ASU officials said that Undergraduate Student Government Downtown presidential candidate Alexis Kramer’s goal to replace OrgSync, the online system that connects ASU student organizations, will not be possible until at least 2017, when the school’s current contract expires.
ASU is in a contract with OrgSync for the next three years — through April 2017 — according to Benjamin Davis, assistant director of student organizations and programming who oversees the contract between ASU and OrgSync.
OrgSync is an online platform used to help manage student organizations by keeping important documents online, communicating or publicizing events, Davis said. The platform also allows ASU to keep up with more than 1,000 student organizations.
In an email, Davis stated he doesn’t see a way the contract between ASU and OrgSync could be broken unless either party were to act against the contract.
Dan Ashlock, ASU’s director for the advancement of student initiatives, said that it’s unlikely that the USGD president would be able to influence the agreement and that the OrgSync system is funded out of the Tempe Student Fee.
OrgSync is supposed to be a resource for student organizations, Kramer said, but she believes it’s too difficult to use. She said she’s been in contact with Allison Kuty, OrgSync’s ASU campus consultant. She hopes to influence the new interface that is being designed.
“It’s just so many hurdles and student are just saying, ‘You know what, I don’t want to even use it,'” she said.
Kramer said the main difficulty with OrgSync is that it is not user-friendly.
“When it comes down to it (organizations) have so much trouble with it, it’s troubleshooting, no connection. The information’s not uploaded correctly.”
Kramer said she wants to change this system even if she doesn’t get elected.
Kramer is running for president along with Ryan Boyd and Windsor Smith, candidates for vice presidents of policy and services, respectively. The ticket has made it a goal to help student organizations succeed.
“We see that there’s so much student organization involvement,” Kramer said. “There are so many students that want to create organizations or make use of some that have already been in place but they don’t know what direction to go and that’s the purpose of OrgSync.”
The most dramatic change Kramer’s ticket seeks is to replace OrgSync.
“I’ve heard it from many points of view from campuses that they want this to be done and I think that administration-wise, they don’t find it successful. There’s a lot of frustration,” Kramer said.
The executive ticket has other plans to assist student organizations, including meeting with organizations bimonthly to make it known that “we’re allocating funds every other week to student organizations.”
“This is your money,” she said. “This can help make your student organization successful.”
Contact the reporter at alabril@asu.edu
