The student organization social networking platform, OrgSync, will be launched this semester, after a summer of preparation and a somewhat controversial adoption by Associated Students Inc.
The ASI Senate overwhelmingly approved the networking platform, a $15,000 yearly price tag, but raised some opposition — especially within the College of Engineering.
Applications Support Assistant Jameson Nyeholt said that the implementation of OrgSync was being paced to fix potential errors early on.
“We’re definitely where we want to be right now,” Nyeholt said. “We’re taking it slow so we don’t encounter a lot of problems.”
Nyeholt is running a series of tutorial workshops geared toward increasing student and faculty understanding of OrgSync.
“Students are definitely excited about it,” he said. “Whenever I do a workshop, the organization leaders get so excited. They see it as a way to reach out.”
Student of Life President Leroy Matthews voiced a positive opinion of OrgSync, saying that it made communication among organizations easier.
“I think the networking that will come from it will lead to better communication and bigger events,” Matthews said.
Nyeholt said that, right now, going directly to Student Life and Development or Week of Welcome at the beginning of the year is the only way to find out about student organizations.
But Nyeholt explained that OrgSync is “like Week of Welcome all year long.”
He went on to say that student organizations were not effectively advertised and that a lack of unity made available information less accessible.
Right now, Student Life and Development (SLD) is helping individual leaders of campus organizations with OrgSync.
But Nyeholt said that there is a possibility of a movement to get all students active on OrgSync, not just the ones involved in organizations.
“I can’t really say that will happen for sure, but that’s what I see maybe happening, Nyeholt said. “That conversation hasn’t even been had yet, but logically it would make sense.”
Currently, only group leaders are being approached, with the expectation that they will spread the knowledge to their fellow members.
Though there are plans to eventually reach out to all students, the focus right now is leadership in order to avoid a massive influx of students before flaws in the system are worked out.
“If SLD’s not ready to handle it, it could be a big problem,” Nyeholt said.
One of the main reasons for making OrgSync accessible to everyone is to create a stronger bond between students and their school, according to Nyeholt.
“I believe organizations need to communicate with each other,” Matthews said. “To be truly effective, we need to work on a broader scale.”
Nyeholt’s workshops, entitled “BeachSync 101″ are scheduled through Oct. 13. Remaining workshops are on Oct. 4, 6, 12 and 13 at 10:30 a.m, with the exception of the one on Oct. 12, which is at 11:00 a.m.
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