The Graduate Student Council (GSC) will soon unveil a newly updated and revamped Web site to replace the existing outdated version. The new site is expected to offer graduate students speedier access to GSC updates, as well as general graduate school news and advocacy information.

The new edition will be online as soon as content updating is complete, according to GSC webmaster Matt Turk, a graduate student in physics, who said he expects the new site to be a vast improvement over the previous version.

“It will be a much more dynamic page with articles from dynamic databases,” Turk said.

Students criticize the current GSC Web site because they say it is difficult for anyone not directly involved with online maintenance to update and post information. As a result, students say, many facets of the site remain outdated; the news section, for example, still lists GSC plans for the 2004-2005 academic year.

Turk hopes that by allowing all GSC members to edit the site’s content, new information will be posted in a more timely fashion. Council members agreed this was a necessary step.

“It’s easier for anybody to update, not just the Webmaster, and so it will be more up to date,” said GSC co-Chair Paul Gurney, a graduate student in electrical engineering. “There are forums and ‘wikis’ and a bunch of discussion features that will help us.”

The GSC Web site includes information on advocacy and funding issues and has links to resources ranging from childcare and healthcare to academics and campus diversity.

“I think [the Web site] is a place that graduate students know they can go to for advocacy issues,” Gurney said.

The new site — which will be accessible via a link from the old site — will be unveiled in stages during the next two weeks.

Turk said he hopes the graduate student community as a whole will benefit from the renovation.

“Putting people in touch with what’s going on with the Graduate Student Council will be advantageous to everyone,” he said.

Look for the new GSC Web site in the next few weeks at http://gsc.stanford.edu.