Nicholls designed a new website to be active in February as part of a marketing campaign to attract more prospective students and raise enrollment.

The new website is part of University President Bruce Murphy’s initiative to increase enrollment up to 8,000 students. Stephanie Verdin, director of University Marketing and Communications, said the webpage is the first immediate impression prospective students have of Nicholls. This makes it a key visual tool.

“We hear often that Nicholls is the best kept secret,” said Verdin. “It is a compliment, but at the same time we don’t want to be a secret. We want people to know how great we are, so we are incorporating pride points to the homepage.”

New features will include a calendar of events on the front page, a new campus events page that will make it easier to schedule an event for organizations and a graphic of the state of Louisiana that pinpoints exactly where Thibodaux is, rather than just an address. Also, video components will be added to the homepage from the school’s videographer to show some events that have been held throughout the year.

A new color scheme will be used. The colors will change back to the traditional red, gray, white and black.

The logo “N” with a sword, which used to be reserved only for athletics, will now be used on the front page. This logo is more recognized than the wordmark currently used on the website.

“Web-design is fluid,” said Verdin. “You’re never finished with it.”

The whole website is being done in-house, therefore costing no additional fees to the University. The marketing team is working hard across campus with each department to get updated and important information on the website. They want the new website to be easily navigated and helpful to current students, faculty, staff, prospective students, alumni and donors.

James Planck, website manager, gave insight to the technical side of the website. Planck has been at Nicholls for 13 years and has been through six web design changes.

“Our biggest limitation is our audience,” Planck said. “ In South Louisiana, there are still people who use older computers. We want to make sure that they can at least go to our website and browse through it.”

Planck said he is not only creating a website for computers, but now he must create a website that will be easily used on smartphones and tablets as well.

The new website is expected to launch in February in hopes that prospective students will get a chance to look at it before making final decisions on universities.