UB Named IBM "Best Practice" Partner for Innovative Student-Services Web Site

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- MyUB, a personalized Web site linking University at Buffalo students to important information -- including academic and student services -- has earned the university designation as an IBM "Best Practice" partner.

UB will be recognized for "best practices in student services" for MyUB during the 6th annual IBM Innovation in Student Services Forum, subtitled "Models Blending High Touch/High Tech," being held Aug. 1-3 at Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

A presentation on MyUB will be made by Rebecca Bernstein, director of creative services in the UB Office of University Communications and Web Team leader; Robert Wright and James Gorman, IT managers in UB's Administrative Computing Services, and Lori Chiarilli, media coordinator in UB's Office of the Vice President For Student Affairs.

Bernstein, Wright and Gorman also wrote a chapter on MyUB for IBM's "best practices" book.

The IBM Best Practice Forum is designed to help institutions undergoing change to sustain momentum and fine-tune improvements, and to illustrate best practices for those institutions embarking on change.

Presentations at the Innovation in Student Services Forum will be focused on an emerging model in effective student services that is student-centered, that may be highly interpersonal or that may be delivered largely by sophisticated technology. A key feature of the new model is a customer-service approach based on thorough knowledge of, and sensitivity to, the needs of the student. Each tailored institutional model is a blend of "high touch" with high tech.

Part of the university's "iConnect@UB" computing initiative, MyUB provides all undergraduates with extensive information about UB via Web links and announcements. The information ranges from the academic -- details on registration, graduation requirements, the libraries and IT literacy -- to such quality-of-life issues as schedules of events on campus, UB and national news, and the weekly menus in the residence dining halls.

Students can add their own links to those provided by the university, such as URLs for specific class Web sites or other sites they frequently use.

It's this "customizing" feature that makes MyUB unique among other educational and commercial sites, notes Bernstein. Rather than providing a set of "passive," fixed links for all students, the UB site "provides links that make sense, depending on that point in time," she says. "We've dug deeper to find the right sites that match the needs of our students and make life better for them."

A rollout of the site to graduate students is on tap for the near future.