A new website called MaroonLink will help match students with different organizations on campus starting this semester.
The site allows for recognized student organizations to set up profiles with their interests, purpose and mission — which allows students to research organizations based on their individual interests.
MaroonLink, which was introduced during the summer, boasts roughly 1,200 campus organization profiles. Ann Goodman, advisor to the Student Organization Conduct Board and the University Greek Judicial Board, said programs like MaroonLink are used on over 200 campuses across the nation but never before at A&M.
“There wasn’t anything in place as an organizational tool before MaroonLink,” Goodman said. “The main benefit is that it acts as a central portal for communication and organizational management.”
MaroonLink also includes a campus-wide calendar and other features, said David Sweeny, director for the Department of Information Technology.
“MaroonLink allows organizations to integrate social media pages into one location,” Sweeny said. “It allows for roster management, a photo gallery with unlimited space, tracking of service hours, organizational posts on the profile — it makes it easy for organizations to communicate with their members through things such as sending emails and text messages These services weren’t available before.”
Goodman said MaroonLink allows participating students the option to track their activities, both virtually and physically.
“Students can track their involvement through the co-curricular transcript which can include any internships, study abroad experiences and involvement in organizations,” Goodman said. “MaroonLink has a map feature that shows where events are taking place.”
Sweeny said MaroonLink also lessens the burden organization websites put on university resources.
“The purpose of MaroonLink is organizational management,” Sweeny said. “From an IT perspective, the IT department has been monitoring and providing resources to over 1,200 organizational websites. ”
Gennie Lynn, coordinator of residence life, said the Residential Hall Association is one of the hundreds of organizations that uses the profile system.
“MaroonLink is used by hall staff, the community council and [the Residential Hall Association],” Lynn said. “It allows for clearer communication between staff, it has a good tracking system and is very user friendly.”
