There’s a new way to stay abreast of events, courses and
deadlines at Gavilan College.
There’s a new way to stay abreast of events, courses and deadlines at Gavilan College.
For the past year, the college has been quietly building a presence on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. Students, parents, alumni and community members can stay in touch by becoming a “friend” of the college or subscribing to their Twitter updates, which are used to get information to the community quickly, as in the case of the H1N1 virus, said Jan Bernstein Chargin, Gavilan’s director of public information.
“This is a great way to get the word out quickly, and to get feedback in return,” said Bernstein Chargin, who manages the sites. “So many people are on social networking sites that it just makes sense to let them communicate with Gavilan College while they’re there.”
The idea to cultivate a presence on various social networking site arose when a spot check of the computers in a campus lab revealed that more than half of the students were logged into their MySpace accounts, she said.
“That certainly got my attention,” she said. “If that’s where they are then that’s where we need to be.”
Gavilan’s Facebook page currently has nearly 200 fans and Bernstein Chargin said she hopes to grow that number in the coming months. Other schools have similar pages, allowing students to submit advertisements for events, rooms for rent or new photos. For example, De Anza College in Cupertino maintains a Facebook page that has more than 2,700 members.
“Now it’s time to invite more people to connect,” Bernstein Chargin said.
