A lot of new things have happened at West Liberty University (WLU) during the Fall 2023 semester. For example, bike racks and repair kits have been placed around campus. As well, Dr. Tim Bourchers was introduced as the new president of WLU! It’s a small thing to list for this, but there is always something that people are not always excited about. 

That includes updates to the school’s websites/programs that are used on a daily basis, which are Sakai and WINS. With the new semester having kicked off in late August, over the summer, Sakai and WINS went down for further updates and have fully come out with something new called HelloID, which helped prompt a new way to sign in and have access to all things students and staff. Although, not everyone is on the same page with these new updates.

One student commented about the change, “It was so much easier to navigate through WINS, especially for registering for classes, getting into degree works, and locating my bills.” Another student commented, “The layout of the new WINS is alright, but it feels very cluttered. And it’s not easy sometimes to show or share something.” 

But why the updates? What had prompted them to update the program that so many of its users found much easier to navigate through, Izzy Bennett, Information Technology Consultant, says, “Due to WINS 8, the previous version most people know of being on such an older program it was beginning to become more difficult throughout the years to maintain and work with it, but with WINS 9 it’s much easier and more up to date.”

Adding the single sign in it should make things a lot simpler for those who are a part of West Liberty University. Yet the split is still there as we move on to a new semester. If you have been at WLU for a long time, what do you prefer, the older versions of Sakai and WINS or the newest?