The Student Government Association (SGA) is developing a new club tab on PirateNet to help clubs reach out to students and update them on ways to get involved.
The idea came from SGA representatives Christina Simon, Josie Martinez, Gabby Beard and Sean Bolduc. Simon, a sophomore English and psychology major and SGA secretary, she said the team of SGA representatives had listened to clubs voice their concerns about recruiting students and keeping them updated on events and meetings. This sparked the idea of a club tab, Simon said.
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The SHU Portal homepage will soon include a clubs calendar. Screengrab via piratenet.shu.edu.[/caption]
Simon explained the new tab would be a widget located on the SHU Portal homepage in the form of a calendar. This would allow students to stay updated on different clubs, meetings and events. It will show students events for both clubs that they have and have not joined.
“The club calendar aims to make event information more easily accessible to the student body in order to help students become more involved with clubs’ events,” Simon said in an email interview.
She added that the new application “will be especially helpful to transfer students and freshmen as they search for their niches in the SHU community and to the whole student body as they find new events and clubs to support.”
The app is for all clubs approved through the Student Organizations Advisory Committee (SOAC), Simon said. Clubs would be given a form to fill out for their events, or recruitment, providing time, place, name of event and cost. This information will then appear in the club tab for students to see.
“If an online calendar gives the student body easier access to event information than flyers and social media posts, then students may feel more encouraged to attend club events whether they are already members or not,” Simon said. “In return, the higher level of student body involvement can yield higher attendance at club events, creating a more unified community through the events of our clubs.”
Shaaliyah Lyons, a senior sports management major and the president of Alpha Kappa Psi, expressed her feelings about the tab.
“It would be extremely beneficial,” she said. “It’s hard getting the word out.”
“If organizations can work together with this calendar, it will definitely increase involvement,” Lyons said.
Emily Betz can be reached at emily.betz@student.shu.edu.
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