Get Hyped about Getting Linked

Have you ever felt there was something wrong with the school systems, the food that you are eating and the tuition that you are paying? The solution to these problems can be found at a new website launched by a group of CSULB design students called hyperlinked.

This group of design students are being kept anonymous for privacy reasons, but they want their website to be discovered. The website, hyperlinked.us, covers topics such as drugs, food, health, oil, prison systems, bullying and the CSU tuition hikes.

The website was created in just a matter of weeks by the design students who felt motivated to make a major change.

"The hyperlinked website grew out of a class discussion about how designers need to take a social role in advancing important issues instead of merely worshiping the golden cow of advertising and salary,"said the professor of the group of students who created the site.

The professor is also being kept anonymous with the students involved.

"When I saw that the students were authentically concerned about a wide spectrum of topics, I wanted to cultivate their sense of concern and give them a chance to apply their design skills to their social concerns," he continued.

After hours of in-class discussions, the group of students concluded on the most vital topics they were concerned about, most notably, the CSU tuition increases. 

"The professor talked to us about the times that students would have walkouts and protests," said one of the anonymous students. "This inspired us to begin our own type of protest."

The professor began to ask the students what they could do with their artistic knowledge, and since everyone in the class was learning website design, they decided on making a website for people that wanted to make a change. 

"It has been a bumpy ride getting organized and balancing the tasks of designing a site (something nearly everyone in the class has never done before) and understanding the issues we are presenting," said the professor. "Though it has been challenging, we have learned that there is a true cost to promoting social reform—a price that someone has to pay for things to move forward."

The group of students here at CSULB are remaining anonymous because they don't want their professor to get in trouble, even though the professor says he wouldn't mind being exposed. 

The students also want to create a stir without affecting their personal lives. These students are in your classrooms; they want to keep their life as normal as possible.

"We could get in trouble with the school because we are working on such a controversial website on campus and we aren't allowed to do that, we can probably get kicked out of school," said another one of the anonymous students.

Hyperlinked.us is different from other websites because it gives people information on both ends of an issue, both for and against. The website will also link site visitors to other organizations, specifically focusing on the issue at hand. For example, the bullying page would have links to pages such as hrc.com, The Human Rights Campaign.

"It's a free country, or at least that's what we like to think.  These days our nation is spending too much money, time and resources on the criminalization of marijuana and other petty drugs," said one of the anonymous design students.

The website launched on Nov. 30 and will continue to be updated daily. The students hope to get enough people interested to make a significant change.

"As an instructor, I am happy with everyone's progress," added the professor.

The students plan to post signs about the website around campus and get people's attention in artistic but non-destructive ways. 

"We also plan to make a demonstration on campus with a weather balloon and a big sign hanging from it," said another anonymous student.

Keep your eye out for this group of motivated students and get hyperlinked.