Administrators are looking to engage with students through an updated service.
OrgSync is a system OCU has used for years in order to manage student organizations. Now, officials are transitioning from OrgSync to a new platform called Engage. Student organization leaders now use Engage to officially layout positions of officers, store forms and documents and reserve spaces for events.
All information student organizations had on OrgSync has already been moved over to Engage, said Levi Harrel, dean of students.
“It’s business as usual,” Harrel said. “If they encounter any issues, they can speak with me or they can speak with Allison Hudson, our new assistant director of student engagement. I’d be more than happy to help students navigate that process.”
Campus Labs LLC ran OrgSync and shut the platform down entirely, replacing it with Engage, Harrel said.
“Honestly, functionally speaking, there’s not a tremendous amount of difference in Engage versus OrgSync,” Harrel said. “It’s owned by the same company. It is really their more revamped version of OrgSync. I think there will be some more streamlined processes. I think it’s going to be more user friendly than OrgSync was for our student population, and I think they’re going to take to it really quickly.”
Harrel said OCU will use Engage as its primary system for management of student organizations for the foreseeable future.
“I did have some trouble navigating OrgSync because I wasn’t sure what other events were scheduled on certain days, or who I needed to ask for permission, or if it was just through OrgSync,” said Hannah Boyens, film/music senior and artistic director of The Shadow Collective. “Sometimes I realized you had to email the people as well as go through OrgSync, but if this process makes that easier, I’m all for it.”
The new system will also help make Student Government Association documents more accessible.
“OrgSync was starting to expand my senior year, and we were having to upload more information and update it more,” said Jordan Tarter, English alumna and former president of the Student Government Association. “But I still feel like it was a bit difficult for people who were unfamiliar with OrgSync to navigate. So, I think making documents more accessible, the constitution more accessible, is going to be really helpful, especially if we talk about it and inform people about it from the time they’re freshmen and really emphasize how helpful it’ll be for getting involved in the community.”
Tarter also had experiences with OrgSync before her tenure as SGA president, when she was president of the formerly operational group Students Against Sexism in Society.
“I think that the Involved Center did a great job of getting people to use OrgSync, however, the site in itself wasn’t the most accessible. If this new site is a little more accessible and user friendly than OrgSync, if the site improves, that’s a win,” she said.
According to the official announcement of the switch on Orgsync by Associate Director of Student Activities Amelia Rogers, after several years of relying on Orgsync to allow students to manage clubs, sororities, fraternities and even intramural sports, MSU hopes to streamline this process even more with the new platform.