A freshman walks down West Wisconsin Avenue on his way to class. He smells something strange in the air and stops for a minute, trying to determine what it is. If the freshman had referred to MilwaukeeCollegeLife.com before arriving in Milwaukee, he would know the less than pleasant smell is yeast from the Miller brewing factory.
Just one of the features on the site, the "Scents of Milwaukee" prepares students who are new to the city by providing a list of urban smells they can expect. Twelve colleges and universities, including Marquette and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, provide financial backing and ideas for format, design and content for the site.
The site was put online in April 2002 and officials at UWM said their research on the site has already shown positive results.
"This site has served UWM very well," said Tom Lujak, associate of public affairs. "We've done research as to this site's impact on students looking to attend college in Milwaukee and we've found that it is of particular interest to students from Wisconsin that are unfamiliar with the city."
The site, which has experienced a recent growth in popularity, is eye-catching, colorful and makes mention of attractions distinct to the city, such as the Milwaukee Art Museum and Summerfest. The growth in popularity has been measured by the increase in the amount of visitor feedback in recent months, said Jeff Sherman, co-owner and vice president of marketing at OnMilwaukee.com, the company that provides the template and assists in the development of the site.
The site also includes personal testimonials of professionals and students living in Milwaukee as well as a photo tour of the city.
"The site gets a lot of feedback from visitors that we in turn use to make (the site) bigger and better," Sherman said. "In fact we got one message from a guy in Boston who's coming to Milwaukee for college and he said that the site told him pretty much everything he wanted to know."
Numerous requests for information about dance clubs for people under 21 years old prompted new information on the site about dance clubs, including Mad Planet, Sherman said. The site also provides links to MetroMilwaukee.org and OnMilwaukee.com Web sites, which update their pages daily to offer visitors a comprehensive look at the city.
"It was especially important to this project to go out of the downtown area and tell prospective students about areas like the Third Ward and Brady Street," said Tricia Geraghty, associate vice president for public affairs at Marquette.
For the last two years, Geraghty has been involved in developing aspects of the Web site as part of a group which includes personnel from the other participating college and universities. The group convenes three or four times a year to update the site's content and freshen design elements.
Although the site acts as a good recruitment tool for individual colleges and universities, its foremost concern is presenting useful information for prospective students.
"The site is definitely something we see as valuable in presenting Milwaukee," said Ben Tracy, director of university communication at Marquette. "The initiative of the schools is not to promote one (school) over another but just to represent the city."
The site is a fresh and informative presentation of the city and Sherman believes it will continue to entice students to study in Milwaukee.
"It's a one-stop shop that showcases all that Milwaukee has to offer," Sherman said.
