Bowdoin Web Services

Bowdoin Web Services

Student Organization Web Page Setup

Step 1. Read and Follow the Usage Guidelines

The College's committees on Information Technology have developed guidelines for the creation and maintenance of web sites. Please read and follow the guidelines for the Student Organization web site.

Step 2. Get Access Credentials

To manage a site you need the proper credentials. These credentials are the same as your student organization email address. If you don't know the access credentials for your organization's email account contact the Help Desk at helpdesk@bowdoin.edu or x5050.

Step 3. Connect to Your Web Account

You may connect to your web account with DreamWeaver or another web editing tool, ssh, or sftp.

To connect in DreamWeaver (or via ssh/sftp) you enter this into the appropriate fields:

  • server host: polar.bowdoin.edu
  • user name: your organization's email username
  • password: your organization's email password

Step 4. Learn Where Things Are

When you login you are placed in your "home" directory. Your website files go in a directory called "www".

If you do not see this "www" directory contact webmaster@bowdoin.edu for assistance.

The web address (URL) to your site is in the form of: http://studorgs.bowdoin.edu/username

Step 5. Create or Modify Your Site

If you have no experience building a web site we can offer a blog like tool (e.g., MovableType or WordPress) allowing your organization to easily add and manage content.

If you are familiar with DreamWeaver or other web site editing tools you may use the connection information from Step 3 to connect and manage files for the web site.

You manage your web files by connecting to polar.bowdoin.edu with the organization's email/password, but, you view your site through studorgs.bowdoin.edu/username (where username is the email name of the organization).

If you have chops and like to use vi then go ahead and ssh into your account. If you wish to do custom development and require a mysql database please contact us.

Step 6. Link to the Bowdoin Student Organization Page (if necessary)

When your site is ready to launch, send a note to webmaster@bowdoin.edu and we'll add or update the link to your organization from the page: /campuslife/activities.shtml

Additional Help

Information Technology (IT) is available to help you with your site. While IT is not staffed to build a site for you, we can help with some basics. Contact webmaster@bowdoin.edu.