The Web site gets 1,100 hits a day, even though many students don't know what it is.
The myNorthwest portal connects all users and allows students and faculty to check e-mail, pay their bill and check eCompanion in one site.
The site launched in May as an inclusion in the upgrade for the financial systems and human resources system.
It required an additional two servers, costing $25,000, Information Systems Vice President Jon Rickman said.
"MyNorthwest only cost the amount of the servers, which is about $5,000 a year since they last five years," Rickman said.
"Then there is one full-time faculty member allocated to it, as well."
The portal is now beyond the testing stages, Rickman said. The University has a plan for helping myNorthwest grow, including having official groups and organizations create groups and use it for updates.
"We're letting myNorthwest grow naturally," Rickman said. "It'll take time for it to be used by most students."
Auxiliary Services Director Mark Hetzler said the reason more students are not using it is because it's typically hard to change habits.
"It will probably take several years to get the usage rate we would like," Hetzler said. "We are changing to a new culture. Freshmen are learning to use myNorthwest, but upperclassman are refraining from the site because they are used to other ways to access the site."
It is more difficult to teach students who have been here for two or three years how to use the site , than a new freshman because they know other ways to do the exact same things, Hetzler said.
The site was built to get the skeleton of information out there and to keep it new and fresh, Hetzler said.
Web Applications Developer Jeremy Baumli said expectations were not set for the initial release of myNorthwest.
"We're just in the phase of making sure everything is working right," Baumli said.
For students who have used myNorthwest, the reaction has been positive. Sophomore Stormy Shively uses the site mostly for organizations.
"The groups on myNorthwest are an easy way to connect to organizations and information pertaining to them," Shively said. "It is also an easy way to get to e-mail. There is a quick link for everything. I really enjoy it."
Freshman Shauntia Schweigart uses the site mainly to access e-mail and to pay her University bill.
"It is all located in one area. You don't have to go to a lot of different Web sites," Schweigart said.
Even students at the Missouri Academy use myNorthwest frequently, student Alex Mannion said.
"I use the site to check announcements and to access e-mail and eCompanion faster," Mannion said. "Everything is right there and it is user friendly with tutorials that help you through it."
Communication, Theater and Language department Associate Professor John Fisher also uses myNorthwest frequently.
"The biggest advantage of the site is it can be tailored to the appearance you would like," Fisher said. "However, it is more complete to change myNorthwest than a similar site called iGoogle."
Learning how to do changes in myNorthwest takes time to experiment and play around and figure it out again, Fisher said.
The site is a good idea, but it will take a while to get used to, Fisher said.
"There are times when I go to CatPAWS, but then I think about myNorthwest," Fisher said. "It's just the very nature of things. It will get faster as they make changes to it."
The security for myNorthwest is the same as other functions on the Northwest Web site, but Fisher said he believes it is safer to log into one site than to log into numerous sites.
"The security for myNorthwest will be much more secure if public internet and private intranet are separated with only one login page that requires a username and a password," Fisher said.
Fisher said myNorthwest has many advantages, but he worries about it being too much like Yahoo.
"The one thing I want to know is if we are trying to create something that already exists," Fisher said. "If it provides different services, then people will use it. Build it and they will come."
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