Online calendar seeks to offer a comprehensive look at Rice

Online calendar seeks to offer a comprehensive look at Rice
Site keeps track of events on campus in centralized location

BY JENNIFER EVANS
Rice News staff

Just as Rice students are encouraged to take advantage of the vitally important learning environment Houston offers, so too are Houstonians and others invited inside the hedges to partake of the bounty of campus activities, from lectures, seminars and conferences to plays, exhibits, films and concerts.

Now an initiative of the Office of the President seeks to foster Rice’s engagement with Houston and vice versa, offering a convenient way to keep tabs on everything happening on campus: Events@Rice University (http://events.rice.edu).

“The most effective, least-costly form of outreach Rice can do is actually ‘in-reach,’” said Greg Marshall, director of University Relations, “encouraging members of the public to take advantage of events and activities already happening on campus that may interest them.”

Launched in December, <events.rice.edu> not only offers a more comprehensive look at campus events but also sports a new look and new features.

The new design moves important search tools within easy reach, placing the search function on the home page, and offers daily, weekly and monthly views of upcoming events.

The new “My Events” feature provides an e-mail notification service for upcoming events. Visitors to <events.rice.edu> can indicate the kinds of events that interest them, such as lectures, concerts, exhibits and athletics, and sign up to automatically receive notices when new events in those categories are scheduled.

Finally, coming this spring will be a feature through which to reserve rooms on campus.

Marshall said, “At present, it’s a significant challenge for even a very experienced, long-term Rice employee to figure out what venues exist on the campus, whether they are available and then how to reserve them; for someone not familiar with the campus, the process of trying to find and reserve a venue is even more confusing and frustrating. Having a system like the one envisioned will allow a more user-friendly online interface that helps prospective venue users identify and select appropriate venues with a minimum of inconvenience and wasted time.”

Other potential benefits of this feature Marshall noted will be the ability to project parking loads at or near specific venues, to automatically provide driving directions and campus maps for event organizers and their guests and to be able to tie in to campus lighting, heating and cooling and unlocking schedules so that venues are ready when they are reserved. (Currently, ensuring venues are unlocked and the air conditioning turned on for after-hours events is a separate step.) Marshall said it should also be possible to reserve audiovisual equipment when the room is reserved so that that separate and secondary effort of organizing an event likewise is eliminated.

“In short: Better efficiency and less frustration will be the benefits for all users of a well-designed venue reservation and online calendar system,” Marshall said.

IT is currently seeking several departments to “test drive” the room reservation system. To participate in the pilot program, contact Jeff Frey, manager of Web Services, at 713-348-5827 or <jdfrey@rice.edu>.

Andrea Martin, director of IT’s enterprise applications, estimates a solid 60 percent of campus is already posting their events to <events.rice.edu> rather than to separate individually maintained calendars.

“The pressing need for a university-wide calendar to prevent inadvertent cross-scheduling of important events has been clear for several years,” said Mark Scheid, assistant to the president. “We are glad to be moving toward that goal at last.”

IT has created campus accounts for more than 100 groups on campus that would likely need to post items to <events.rice.edu> and will be contacting departments to facilitate the inclusion of events on other calendars within <events.rice.edu>. IT also is continuing to provide training, integration and data feeds from other calendars.

Just as in the past, departmental coordinators are the point person for posting items to the university calendar. Anyone needing to post an item should contact their department coordinator. IT is offering training for those who post to the calendar and welcomes input on ways to improve not only posting but any aspect of the new calendar.

“A complete and accurate online calendar and venue reservation system is long overdue, and such a system will offer many benefits both to our campus and the greater Houston community,” Marshall said.