Rec In Athletics

Claremont-McKenna

This website jumps right up to the top of the list – slightly better than Colgate’s. You can see screenshots in the gallery above or use the hyper-links directly.

The front page of the University website is really the only part of their site that I take issue with. It’s really hard to find any reference at all to recreation or their physical education department from that page. You can find Athletics on the secondary top header, but nothing on recreation. The are not referenced at all on the health and wellbeing page. And the more I dig, the more disappointed I am in this page – the university clearly, clearly values physical education, but there is not a spot on any of the drop-down menus where PE or Recreation is easy to find.

CMS is one of the few schools remaining in the country that require students to take physical education They should be celebrating their unique approach, but it remains a bit buried on the homepage. It’s an interesting contrast to how important it is on the Athletics website and an area they could quickly modify.

One could suggest by how the main page is laid out that Recreation is seen just for people who like sports. I am sure that is not their intention at all. But when we design our websites, it does speak loudly to our values and priorities. And I just wish CMS would show a bit more on the first level sites about the actual value they promote around students being active. It’s a missed opportunity.

In comparison, on the Athletics home page it is crystal clear that they are part of the department and that they are included. Physical Education and Recreation are on the same level as Sports, Inside CMS and Recruits. That is a rarity so far in these websites and I am giving them some shout-outs for that. I hope others follow that lead.

One thing I’d love to see changed – of the six rotating pictures on the homepage, none reference non-varsity activities. It would be a small, symbolic gesture. But it would speak volumes if they had at least one picture of a recreation activity or student story.

One other theme I am tracking is the Sidearm Sports design of getting the user back to the main university site. In this case, I love the choices the university made. They separated out their advertisements from their institutional links

Moving on to their Physical Education website. First, I love CMS, because as I said they are one of the few schools remaining in the country that require students to take physical education. I actually don’t want to offer any criticism of anything they do because that alone makes them so far and above most other schools. This is EXACTLY what all schools should be doing to address the mental and physical health issues on campus. And it’s not like it’s hurt their reputation or rankings as on the top 10 liberal arts school in the country.

So, I say a bit reluctantly that The Department of Physical Education site itself needs some love. Nothing particularly wrong with it – it’s clean and has all the information you need. But it could use a redesign, even starting with some simple anchor links to improve navigation, a handful of pictures, and most importantly a statement of some sort talking about the value they bring to student success.

On the recreation site itself – my.cmsrecreation.com, I love the call-out logo in the upper left and their rotating pictures (even if a couple are pixelated). Other than that, it is pretty simple too. It is a very active campus so I wish they would tell their story a bit more on their home page. They have a pretty compelling story to tell, and I’d love to see some stronger language about how they help build community and are part of the health solutions.

One thing to note is that I do like how they have a pretty simple interface and a link back to the Athletics site from the home page, showing the reciprocity that is often missing from other Recreation sites.

Overall, this is a really strong set of websites linking athletics and recreation. Better than most so far – and I’ll have to keep considering where I place it in relation to Colgate’s. But well-done CMS – and please don’t ever give in to the pressure to not require physical education. It’s clearly one of the reasons people love the university.