Students have been able to use Do You QU—a website centered on campus organizations and involvement—for five years now.

But Associate Director of Campus Life Erin Twomey said students historically have not used the site to its full potential.

This is why the Department of Campus Life now requires student organizations to add more information onto Do You QU.

“There’s so much capability there that I think the organizations are not taking advantage of,” Twomey said.

Student leaders must now upload their constitution or by-laws, select categories that describe their group, update their roster and put their organization’s meetings on Do You QU.
Organizations can also view their budgets through the website.

Do You QU is Quinnipiac’s version of CollegiateLink, a product produced by the company Campus Labs. The university pays Campus Labs a subscription fee of about $9,000 a year for Do You QU and another Campus Labs product called Baseline, according to Twomey.

Jilian Pfeifer, president of GLASS or Gay, Lesbian and Straight Supporters club, said her organization rarely used Do You QU before this year.

“It was never really necessary before,” she said. “So we never really used it to promote events or it wasn’t really my go-to place to see what my club was doing. We relied more heavily on our Facebook page or email.”

President of the Physical Therapy club Kristen Tasch said she found Do You QU confusing at first, but once she attended a workshop for student leaders she understood the site better. Tasch said she likes that everything she needs to do for her club is in one place.

“I can do it from my room,” she said. “That’s definitely helpful.”

Event management
In the past, organizations only had to register their events on Do You QU, but Twomey said requiring groups to share when they hold meetings will allow them to showcase the work they do on a weekly basis.

Students, faculty and staff can view the events and meetings open to everyone on the events tab on Do You QU.

“You can find out at any point in time 24 hours a day, seven days a week what’s happening related to student organizations,” Twomey said. “It’s all hubbed in one spot and that’s exciting.”

Yet, Pfeifer said she finds the process of registering her events and meetings through Do You QU “cumbersome.” She said there are many steps and people that leaders need to go through, and she struggles when she fills out what the purpose of the event is.

“I feel like it’s just hard to pinpoint one thing you want to focus your event on,” she said.

Tasch said she has not had any issues with registering her events on Do You QU.

“I think it’s pretty clear cut as what it wants from you for each event,” she said. “The only thing is you have to really sit there and pay attention to what you’re doing because then you’ll send it in and you can’t go back and edit it until it’s approved or denied.”

The ‘match.com’ feature

Twomey also asks the leaders to use a Do You QU feature that allows the organizations to select interests that define the purpose of their group. Do You QU has several categories for organizations to choose from, ranging from “social,” to “leadership,” to “local service,” to “outdoors.”

When students create a profile on Do You QU, they select their own interests and then the website recommends clubs they should join.

Twomey joked that this is the match.com feature of the website.

“Your generation connects online,” she said. “Social media is such a huge aspect of what you’re doing. I’ve told the organizations I feel like they’re missing out on members if they’re not taking advantage of that to connect with people that are interested in the same thing that their group is about.”

This is a good idea, Pfeifer said, but it will be more helpful to organizations next year when students become used to Do You QU.

“It’s not going to really help our membership level or our membership commitment until it becomes more of a predominant system to use,” she said. “We just have to be the guinea pigs.”

Organization budgets

Student Government Association Vice President of Finance Matt Powers worked over the summer to put organizations’ budgets onto Do You QU. Student leaders now can apply to borrow the organization credit card, request reimbursements and see in real time when money is taken out of their account.

“That is really helpful,” Pfeifer said.

In the past, organizations had to meet with the vice president of finance and go through old receipts to calculate how much money they had left on their budget, Powers said.

“It was harder for them to know what was going on and it was harder for the vice president of finance to know what was going on,” he said.

Student involvement

Student organizations also must upload their constitution or by-laws and update their rosters on the website.

The latter will allow Twomey to track student involvement better, she said.

“I want to know more about our students who are involved, what they’re doing, what they’re joining,” she said.

Twomey and her intern will check to see if the organizations are adding all of this information onto Do You QU. She said if leaders are not using Do You QU as they are supposed to, she will meet with them to help them understand how the website can benefit their organization.

“I committed to spending some individual time with the organizations this year and making it work for them,” she said.

But, Twomey said more students are starting to embrace Do You QU.

“I’m such a nerdy cheerleader for it,” she said. “The potential is really, really there and it’s exciting. It’s funny, I feel it this year. I feel more people buzzing about it…People are excited about it and they’re asking more questions about it.”