Cece Jabs–
As most University of Wisconsin–Stout students likely know, Orgsync is the student organization communication software used on campus. University housing staff, such as RAs, also use the software to keep their residents in the loop. Last summer, UW–Stout announced they would be switching from Orgsync to a new software, but then ended up staying with Orgsync for one last academic year.
Now that summer is approaching again, Stout’s time with Orgsync is drawing to a close. But why is Stout making the switch, and what exactly are we switching to? Stoutonia reached out to Jennifer Lee, the associate director of the Memorial Student Center, for more information. She said Stout’s contract with Orgsync will end on June 30. The reason the university was going to change last year, one year prior to the contract expiring, was to migrate to a new software before Orgsync disappeared, but the new platform was not yet ready. Because of that, the university decided to stay on with Orgsync until the end of the contract.
Lee said, “This fall we began the search for org management software as we planned to do nearing the end of our contract anyway […] The overwhelming feedback from demonstration attendees was that Campus Groups offered the most features at the best price. We will be calling the new platform Connect.” Connect will be available as an app, which will replace the app incoming freshmen and housing staff used this fall, called STEVI. Students and student organization leaders will be able to see events posted by other organizations via the app. Before Stout’s departure from Orgsync, student organizations will be able to transfer photos, files and other important information to Connect.
To see how some organization leaders may feel about the move to Connect, Stoutonia also reached out to Elizabeth Abendroth, an apparel design development major and vice president of the student organization Wear Fashion Organization. She will be president of the organization next year.
When asked for input on the change from Orgsync, Abendroth said, “We currently use Orgsync to store all [of the] files we need for board members from year to year, photos of past fashion shows, meeting presentations, etc., in addition to sending out reminders to our members. At first, I was initially pretty unhappy that we were switching from Orgsync since I had just gotten used to using the platform, but after attending an early adapters training session [on April 20], I think Connect has a lot of great use and potential for all of the orgs to use and is a lot more user-friendly than Orgsync.”
The switch to Connect is expected be happening over the summer, and the platform should be available for students to use in the fall of 2018.