New Online Publication to Replace 'Ithaca College News'

An online publication designed to keep the staff and faculty connected with the College and with one another will replace the Ithaca College News. Named intercom, it will include news and information of importance to the College community and allow faculty and staff to contribute their own stories and access other advanced features.

"We wanted to give faculty and staff a better way to communicate with their colleagues as well as with a wider audience," says Tom Torello, executive director of marketing communications. "The advances in technology allow us to turn the Ithaca College News --- a traditional newsletter --- into a more interactive publication."

Intercom will be updated constantly, as new stories are submitted and posted. Faculty and staff members will be able to directly contribute stories and take advantage of interactive features, such as posting comments on other stories, by logging in with their e-mail user name and password. A weekly
e-mail digest of the latest stories will be distributed to faculty and staff, as well as to others who sign up to receive it. Supervisors will be asked to print out and post copies of the digest for employees who do not have ready access to e-mail. The flow of information will be managed by Andrejs Ozolins, electronic publication specialist in the Office of Marketing Communications.

"While marketing communications staff will be providing some material for intercom, this will be a much more 'self-service' publication than we have had in the past," says Torello. "This is an opportunity for members of the campus community to have more control over getting out the information they think is important for others to know. At the same time, it will help reduce the clutter that sometimes fills up everyone's e-mailboxes. Most mass e-mails that are now being sent to faculty and staff through the Office of Human Resources system will instead be funneled through intercom."

In addition to sections such as "Comings and Goings," "Kudos," "Learning Opportunities," and "Arts Etc.," intercom will contain links to online College resources and publications. The site will be searchable by keyword, and older articles will be archived. Readers will also be able to e-mail or print each article.

The final edition of the Ithaca College News will be published on Monday, March 3; an e-mail announcing intercom's debut will be sent to the campus community later in the month.