Jim Nourse

Web and Digital Strategist

Part One. Facing the problem honestly—and choosing to lead

Across higher education, the web has become the primary stage where institutions compete for attention, deliver on their mission, and build trust with the world. Yet for many large, decentralized research universities, the web still operates like it did a decade ago: fragmented, duplicative, and disconnected from strategic priorities.

Over time, local units - colleges, campuses, research centers, administrative offices - built their own websites to meet their own needs. That worked for a while. But as the digital ecosystem grew more complex, this well-intended autonomy turned into a costly liability.

 

The result?

  • Dozens of uncoordinated platforms, tools, and codebases
  • Inconsistent brand experiences and accessibility gaps
  • Missed opportunities for data integration, personalization, and storytelling
  • High overhead for teams constantly reinventing the wheel
  • And most critically, fractured experiences for users who just want to find a major, contact a department, or understand what the university stands for

The financial, reputational, and operational costs of this fragmentation are now impossible to ignore. And the stakes are rising.

From the enrollment cliff to the collapse of third-party cookies, from AI-driven search to increasing demand for measurable ROI - universities need digital infrastructure that can flex, scale, and deliver. The web isn’t just a communications tool anymore.

It’s the most visible, most measurable, and most flexible platform for strategic execution.

That’s why more institutions are shifting from fragmented digital ecosystems to coordinated strategies.
That’s why they’re building centers of excellence, design systems, and scalable tech stacks.
And that’s why this work isn’t about surface-level redesigns - it’s about structural readiness for the next era of higher ed.

This is the first in a series of posts outlining one university’s path:

  • How we diagnosed the problem
  • What we’ve learned from pilots and solution design
  • And how we’re moving toward a unified, modern, data-driven digital experience

Because the web is no longer a side project.

It’s the institution - online.