It's a whole new World Wide Web for campus computer users this year, starting with a revamped UC Davis home page that just made its debut this week. The growing number of new and improved electronic services on the campus's intranet is evidence, according to some observers, that the campus is succeeding in retooling itself to more effectively operate in the modern work place. "These are excellent examples of the increased technological sophistication of campus staff," says Michelle Platten, co-manager of Staff Development Professional Services. "We're being able to make profound changes in how we conduct business on campus, which is moving the organization forward at an ever more-rapid pace." Witness the "third-generation" campus home page and nearly 50 second-level pages that replaced the old site this week on the UC Davis Web site. These pages have gone beyond the "first generation" of Web design--sites that are merely lists of links without attention to the effective design of graphics, information and navigation--to become a highly integrated structure that pro-mises to quickly steer Web users inside and outside UC Davis to what they need, according to the site designer, electronic communications specialist Craig Hillis of Public Communications. Hillis has added an easier-to-find search function, campus highlights for presenting new information and upcoming events on the home page, a changing gallery of photos to show the campus's many features, and improved organization and navigation on all second-level pages. "These pages are doorways into a bigger universe," Hillis says, pointing to new features that include a campus history time line, an "About UC Davis" page, an arts and entertainment page, key campus organizational links, and a site index and site map. Easier employment searches On another front, folks in Human Resources have streamlined the overall employment process while adapting it to the Web. The site, created by Web wizard Karl Krist in Employment Outreach, is receiving 30,000 hits a month. Although electronic submissions have been possible only since February, already between 40 and 70 of the 200 applications received each day are submitted electronically, according to Ellie Sandoval, employment outreach manager. In creating the new hiring process, Human Resources changed the rules so that requests to refill already approved positions no longer need to go back through the compensation unit for reapproval. "We're able to place a job within 24 to 30 hours as opposed to days, since the vacancy replacements go directly to the recruiters now," Sandoval says. One campus customer,Teresa Overstreet, management services officer in the physics department, is pleased with the new electronic system. "It's quicker, more efficient and up to date all the time. It cuts the time to get an applicant almost in half." She estimates more than two weeks can be saved in the hiring process. Overstreet made her first two "electronic hires" this summer, Angel Kim and Rick Heiser. Heiser, who came on board to be the new assistant development engineer for the physics labs, was a computer engineer employeed at Adobe Systems in the Silicon Valley. He says he found it natural to go on the Web to look for work. "I was thinking about a long-distance relocation. The Web is dynamite for that because I could look for housing as well as jobs," he says. Debbie Weimerskirch, manager of the Temporary Employment Pool, believes that the Web page is drawing higher-quality candidate s to her program of support staff, computer programmers, editors and facility workers. Because the 300-person temporary pool has about a 13 percent monthly turnover, half of which is due to people finding permanent jobs on campus, Weimerskirch is constantly poring over résumés and applications. "You have to have online skills to be able to use the Internet and download," she says. "I'm seeing more savvy people applying to work here." By the end of the calendar year, a pilot Web site for electronically processing vacancy listings, called The Job Machine, will be available for departmental use in requesting positions be filled, thus completing Employment Outreach's transformation from a paper to an electronic system. As a third example of the growing electronic sophistication on campus, University Relations' Advancement Services unveiled its new constituent-data management system, the Advancement Information System, this summer so that the campus could take advantage of the most complete list ever of university affiliates (more than 325,000 as of July). Campus users have been going to training sessions to gain access to the database. Student navigate Web on course completion The campus is, in fact, feeling comfortable enough with technology that Student Affairs decided to be one of the national pioneers for Degree Navigator, a program to help advisers and students more efficiently chart academic progress and reduce the time to graduation. Next week, college and departmental advisers will begin learning to use it, with plans for expanding the use to students in winter quarter, according to project coordinator Keitha Hunter. These programs are the result of a gathering momentum in campus technology use over the past several years. Those dealing with student information-staff and students-were the first at UC Davis to learn to use a campuswide interactive computer/telephone registration system, the Banner student information system, in 1993. In early 1996, the financial information system, DaFIS, was unveiled, and campus accountants and bookkeepers learned to transfer from a paper system to the Web. This move into the electronic era has come during a decade when the campus expanded its information technology capabilities. First and foremost was the necessary exponential growth in Internet connections that needed to happen before people could use the new programs. In 1991, only about 3,000 Davis campus computers were connected to the Internet, according to Information Technology. By 1996, about 6,500 were connected. By the time the $20.8 million Network 21 fiber-optic cable was completely installed last December, 10,500 campus computers were connected to that system, plus 4,300 to the Resnet system in campus student housing. In all, an estimated 17,000 computers at the Davis campus (not counting the medical center) are now attached to the World Wide Web, according to Doug Hartline, director of Communication Resources. "We've been going gangbusters," explains Sandra Duncan, a Communications Resources analyst involved in the Network 21 project. Although there have been jokes about how computers have actually increased the amount of paper used on campus, administrators have been keeping a close eye on the campus's increased use of computers. This year two major decisions were made to cut down on paper publications. The Staff Development and Professional Service Course Catalog, which has been on line since 1997, will no longer be duplicated with a 100-page paper catalog, says program co-manager Platten. Instead, her department is producing a 16-page program and planning guide to the Web site. "It's in recognition of the progress on the part of the campus in understanding and using the technology," Platten says. In addition, following the lead of UC Berkeley and UCLA, the UC Davis General Catalog is going to a biennial printing schedule, according to Peter Dale, vice provost for undergraduate studies. The two-year course catalog will first appear for academic years 2000-2002, and during the interim years, supplements will, if necessary, be published to update the sections relating to changes in fees, majors, admission policy and General Education requirements. At the same time, Dale points out, he expects to use savings from publishing less frequently to maintain and improve the Web version of the General Catalog. Dale admits that the purpose of the biennial catalogue is, first and foremost, cost and labor savings. "A secondary consideration for me, personally, is the belief that, as time goes on and people become increasingly accustomed to the use of the Internet for gathering information, there will be significantly less need for paper copies of the catalog. Though I confess I have had the same expectation with regard to the commercial catalogues that daily jam my mailbox at home, and still the paper flow continues."