An interdisciplinary team from ITD, Marketing and Communications, and Academic Affairs launched the newly designed MTSU homepage and webpages showcasing our more than 300 majors and concentrations in January. 

Shortly after that, the team started moving all other MTSU webpages to the new design. Currently, over 64% of the webpages have been updated to the new design with the remainder projected to be completed in early fall. 

Prospective students rely heavily on university websites to learn about all the opportunities that exist for them at a particular school. 

Especially for out-of-state and international prospects, visiting our beautiful campus in person isn’t always feasible during their college search process. A web search and positive online experience is often the initial gateway to eventual enrollment. That means standing out in the virtual space is vital for every university. 

By adopting WordPress as our new content management system, we now have much better ability to raise the University’s profile via search engine optimization (SEO). Also, MTSU webpages load faster, and information displays dynamically across electronic devices. 

There are several exciting features of the new majors and concentrations pages that will help keep them fresh: 

• When a news release or story is posted about an academic program on mtsunews.com, those articles will automatically flow into the corresponding majors and concentrations pages.
• Editors within each department or school will be able to directly edit content in the Information and Careers sections and update the top banner image.
• Importantly, the new design allows us to insert banners to promote University-wide endeavors, such as True Blue Preview Days, and program-level messages such as special events.

This mighty task would not have been possible without the active participation of all our deans, department chairs, school directors, and faculty who helped revamp these pages as an essential part of our recruitment and yield strategies. While the number of people involved in the project is extensive, much deserved special recognition goes to Provost Mark Byrnes, Vice Provost Amy Aldridge Sanford, Matthew Hibdon, Vice President Yvette Clark, Alecia Heidt, Charlie Cantrell, Isaac Callison, Albert Whittenberg, Vice President Andrew Oppmann, Betsy Allgood, David Foster, DeAnn Hays, and Kara Hooper for their dedication, collaboration, and hard work in launching this initiative. 

ITD partnered with HelixSEO Inc. staff Jim Pepe and Zaid Helix to achieve the design and implementation of the new site.