Aidan Sarazen

News Editor

As every member of the Latin community should know, Latin’s website, RomanNet, has been completely revamped. While the vast majority of high schools around the world don’t even have official websites, RomanNet is central to the existence of Latin faculty, students, and parents. Its change, therefore, has spurred a wide variety of reactions.

The remodeled RomanNet, through the eyes Junior Pranav Nandan, is a miraculous invention. Pranav is new to Latin this year, and he says that his “old school never had anything like RomanNet.” Many others have myriads of complaints about the revamped RomanNet, but Pranav is completely complimentary. To Pranav, every little aspect of the website “is really useful,” whether it be the assignment center or the inbox. However, Pranav’s perspective is unique in that he has never used the former version of RomanNet. Junior Chris Quazzo uses RomanNet with the exact same purpose as Pranav, but has an entirely different perspective on its effectiveness. Although Chris enjoys some of the remodeled RomanNet’s useful features, such as being able to “keep track of having done assignments,” he would rather have the old website back. The previous edition of RomanNet, having announcements centralized on the homepage, seems more logical to Chris. He noted that “its annoying to have to go to your class page to find announcements because [he] never thinks to look there.” Until Chris gets used to the new home for announcements, he will constantly be at risk of missing them.

Senior Yinga Xia, like Chris, used the old version of RomanNet for many years. However, Yinga believes that this new RomanNet is a successful development. Yinga feels that the new RomanNet exceeds its predecessor in that “it is a lot more individualized.” She noticed that “with the past RomanNet, everyone was viewing the same page.” Before this year, there weren’t any aspects of two different students’ RomanNet pages that differed in appearance. Now, as Yinga remarks, “RomanNet is more about you and your day.” Each student, faculty member, and parent has a unique RomanNet page that is dictated by the groups that he or she belongs to. The variety of classes, clubs, and sports teams help to create distinctive RomanNet pages for each Latin community member.

RomanNet, to a Latin parent, is often a lifeline to knowing their child’s schedule, performance, and attendance. Unfortunately, Latin parents were most affected by RomanNet’s drastic change. While Latin students and faculty have direct access to the IT department and announcements at gathering to help them navigate the remodeled website, parents are left at home without any assistance. One Latin mom that I talked to  told me that “the change to the new RomanNet has been extremely stressful, because everything takes so long to find.” In general, parents aren’t as tech-savvy as their children, so the new RomanNet is even more alien to them.

After talking to Junior Dean and English teacher Ms. McGlinn, I learned that, for teachers, the old RomanNet “was easier to navigate.” RomanNet is vital for the communication between teachers and students. Teachers are always using RomanNet to inform students of assignments, assessments, and extra credit opportunities. Therefore, it is especially important for teachers to know how to effectively use the website. Ms. McGlinn’s biggest complain about the new RomanNet is that it has shortcomings when accessed by phone. She says that “so many students come to [her] complaining about not being able to read their schedules or assignments on their phone.” Unfortunately, many students rely heavily on their phones to use RomanNet, so the inability to fit the entire webpage on a screen is rather troublesome.

It is inevitable that their would be a major reaction to the remodeled RomanNet. The website is such a central aspect of the Latin community, so it is no surprise that its change has sparked controversy. While a handful of Latin community members are yearning to have the old RomanNet back, Latin’s revamped website is gradually gaining support from students, faculty, and parents. Humans have always been afraid of change, but Latin’s ability to adapt to the drastically different RomanNet reveals our motivation to welcome change. The new RomanNet also demonstrates that Latin’s refinements constantly make our community one step ahead of the curve.