Mar. 14, 2016
Hannah Harvey
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Involvement in clubs and organizations is often a great way for students to get involved on campus and be a part of something they care about.
Mountain Lion Connect is an online service designed to engage students, clubs, organizations and various departments on campus.
There are 23 academic organizations, 19 departments, 15 club sports and seven Greek portals. The site has 216 active portals, including 170 total clubs registered.
Usage has steadily increased since the service’s implementation in 2013, according to Mountain Lion Connect manager and student Travis Tafoya.
“We haven’t seen a decrease in usage at all. People are added every semester. Mountain Lion Connect is pushed at orientations and we are also seeing a huge increase in department usage,” he said.
The increase in department usage is expected to increase involvement among the student body as a whole, Tafoya said.
In MLC’s first month of usage in 2013, there were 100-200 users logging on per week. Now, there are about 500-600 users logging on daily.
“The more students we get that learn about it their first year, the more we have using it,” said Tafoya.
Usage tends to increase at the beginning of each semester, while a decrease in usage occurs during the semester.
Clubs and organizations must be registered through the Student Life and Leadership office and on Mountain Lion Connect. The purpose of the site is not just to register clubs though, according to Krystal Schiffelbein, coordinator of student clubs, organizations and leadership.
“I would say the purpose (of MLC) is pretty varied. One of the best parts is that we’re able to collect data for usage of students without data mining. We can track participation and how many students are attending events. It’s a great tool to see who is getting involved,” said Schiffelbein.
For students, the club has many different uses, including advertising and document organization. Any club can put an event up and publish it to their portal.
“It’s a great way for a club to get their name out there and provides a tool for new students who are looking to get involved,” said Schiffelbein.