As the summer semester begins, Oakland University uses the time to make improvements or changes to the campus while there aren’t as many students walking around.

The Center for Student Activities have jumped on the bandwagon as they beta test a new program to replace many components that groups would need online and in campus offices. The program is called OrgSync and will be renamed GrizzOrg to brand it with the campus name once the system is fully implemented at Oakland,  according to Center for Student Activities Assistant Director of Leadership Christopher Jensen.

“GrizzOrg is a student management system that connects (club) officers and for the average student on campus to get involved,” he said.

Once logged onto the system, students familiar with Facebook will notice a similar appeal. A student then can create a log in through their Oakland email and check out what is happening on campus through the new resource. While students who belong to an organization or club will be open to many more features, such as meetings and fundraisers, many more students stand to benefit from GrizzOrg.

According to Jensen, the ease of using GrizzOrg comes from its simplicity. Like Facebook, students can access multiple online modules in a single place.

Since Oakland University is a commuter college, this lets organizations take advantage of things from home, such as having CSA resources open to them as needed, not just during normal business hours.

“With the CSA limited on open office hours, GrizzOrg lets an officer, say, print out a form at 2 a.m. if they forgot to pick it up, rather than waiting for the center to open,” Jensen said.

GrizzOrg is functional and customizable, but also environmentally friendly, since groups on campus receiving paper statements of their treasury account will now only receive an e-bill on their group.

This will also replace how a student group registers on campus. Instead of the “manage my org” tab on the CSA website, GrizzOrg will be the management system. After the beta testing concludes in the summer, Jensen is hopeful the CSA can introduce this system to the groups on campus during the annual Organization Training where they register annually.

Although the OrgSync company is separate from OU administration, the university will have eyes in the cyber sky to monitor content posted to the OU-affiliated website.

Since the site will be a collegiate production, anything posted on the website will be Oakland property. Accordingly, all of its content will be reviewed based on the OU Academic Code of Conduct.  Violations of the code will have consequences, much like other student activity that is governed by the set of rules.

Jensen explained that the content on GrizzOrg will reflect that of a professionally run collegiate program. The new framework has no room for inappropriate content.

“Facebook is for that,” Jensen said. “Not GrizzOrg.”

Since its debut, OrgSync has been used across the country from California to New York, and the site has the ability for groups who have multiple chapters around the nation to communicate directly in this portal.

Jensen communicated with other institutions about OrgSync in preparation for its deployment at OU, and his findings suggest a solid track record for the program.  In fact, some universities in the U.S. report to already have 100 percent student involvement with the website. Jensen said that reason was one that made the decision to go with OrgSync even easier.

With GrizzOrg about to arrive at Oakland, students can expect a change this fall. The inaugural year of the system could be the start of something new for clubs and orgs alike — even for students who simply want to get involved on campus.