would best
serve students. That new site was made available in early
1998.
Throughout 1998, the Web continued to grow exponentially
and so did the need to keep the site up-to-date with useful
and timely information for students. However, it was recognized
during the Summer that the College had to reach out and provide
information to a whole new variety of groups, both within
the College and the University as well as the general public,
whether in the United States or the World. Thus, it became
paramount for Mr. Kollar and the then-Coordinator of Computing
Services, Philip Aronowitz, to find new methods of offering
information to all groups. With Mr. Aronowitz's knowledge
of computer hardware, the site was moved to a permanent server
in-house with the domain name of http://pharmacy.rutgers.edu.
The College became one of the first entities within the University
to do away with the "www" that had become so ubiquitous
in the late '90's.
Many areas of the College that once had individual
websites, but did not have the visibility needed to be seen
in the University Community, now had the benefit of being
linked to the College homepage. This included the Continuing
Education Program at the College. In addition, many websites
that contain useful and, in many cases, vital information
for students were also added to the site.
For example, as part of an effort by the University
to streamline many services, students are now able to view
their online transcripts through the College website. They
can also check the availability of a class section through
the Office of Scheduling and Space Management. Bill payment
online is also avaiable through the Office of Student Accounts.
THE YEAR 2000
For all the hype and hoopla that was made about
the impending doom of the change of the year 2000, everything
stayed right on track and so to did the website. During the
Summer of 2000, Mr. Roger Williams, Unit Computing Manager,
worked on redeveloping the platform and software packages used
to administer the website and server. These changes enabled
the College to provide students with the opportunity to complete
forms for scholarship applications online. Additionally, efforts
were undertaken to enhance the rapidity with which pages on
the site were served.
2001
In 2001, the College took a major step forward by
offering its first online course. The course was Essentials
of Drug Information and its implementation involved not
only the web server at the College but the generous support
of the School of Communication, Information, and Library Sciences
(SCILS) at the University (http://www.scils.rutgers.edu)
in the form of the use of their WebBoard server.
In addition, the Industrial Fellowship Program
implemented a new design and focus. This tremendous job was
undertaken by Rick Satitpunwaycha. His willingness to take
personal time, to enhance the design and layout as well as
provide additional meaningful information was greatly appreciated.
On December 14, 2001, the College of Pharmacy
name was changed to the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy to
reflect the generous donation of $5 million from Ernest and
Mildred Mario. For information on this event, please view
the press release.
DECEMBER 1, 2002
On this date, Richard L. McCormick became the 19th
President of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. A
new dynanism and excitement has come to the University as Dr.
McCormick returns to the Banks. His new initiatives and capacity
to enhance the halls of education are already being seen
and felt.
MARCH 3, 2004
In the space of six months,
the University embarked on a significant updating
of
its web
presence.
Part
of that
included
a completely
new design that embraces a clean, airy, yet professional
presentation of information. The School of Pharmacy has embraced
that design
with the recent commitment to redevelop all of the pages
in the pharmacy domain. Tomorrow is the start of a new chapter
in the development and presence of the Ernest Mario School
of Pharmacy on the Web.
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