Over the last decade, the World Wide Web has drastically changed how universities disseminate information, market themselves amongst other institutions and communicate with their constituencies. Managing the development, maintenance and look of Southwestern's web site is John Kotarski's job.

When he was hired by the Office of University Relations as a communication specialist four years ago, Kotarski became the first to hold such a position at SU. Prior to his arrival, students worked with University Relations to build the first two generations of the University's site. "I think they realized that the potential of the web site necessitated having someone in my position to get some control over the medium," he says.

He's quick to point out that he is not a webmaster. In fact, he says, "There is no single person responsible for Southwestern's web site. It's more like a loose network of people managing various aspects of the site." His focus is on the "institutional" pages -- admission, academic life, and intercollegiate athletics -- while ITS maintains the site's infrastructure and "MySU" Intranet.

"I believe the web site has evolved from its early role of being purely informative to a vehicle that helps develop a school's graphic identity and serve a number of different audiences while still providing valuable information to prospective students. In fact, many students' first experience with Southwestern is through our web site.

"I think the ultimate goal is to provide a more personal experience for each visitor, anticipating their needs and speaking more directly to them. In five to 10 years, there may not be an 'Internet.' It's possible that a more automatic content delivery system -- a database -- will be in place, essentially making a job like mine unnecessary. But then again, who knows?"

Developing web sites began as a simple hobby for Kotarski soon after he graduated from Southwestern with degrees in political science and communication. He moved to Washington, D.C., intending to work in politics, but instead took a job as a database manager for a law firm in Georgetown. He spent four years there, using nearly all of his free time teaching himself how to build web sites and attending Grateful Dead concerts all over the East Coast. "D.C. is a very transient city. Four years was long enough. And once the Dead stopped touring, it wasn't as much fun up there anymore."

He returned to Austin and found work as a legislative assistant for a law firm and a campaign office manager for Jan Patterson, who now sits on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. He heard about the opening at Southwestern from an old classmate who worked in alumni and parent relations at the time. "I saw this as a unique opportunity, so I took it."

Still a huge fan of live music, Kotarski takes full advantage of living in Austin, "the live music capital of the world." One of his hobbies is recording concerts for the purposes of tape trading. His own musical talents include the saxophone and piano, although he admits he hasn't played the latter in years. Outside of his work for Southwestern, he also manages web sites for a rock band and a clothing apparel store. "I like to teach myself how to build different types of sites than the kind I work on every day. It's a challenge."

He's currently writing a book-length essay that he hopes will be the basis for a future dissertation exploring the emergence of a "new left" in Israeli politics, the citizen-soldier model, and military roles in community organization in Shalom Achshav, the Israeli peace movement, since 1978.

This spring, he hopes to start a chapter of the Tikkun Campus Network (TCN) at Southwestern. The TCN is a national network of students, faculty and staff who support Tikkun's vision for peace in Palestine. The Tikkun Community "shares a compassionate vision of Middle East peace that is both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel: a path leading away from the blame and violence that have plagued Palestinian and Israeli lives, and instead adopts a narrative based on justice and human rights; on reconciliation."