lxxxii
2.7.08
published on 01/28/05
The Miscellany News launches site
Hayley Tsukayama 
Staff Writer
After approximately four years of lying dormant, http://misc.vassar.edu is active again, giving Vassar’s oldest publication a new medium. Since the fall, The Miscellany News Contributing Editors Larissa Pahomov ’05 and Emma White ’05 along with web designer Ian Crowther ’04 have worked on the site’s current format to bring the online publication back to life.
When a hacker infiltrated the Vassar Students Association website in 2001 and nearly destroyed The Miscellany News’s site, among others, staff members made plans to rebuild the site. However, the process of getting the website fully functional again was not easy. Over the past few years, relaunching the site became less of a priority.
This year, Pahomov and White enlisted Crowther’s help with the newest version of the website. Crowther, former Publicity Director for the Vassar College’s radio station WVKR and employee of the Media Cloisters, worked with White and Pahomov on the site’s current template and design.
“We made the decision to make the website ourselves rather than using companies such as collegepublisher.com,” said White. According to White, this choice allowed the site’s designers to utilize the security of moveable type. The information on the site is independent of its layout and allows for the site to be re-organized without running the risk of losing information.
For the newspaper staff, one of the most exciting things about the website is the permanency of the digitized archives.
“In a paper that experiences a 100 percent staff turnover every four years, anything that happened five years ago can immediately be lost from our verbal history,” explained Pahomov.
The website also offers readers another opportunity to engage in discussion: viewers of the site can leave comments on posted articles.
“This creates an open forum and heightens the interaction with members of the Vassar community,” said White.
An online poll will also be posted on a weekly basis for the newspaper staff to gain feedback. Results of each poll will appear in the print edition of The Miscellany News.
White, Pahomov, and Crowther launched the site on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m.
Comments posted do not represent the opinions of The Miscellany News, its staff, or Vassar College. The Miscellany News reserves the right to withhold or remove comments which contain false information, are inappropriate or irrelevant to the article printed above, or are otherwise objectionable.
Alumnae/i posters are strongly encouraged to include their class year with their name. The maximum length for comments is approximately 100 words; longer responses should be submitted as letters to the editor to misc@vassar.edu. More information about our letters policy can be found on our Policies page.
Alumnae/i posters are strongly encouraged to include their class year with their name. The maximum length for comments is approximately 100 words; longer responses should be submitted as letters to the editor to misc@vassar.edu. More information about our letters policy can be found on our Policies page.
