Dear York College Community,
The Web and Business Intelligence team is pleased to announce a series of new features and platform enhancements to the York College website and digital tools. These updates streamline event management, improve accessibility, and provide smarter automation powered by institutional AI.
Here is a summary of what’s new:
1. Camera-Based Event Check-In
Managing campus attendance is now faster and paper-free:
- Check-In Activation: Website users with an Owner or Reader role on any published event can now enable the check-in feature directly within the event.
- Instant QR Scanning: Event organizers can use any internet-connected device with a camera (smartphones, tablets, or laptops) to scan the QR code on student and employee ID cards for instant, automatic check-in (manual entry is also available).
2. Enhanced Dark Mode Controls
Following the rollout of Dark Mode across the main site, display settings and styles are now more flexible and persistent:
- System-Adaptive by Default: The website automatically mirrors your operating system’s theme preference (Light or Dark).
- Persistent Manual Override: Using the theme toggle in the upper-right corner of the navigation bar will now store your selection, keeping your preferred view active across sessions regardless of device defaults.
3. Smart Accessibility Tools in the CMS (Powered by YorkGPT)
Content editors will see substantial productivity and accessibility upgrades when uploading media to the CMS:
- Context-Aware Smart Alt Text: When images are uploaded, YorkGPT analyzes the visual context and institutional directory data to generate precise descriptions—including accurately identifying York faculty and staff present in the photo—ensuring stronger compliance with digital accessibility standards.
- Automated Transcripts & Closed Captions: Audio and video uploads are now automatically processed by YorkGPT to generate full text transcripts and closed-caption (VTT/SRT) files, reducing the manual effort required to publish accessible multimedia.
4. Cardi AI Interface Refinements
Cardi AI has received interface polish to deliver a cleaner, more responsive user experience across desktop and mobile. Our team continues to monitor user interactions, tune response performance, and deploy continuous enhancements to support the campus community.
Quick Troubleshooting Tip
Because these updates involve newly deployed scripts and styles, cached assets may occasionally persist. If you experience any display or functional issues, a quick page reload / hard refresh (e.g.,
Shift + Refresh or Ctrl/Cmd + F5) should immediately pull the latest code into your browser. If issues persist or if you have questions regarding event check-in permissions and CMS tools, please reach out to the Web Team via the IT Helpdesk.
Sincerely,
Web & Business Intelligence Team
York College, City University of New York