By ALLISON OPSON-
\nCLEMENT
\nNews Editor
\nBeginning this term, students have access to OrgSync, a system coordinating clubs and organizations on campus, including a comprehensive calendar.<\/p>\n
According to Kara Kelsey, ASWOU\u2019s director of clubs and organizations, the goal is to get everything centralized.<\/p>\n
\u201cIts 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,\u201d said Ekpeju E-Nunu of Student Leadership and Activities (SLA).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want people to get into this, but we realize that technology can be confusing,\u201d said Caitlin Bracken, ASWOU\u2019s director of public relations. If students need help, they can ask ASWOU, or the Office of Student Leadership and Activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time your implement a new system, there\u2019s going to be growing pains,\u201d said Megan Habermann, assistant director for SLA but added, \u201cStudents are already utilizing OrgSync in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
The more they use it, she said, the more they\u2019ll get used to it, and come to love it.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a bigger, better, all-encompassing Facebook, if it was only for Western,\u201d explained Bracken. \u201cWe want it to be a one-stop-shop where you can instantly find something.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only going to be great if we can get people to use it,\u201d Bracken said. \u201cOur hope is that, if we put everything on OrgSync, then students will go there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good advertising too,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Bracken said that her ultimate vision is to make OrgSync a place that is everyone\u2019s first thought of where to go to learn more about things on campus. She added that they want feedback, and to hear people\u2019s opinions, because then they can make changes and keep improving the OrgSync system.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 use of OrgSync.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t be asking for that full amount from IFC every three years.<\/p>\n
Habermann stressed that setting up a profile to get started literally takes two minutes, and it\u2019s an easy first step to take to getting more connected to campus. OrgSync can be found in students\u2019 Portals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more people that use OrgSync, the better and better it will get,\u201d said Bracken. \u201cIt\u2019s such a good investment for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s director of clubs and organizations, the goal is to get everything centralized. \u201cIts value is providing student leaders and student organization members with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}