Web site offers fun, services to students


Wednesday, March 25, 1998	Web site offers fun, services to students By CARRIE DZWIL Collegian Staff Writer It's been 20 years since the college cult film National Lampoon's Animal House hit theaters. To mark the anniversary of Faber College's infamous fraternity, a new World Wide Web Site, www.animalhouse.com, has been developed. "The site is on-line guide for college survival," said Stephanie Rudnick, publicist for the site. Animalhouse.com was formed with the cooperation of Daily Variety, USA Today, Tribune Media, Microsoft, Women's Wire, CBS SportsLine and CommTouch, Rudnick said, but it is really a product of "the grassroots involvement of students, and includes custom sites for more than 200 colleges and universities."
`www.animalhouse.com`	The site provides students with an E-mail address, Rudnick said, access to chat rooms and opportunities to create personalized Web pages. Although most sites on animalhouse.com cannot be reached unless students register, the process is free, according to a news release. Because Penn State is registered with animalhouse.com, along with other colleges nationwide, students can find many topics of interest personalized to the University, Rudnick said. Students are also given the opportunity to explore other college campuses, run classifieds and post singles ads. The site can also help students save money. The Eat Me! section features coupons that can be printed out and used at any grocery store. Animalhouse.com also posts job listings, tips on how to write a good résumé, advice on keeping fit and healthy and the latest sports scores.
(Collegian Graphic/Sean Brandt - click for full size image)	The College Info section of animalhouse.com gives students "the skinny on the cheapest bars, where to park illegally on campus, where to pound the cheapest slammers and chow down on the greasiest burritos," Rudnick said. Here, students can post their own favorite spots at the University and its surrounding areas, using a 10-star rating system. Some categories in College Info include Clubs That Do Not Card, Strip Clubs, The Free Clinic and Love Gloves, a category made especially for finding the best condom shop in State College. Although these sites may seem a little edgy, Jeanine Gregoire (junior-telecommunications) said these kinds of categories aren't serious, and it would be fun to know that kind of information about the University. "Even though the University probably doesn't promote it, it's still a part of college life," Gregoire said. "Since there are other things there for education, I don't think there's anything wrong with it." Rudnick said the site is for students to give their opinions and has been received incredibly well since publishing the site March 17 -- receiving more than 1,000 hits in only one week. "It's for the students to embrace, not the University to endorse," Rudnick said. "The content was decided by thousands of college students -- a ton of focus groups and research for the student was done before putting up the site."