Carson Bonner, Campus Carrier news editor
The Office of Student Involvement (OSI) is an umbrella office that oversees several groups. These are the Krannert Center Activities Board (KCAB), the Leadership and Service Fellows scholarship program, campus transportation and the Grocery Shuttle, which takes students to and from the grocery store every few weeks. The OSI also manages the information desk in the Krannert Lobby and manage student organizations.
Part of the work the OSI does is scheduling events with KCAB and ensuring that events are confirmed, scheduled, so there is plenty for students to do and that the students are kept up to date on activities.
“We really strive to make sure there’s plenty to keep students engaged and happy with what’s offered on campus,” Director of Student Involvement David Eller said. “We head up a lot of the larger programming like the [Marthapalooza committee,] a lot of the Mountain Day things and we also support commuter students with a lot of our programming. Promotion is also really important for us.”
One way that the OSI works to keep students informed is through the Presence app, which allows students to connect to their campus and view upcoming events, as well as find student organizations and groups.
“If I really want to know what was happening around campus I just check Presence or the emails [OSI and KCAB] send out,” sophomore Analiese Wrye said.
The OSI also makes the Stall Wall, a calendar posted on the walls of bathroom stalls with the purpose of ensuring every student will see the upcoming two weeks worth of events.
“I think having the Stall Wall is important because it’s an easier and faster way for students to be able to get information about upcoming events,” Wrye said. “We all use the bathrooms on campus so having them there makes it easier to know what’s happening.”
Many students were upset about the Stall Walls not being up-to-date for almost three weeks. Complaints were raised by students on social media and in person before a new Stall Wall was posted. However, people that more actively use the presence app were not as concerned about the lack of updates.
“I know it was upsetting for a lot of students, but personally, it did not affect me that much, as I use the app to see updates,” Wrye said. “I think OSI should make sure to keep the Stall Walls up to date, but if they wanted to go paperless they could add QR codes around campus for a digital Stall Wall.”
According to Eller, the reason for the lack of update was understaffing and time spent planning other events. OSI is currently hiring and hopes that increased staff numbers could help.
“We’ve had some staffing issues,” Eller said. “For example, we now only have one bus and a handful of drivers for campus transportation so if we get a call that someone needs a ride on the main campus and the bus is up on Mountain Campus, it’s taking a long time for them to get to the pickup.”
Transportation has increased its purpose this year to expand from just transportation on campus to providing a shuttle to the airport for Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks, as well as allowing students to call for pickup at the numbered stops. While the bus does not run on weekends, if staffing increased, they could likely expand their times.
“We always want more people to come make things happen and join the team, drive the buses or help with events,” freshman and OSI staff member Jackson Kennon said.
According to Kennon, ultimately the main job of the OSI is to make events that students will love and want to attend.
“I just want to help make events fun so students will enjoy them,” Kennon said. “It’s really just about coordinating with each other and helping others have a good time.”