Poor Design: Oberlin College
What is the objective of a college or university website? Is it to get applicants, is it to get alumni money, or is it simply to tell people about the school? With Oberlin’s site, I’m not really sure, which can only mean they aren’t either.
I wasn’t visiting Oberlin’s site for academic purposes. Oberlin happens to be the only college in Northeast Ohio that gets national acts performing at their student union. A lot of people drive from all over Ohio to see shows there. They have quite the musical history counting Liz Phair and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s among their alumni. I want to see Cat Power tonight, she’s playing only a handful of solo dates before a world tour next year, and I anticipate this will be a very packed show. Oberlin doesn’t offer a way to buy presale tickets without physically purchasing them at the school with a student. Compare this to the Wexner Center at Ohio State, where Cat Power plays later in the month. The Wex is known for selling out national and international acts, so they make presale tickets available online or by phone months in advance, and at a discounted price for students. I wasn’t even able to ascertain Oberlin’s ticket policies from their website, I had to talk to a friend who is a former student.
In fact, I couldn’t even find a way to get to the student union’s site from Oberlin’s site. I had to wade through a few pages of Google results for it. The student union site sports a sporadically updated calendar, without any show times or ticket prices. I’m supposed to drive 45 minutes to a show I’m not even sure I won’t have missed? The phone number they list doesn’t even give me a voicemail box. And the student union activities aren’t even anywhere to be found in main site’s events, not even through a search.
These shows make the school money, one would think they’d want to advertise. I’ve never so much as seen a flyer in Cleveland for an Oberlin show. The school only has to pay the band a guarantee, which comes out of a predetermined budget, not the door money. So any door/drink money made beyond the initial guarantee is mostly profit. If people come from out of town for a show they eat at local restaurants, visit local stores, and perhaps even fill out an Oberlin application. The shows make the school look like a lively place to be.
The Student Union isn’t even the worst part of the site. I can’t find one sentence on any of the main pages telling me why I should want to go to Oberlin, not one. In the admissions pages I can’t even find their academic requirements. And most importantly, I can’t find their tuition prices. Oberlin isn’t cheap, no private school is, and anyone looking at Oberlin is well aware. But when you don’t show me a price, I have to assume it’s going to be more than I want to pay, because only people who have no concern for money can apply to college not knowing how much it will cost them.
online degree program you’ll be able to “attend” classes at whatever time of day you wish. This format of learning can allow you to even have a full time job as you work on getting a college degree or even a masters degree.
oberlin kids are so spoiled. they get to see cat power tonight, they saw the author of persepolis last night, and they get jewish holidays off. fuck them. also, the only time i ever saw cat power and she was good was when she played at harkness a dorm in oberlin. i don’t think i am going. also call wilder hall and just ask. they usually know at the front desk what’s going on there.
You can’t get that phone number from their site. In fact, I had to do about a zillion searches to even find the Student Union page.
These shows make the school money, one would think they’d want to advertise.
They may make a profit on the shows, but that is not their goal. The purpose is to enhance student (and faculty) life at the school, hence the subsidized ticket prices for students. The shows are generally open to the public, but they don’t advertise off-campus because they regularly sell out. (I haven’t seen a show at Oberlin for a couple decades, so my information may be out of date. I doubt it, though.)
I don’t know if this is still the case, but they guy responsible for booking the shows used to be very good at finding up-and-coming talent. I remember the booked Phish before they hit it big, but I decided not to go because it was billed it as a ‘punk’ show for some reason. My loss.