With more than 200 student organizations on campus, it is very easy to get involved at Creighton. However, with so many organizations, it can be easy for things to get lost in the shuffle. It can often be difficult to communicate events and share information between members.
A new service, CU Involved, hopes to amend this.
“CU Involved is an online database/management system for student organizations,” said Katie Kelsey, Director of Student Activities. “It allows student organizations to internally communicate and function with more ease than before. For example, students are able to save documents within their organization’s site so they won’t need to transition a huge binder of materials because it is all saved within this one area.”
CU Involved is an online database for all 200 student organizations in one place, so students can easily search and find any organization on campus. It is also a place where organizations can place their Facebook and Twitter information, according to Kelsey.
CU Involved hopes to become essential for student organizations and make them more connected. The service lets all organization members become more efficient at communicating and should take away student complaints about missing events or not knowing information.
“The Student Activities Office was looking for ways to make student organization management easier for students,” Kelsey said. “We were also looking for ways to go paperless, and this system will allow us to do so, once we have everyone on the system. To set up a CU Involved account students need their Net ID and blue password. Every student/faculty/staff member at Creighton has access to this site.”
One of the main uses of this service is to improve Greek Life. CU Involved lets Greek organizations turn in forms and better advertise for events.
“The Greek community is already engaged with CU Involved; many organizations have their own page,” said assistant director of Student Activities for Greek Life Margaret Zimmer. “In addition, all traditional Greek organizations are required to use it to turn grade release, philanthropy and other Greek forms in through the Greek page on CU Involved. Everything being electronic makes it much easier for them to turn in things on time and for me to make sure chapters are on track with the expectations set forth by the Student Activities Office. I am hoping to see chapters use it more frequently to advertise their events and have a Greek calendar that is up to date.”
As more organizations join the service, campus has become more connected and efficient.
“My hope is that this system helps student organizations function more effectively, and helps eliminate some of the challenges of transition of officers,” Kelsey said. “My other hope is that we, as an office, can become more sustainable and be able to go paperless with all of our forms.”