By Julian Routh | Asst. News Editor
Reserving a shared classroom on campus is no longer a phone call away. Instead, staff, faculty and student organizations can now request rooms on the internet through a new web-based event scheduling and space management system called 25Live.
The program, which is currently ready for use, allows the room requester to check the availability of shared University space and see features and photographs of that space. Before 25Live, there was no way to see what rooms were available without making a phone call, assistant director of student involvement Doug Kukta said.
The Center for Student Involvement, Office of the Registrar and Events Management have been working on 25Live for a year and a half and are in the process of inputting contacts and training individuals to use it, Kukta said.
Students, one from each recognized student organization, were trained last week. Faculty and staff will complete the 90-minute training program over the next two weeks, starting Monday.
Among the benefits, Kukta said 25Live “keeps everything in one place” and allows the different scheduling departments, who have been using the system for the past year, to better communicate with one another.
“One of the ways it benefits us is in the past, we at student involvement and events couldn’t see what the registrar was doing with classrooms,” Kukta said. “Now, we can see that. It’s easier for us to communicate.”
Associate Registrar Monika Schwartz agreed, saying the main advantage is that the departments are now on the same system.
“The main advantage is that before, we were on separate systems,” Schwartz said. “Now, we’re using the same system. It’s a lot easier to coordinate.”
In the past, the events department used the program Scheduler Plus, the registrar’s office used a paper book and the other departments used either of those or different online scheduling programs, student events coordinator Brigitte Szivos said.
Though she acknowledged that the different systems worked effectively for each department, Szivos said “having a uniformed process and program is ultimately the best system.”
“It is a very effective way to communicate room usage between many departments spread across campus,” Szivos said. “I am also thrilled at the fact that I will be drastically cutting down on forms and therefore my paper usage will decrease dramatically.”
“Students are more tech savvy.”
Doug Kukta
Kukta said 25Live will be an asset to administrative assistants. Rose Kennel, an administrative assistant in the registrar’s office, said the best part of the system is the ability to see what rooms are available and what features are in each room.
“It makes it a lot easier. There is less paperwork,” Kennel said.
During testing, Kukta said he did not notice any major flaws in the system, other than it running “a little slow” at times. He also said he expects students to adapt to the system quickly.
“It’s going to be easier for students because students are more tech savvy,” Kukta said. “The biggest problem we run into is people who aren’t comfortable with the internet. To me, it’s just like you’re filling out a paper form, except it’s on a computer screen.”
Other than a few bugs and glitches that the newest 25Live system updates have fixed, Szivos said the departments are working through any problems in “an effective manner.” She encourages users to file a help ticket through Computers and Technology Services if they encounter any problems themselves.
“Overall, it has taken a while for me to get used to 25Live,” Szivos said. “But the program is very convenient and will be a huge asset to the green effort and productivity of the University.”
