 "Photo: John Gilchrist")
Since June, finance and pre-medicine senior Mark Scolaro has been focusing on launching College Homepages, a network of Web sites linking students to the sites, events and institutions specific to their universities.
The Web sites are customized for each college, providing students with local information on college registration deadlines, sporting events, concerts and restaurants, as well as discussion forums, articles and links to sites such as Facebook and Wikipedia. The UT Web site is longhornhomepage.com
"I started [the project] just as a way to make a little money, but now we see this is a really unique opportunity," Scolaro said. "We want it to be a community site driven by students."
Scolaro and his team of five Web site managers have launched six other sites at colleges, including Vanderbilt University, Boston College and Texas Tech University, and the group plans to launch at least 80 more.
Scolaro said the network is still a work in progress. He plans to improve the current interface by allowing students to customize their home pages with the links and information they care about.
"The goal is to be running full speed by August," Scolaro said.
Rajiv Bala, a business graduate student and vice president of UT's Entrepreneur Society, said the resources within the business school and its network of professors make it a great place for small businesses to grow.
"UT, out of a lot of business schools in the country, is very entrepreneur-friendly," Bala said.
Corporate communication senior Morgan Rollo uses the site as her homepage.
"I used to have a Google home page, but I feel like this is more convenient," Rollo said. "Mark goes to UT, so he knows what's relevant for students."
Texas Tech University's Web site manager Tanner Thetford said the Web sites have been growing exponentially. Thetford said the Texas Tech site has averaged about 175 visits a day this month, which is its first month of operation.
"It's just a great way to organize your college life," Thetford said. "Everything pertains to information that college kids are interested in and need."
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