MHCC Website is Struggling

Mt. Hood Community College’s website redesign is just around the corner! 

No, it is not the first time that has been said, but after all the delays, I have been told that the new website is launching this Winter Term “for sure.” Knock on wood. 

I, for one, am looking forward to the improvements the overhaul will bring. In the meantime, I want to take the opportunity as an MHCC student to share what I would like to see from the new website. 

First off, if you have ever read an email sent from Student Life or Doctor Abio Ayeliya (the director of the Office of Student Life and Civic Engagement), you may have noticed that each features a noticeably large font size. At the bottom of these emails, an explanation is offered: “Sans serif fonts at 14pt or larger are recommended as the most legible, improving accessibility.” 

I find these actions to be great initiatives to increase accessibility for all students at MHCC, and something I would like to see used on the new website. Currently, our Mt. Hood website is in a sans-serif font, the Lato font, but it is most definitely not 14pt. The bulk of the text appears to be approximately 11pt, but can get as small as 10pt, such as in the website directory at the bottom of the website. 

This font size is needlessly small and can be burdensome to read. Increasing it to 12pt or 13pt could substantially increase readability and accessibility for students. 

Next, the information available on mhcc.edu can be quite dated. 

This fact has been especially troublesome for me, as I rely on up-to-date information to research and write stories for The Advocate. 

For example, in our last issue published on Feb. 16, I covered the Associated Students of MHCC current election for the 2024-25 positions of president and vice-president. While researching that story, I discovered that the election handbook available on the ASMHCC website is for the previous academic year, while the online application is for the 2021-22 academic year(!) There are countless other examples of outdated information on the website. 

Ironically, even the page outlining the website’s redesign progress is outdated. According to its FAQ, the new website is set to launch in Fall 2023. But unless our college has a time machine that I am not aware of, the website is not going to be launching last fall. 

Unfortunately, we are going to have to settle for the website launching later this term – barring further delays. I look forward to the new and (hopefully) improved website.