Allegheny College launched a new online platform called “Engage” to connect students and the college’s numerous clubs and organizations.
Engage is accessible to every Allegheny student whether they belong to an organization or not. By logging in with their Allegheny email, students can utilize engage to check for active organizations, and events they can participate in. On Engage, clubs and organizations can create event calendars, post news updates, and share photos and videos, making it a one-stop platform for information and engagement.
However, despite the potential benefits, just about five out of the 117 registered clubs have an active profile on the platform. Shanelle Minta, ’24, the president of African Student Association. said that ASA has not made plans to begin using Engage.
“I’ve heard about Engage but we haven’t been on there,” Minta said. “I think it could help spread the word if people actually used it.”
According to Minta, ASA’s outreach is primarily in social media posts, advertising with posters, and spreading the word in person.
“What we’re trying to do is get more African culture on campus, so we’re doing different events and meetings to educate people about Africa and the stereotypes about Africa,” said Minta.
According to Eric Stolar, Assistant Dean for Leadership and Engagement, part of the hesistancy around Engage is understandable.
“I can understand because it’s a brand new program to the campus,” Stolar said “People need time to warm up to it, get used to using it, and also realize it’s there.”
Stolar believes Engage’s lack of use could be due to a variety of factors, including awareness and training, or perhaps clubs are still in the process of migrating their activities to Engage. It is expected that the number of active profiles on Engage will increase over time as more clubs and organizations become acquainted with the platform and its benefits.
Stolar wants to encourage all clubs and organizations at Allegheny College to take advantage of Engage, by emphasizing its role in communication and engagement on campus. “If folks are still kind of cautious just click around and spend some time on the website, especially club leaders who can do something with their club,” said Stolar.
The clubs and organizations that do use Engage utilize it to announce general body meetings, weekly events and information about their clubs.
A common issue faced by club leaders is that most of their events are announced through email sign-ups and word-of-mouth promotion. For these clubs, Engage did not appear to provide any significant value.
“I think Engage is a really strong idea, but I’ve seen very little from the college to promote it among students,” said Milo Watson, ’26, gear manager of the Outing Club. “I think the only people who are using it are in club leadership positions.”
Watson, who is also the President of Lift Up, a weightlifting club, says that they used Engage but stopped since it seemed like it didn’t make a difference in attendance.
“It didn’t seem like we had any students that showed up because they heard about it on Engage, so we stopped putting stuff up on there because of that,” Watson said.
Stolar encouraged students to reach out if they have any suggestions for Engage.
“Feedback is also a great thing if people want to see something different on the website, or they think it could be structured a little different, and wanting to know if certain features are available,” Stolar said. “That stuff is helpful for me to know.”
Even though Engage isn’t getting as much attention and utilization as Stolar may have wanted, he remains confident that the website will become more successful than it is now.
“I’m being so positive because I wasn’t sure I was doing everything correctly, but it looks like I did,” Stolar said. “All those hours, those late nights worked,” said Stolar.