Once I deleted the link, the manager reviewed the pages again. She told me to take off the backgrounds and other graphics that she found to be unnecessary as they would not come up on text-only browsers. However, it later came up in our conversation that these graphics may be taking up unnecessary space on a university server. Reluctantly, I made the changes that she required, leaving our pages quite bare, and once again returned the text to her. She made some more editorial changes in my presence, such as taking off my name and e-mail address as a contact person responsible for the pages. The rationale for this change was that if a student were to e-mail me a comment, it may be sent from a university assigned version of Netscape or Mosaic; therefore, there would be no reply contact or assigned responsibility for the post. Again, this procedure is based on security reasons.

Despite the reduction of the pages and the lengthy bureaucracy process, four months later our OWL is up and running. Well, it is kind of running. The OWL was recently linked to the university home page, buried deep into the faculty member pages, and we have had very little response from students. I've tried some OWL awareness meetings and a brochure as PR strategies, but so far, the only response I have had from the majority of my colleagues is the old-line of "computers are dehumanizing" and the sight of unused brochures piled in the corners of their desks. I guess the next task is to interest coworkers and students.