Advice on design and pb with code

Hey guys,

So here is a link to what my website looks like when I make it full-screen: http://people.virginia.edu/~was2t/SUB/home.html. There are obvious issues that arise: the color gradient does not go to the bottom of the screen, but only all the way below the footer. The header (lgo & tagline) looks weird. The spacing around the menu is strange. Also, I can only manage to round the right corners of the menu (2 divs...) and now the left hand side. I think I might make another post entirely to try to sort this issue out with my code and all.

What I mostly need is some advice. What do you suggest I should do to make this side better? I am thinking of not including the logo at the top left, but in the featured section. Instead, I would just type out the name of the organization and use a special font and word-spacing to make it look nice. I also want a search bar to the right of the logo's current location. I would then move the tagline to the right of the logo inside the featured section. I'm also planning on adding some social media icons, but I don't know if I should put them in the "Subscribe" box.

Any advice on this layout?

THANKS!! =)
(VIEW BELOW FOR LIVE VERSION OF WEBSITE)

The search bar would work in your proposed location in my opinion, as for the media icons, there doesn't seem to be a lot of space so as long as you use smaller icons it should look fine. What will be placed in that huge white space though, it appears that's the featured section you're talking about, right?

I was thinking of putting the logo, with the lagline in the featured place. So they would just drop down from where they currently are into the white "featured" space. Instead of the logo, I would use a font with the name of the organization written out. Is this a good idea?

Do you know how to fix the problem with the background gradient no going all the way to the bottom of the screen?

For the social media icons, I might add them at the bottom as well, so that they are on every page. Not sure just yet =) I might also create another div and put it on the very right of the page, in a transparent box with just the icons. They would really stand out if they are out there.

Any other suggestion? This is my second webpage, so any help is appreciated! =)