CampusGroups Enables Connection
For Students
Moving a vibrant on-campus event experience from Aldrich Park and Ring Road to the virtual realm was no small feat, but OIT staff helped Campus Orgs and Volunteer Programs (COVP) implement the next best thing – a new way for student clubs, orgs and campus units to connect again, online.
CampusGroups is a platform for campus organizations and departments to connect and engage with students, through virtual events and fairs, chats, and connection programs. While the technology tool was brought to UCI before March 2020, to support the administrative burden of new organization registration and recognition, OIT staff helped to quickly expand it in the summer of 2020, to support virtual events and connections. The additional features for online events allowed UCI to host a virtual fall involvement fair – typically the largest student org event of the year.
“We realized quickly that we couldn’t translate an identical involvement fair online,” said Darlene Esparza, Director of Campus Orgs and Volunteer Programs. “So we started thinking about what was essential to the event and to reimagine it. We were fortunate to have found a platform that has the ability to do that with CampusGroups.”
Over 6,000 students attended the fall virtual involvement fair – learning about campus resources and connecting to new clubs through hosted chats, events and activities, and information pages.
CampusGroups is not a pandemic-year tool that becomes obsolete when campus operations and student life return to in-person activities again. The advantages of the platform include ongoing administration of clubs and orgs, and opportunities to offer hybrid events and involvement opportunities that allow increased access for all students. Additionally, there are other features on the CampusGroups platform, including a badge system for students to earn for participation, and a financial module for managing club budgets, that are being explored by IT and student affairs staff.
Adapting to a new tool like this, we have appreciated being able to have OIT’s support throughout the process, in understanding both the needs of our center and the technical nuances, and how they can come together.
We are lucky to have a collaborative and supportive partner in OIT who helped us get this new tool up and running.
CampusGroups is also now hosting the event calendar for the campus, and over 800 events with 11,000 registered attendees were recorded between its launch in July 2020 and December 2020.