Marissa Stephani, program coordinator, Student Life, gave a presentation at Campus Labs’ Connect Conference in Baltimore in July. She discussed FIT’s use of the student engagement platform Engage, which is used by over 700 colleges and universities throughout the country. The platform is called FITLink on campus and it helps the college’s more than 60 student clubs and organizations schedule and promote events. Stephani’s presentation highlighted how she has used the tool to improve risk management, and how to increase campus use of the tool among other student service departments.
Using FIT’s use of FITLink as a case study, Stephani described how she processes a wide range of student club requests. She’s able to better advocate for students because she can track their need for resources. Stephani says her guiding principle in Student Life is “meeting students where they’re at”—being accessible. In two years, she has increased campus use of the FITLink tool from under 500 students to more than 1,400 and counting. Two colleagues in Student Life, Christie Graziano, associate director of Leadership and Civic Engagement, and Jacob Ewing, department coordinator, are also using the platform to improve student experiences.
Several FIT departments now use the tool to promote their services to students, and Stephani is working to encourage more departments to do the same.
The Connect Conference is attended by professionals in higher education information technology, student life, and student activities and student leadership offices. Over 450 people from 80 institutions attended this year’s three-day conference.
For more information, contact Stephani, (212) 217-4133.