FUTI Website Completely Redesigned

In response to the recent name change from “Friends of Todai, Inc.” to “Friends of UTokyo, Inc. (東大友の会” (FUTI), our website has been completely redesigned by the Webmaster, Ms. Amy Vaida. You can access to the new website by typing in www.friendsofutokyo.org or www.todaitomonokai.org. The latter URL will take you to the Japanese version of the website. Switching between English and Japanese can be freely done by clicking on the American or Japanese flag that can be found at the right end of the top menu “Home, About Us, Grants & Awards, Giving, Contact Us”.
FUTI_ScreenshotThere is now a new menu “News, Newsletter, Recipient Reports,” below the logo, referring to pages whose contents are frequently updated. “Recipient Reports” is a compilation of the reports on the summer schools and internships prepared by the FOTI scholarship recipients. Note that the reports are not edited by FUTI.
On the right end of the Home page, there is a box labeled “Search.” If you type in a key word or phrase, for instance, “summer scholarship,” you will find all the announcements and news items regarding FUTI’s summer scholarship. Below this “Search Box” there is a column for “FUTI Facebook Page,” where recently posted messages appear. Whoever has signed up for the FUTI Facebook is allowed to post a message that may be of interest to fellow alumni and friends of UTokyo. According to our policy on FUTI Facebook, however, any message that is judged by the FUTI administrator to be improper or irrelevant to the FUTI community will be filtered out.
In a nutshell, the front page features the latest articles of frequently updated pages (i.e., news, newsletter and recipient reports) of the website and messages posted on Facebook. The layout of this new site is flexible and is also mobile device friendly.
Ms. Amy Vaida, who has undertaken this redesign project single-handedly, remarks “One thing I have not yet worked on is search engine optimization (SEO). 1 I am currently compiling a list of keywords that will be relevant to what FUTI does as an organization. If you have any suggestions for words or phrases that should be associated with FUTI in search engine results, please let me know. I am also open to comments and suggestions in general for the website.” If you have any comments or suggestions, please submit them at https://www.friendsofutokyo.org/comments-suggestions-futi-website/