Union website updates underway

The Rensselaer Union website, located at union.rpi.edu, is currently undergoing maintenance to increase its functionality and address some issues. The site’s present status renders some information regarding clubs and Union events inaccessible to the greater student body, causing students to resort to social media such as Reddit and Facebook.

The Union website is a common place to visit to get any information about clubs or other Union events and opportunities. It has been undergoing maintenance since November due to security concerns with the code used in the previous version of the site. Systems administrators Alex Bozeat ’22 and Farukh Saidmuratov ’20 say that the updates are expected to be completed by mid-March.

According to Associate Director of Operations Joseph Campo, “the old website contained over 200 modules which were out of date as well as the core.” He continued, saying that “we could not find a way to update that many modules and the core without running into a host of issues.”

The new website will not require 200 modules and will be “simply built and easily updatable,” said Campo. Also included is the integration of Union club websites with the Club Management System. As CMS gets updated, the club homepage should also get updated with the same information to stay up to date. This will serve as a solution to some pages being outdated, as clubs are required to update their CMS pages each budgeting season.

According to Bozeat and Saidmuratov, students should be able to directly access the web pages for individual clubs or the clubs’ social media for information. Currently, when accessing the club homepage via clubs.rpi.edu, an error appears. However, many clubs have their own homepages which they use to advertise events that can currently be accessed by searching "site:union.rpi.edu" followed by the club's name. Union and club events are also publicized via social media, like Facebook and Instagram on the club or Union handles.