By ALLISON OPSON-
CLEMENT
News Editor
Beginning this term, students have access to OrgSync, a system coordinating clubs and organizations on campus, including a comprehensive calendar.
According to Kara Kelsey, ASWOU’s director of clubs and organizations, the goal is to get everything centralized.
“Its value is providing student leaders and student organization members with a new more interactive way to communicate with members and other student leaders through a one-stop platform,” said Ekpeju E-Nunu of Student Leadership and Activities (SLA).
All the information is in one place, including an events calendar. Events can be approved through the system, without the organizers needing to run around to different offices any more.
“We really want people to get into this, but we realize that technology can be confusing,” said Caitlin Bracken, ASWOU’s director of public relations. If students need help, they can ask ASWOU, or the Office of Student Leadership and Activities.
“Any time your implement a new system, there’s going to be growing pains,” said Megan Habermann, assistant director for SLA but added, “Students are already utilizing OrgSync in a lot of ways.”
The more they use it, she said, the more they’ll get used to it, and come to love it.
According to E-Nunu, the system works by letting each student organization create their own individualized portal to communicate with members, talk with smaller committees, set tasks for these groups, and even work on smaller projects. OrgSync also enables students to create a way to publicize their events to a campus wide calendar and also advertise their social media sites.
“It’s like a bigger, better, all-encompassing Facebook, if it was only for Western,” explained Bracken. “We want it to be a one-stop-shop where you can instantly find something.”
Bracken said that OrgSync is the way to make everything really easy and streamlined for students. She considers the program to be pretty user-friendly.
“It’s only going to be great if we can get people to use it,” Bracken said. “Our hope is that, if we put everything on OrgSync, then students will go there.”
There are polls and news feeds, as well as a place to ask questions, and forums for discussion. Plus Team applications are already available on OrgSync.
“It’s good advertising too,” Kelsey said. Students can look at clubs on campus, and request to join them. According to Bracken, because everyone uses posters, students may develop poster blindness.
Bracken said that her ultimate vision is to make OrgSync a place that is everyone’s first thought of where to go to learn more about things on campus. She added that they want feedback, and to hear people’s opinions, because then they can make changes and keep improving the OrgSync system.
According to Habermann, the process of acquiring the program began last year. Together, ASWOU and SLA asked the IFC committee for the total cost, about $26,000, she said, for three years’ use of OrgSync.
That cost will need to be paid again to continue usage, but ASWOU and SLA have started factoring that cost into their budgets, so they won’t be asking for that full amount from IFC every three years.
Habermann stressed that setting up a profile to get started literally takes two minutes, and it’s an easy first step to take to getting more connected to campus. OrgSync can be found in students’ Portals.
“The more people that use OrgSync, the better and better it will get,” said Bracken. “It’s such a good investment for our students.”
