Want to know what’s going on around campus tonight? How about this weekend? Or next month? Or maybe next year?
Students, faculty, prospective students and anyone else can access the new online Campus Events Calendar by clicking the “Today @ Drake” link on the right-hand side of Drake University’s homepage. The beginning of this new feature replaced the weekly campus calendar that appeared on the BlueView news feed.
“We have been wanting to do this for like 25 years,” Director of Student Leadership and Service Programs Jan Wise said.
The default view shows all campuswide events, but there are also seven categories viewers can select to filter the listings, such as “Academics,” “Athletics” and “Fine Arts And Performances.”
A committee of around 20 people has been working on the calendar, but Wise said that Director of Web Communications Jeremy Sievers was responsible for putting it together.
Wise said its usefulness is evident.
“We’ve already seen it in the Student Life Center,” she said. “People will come in looking for a speaker and we’ll know where to show them instead of saying, ‘Well, let’s go out and look at the posters on the wall’ or something.”
Student organizations can also use it to avoid scheduling conflicting events, and it allows prospective students to get an idea of things happening at Drake, Wise said.
People who want their event added to the calendar can e-mail Wise at student.life@drake. edu. And, unlike the BlueView calendar, she said, there are no deadlines. Events can be posted months in advance and updated as needed or put up the day they’re happening.
“Everybody has wanted a calendar that could put all the events together,” Wise said with a smile. “It’s great that we have it, finally. I feel like we’ve arrived.”
But what everyone will be looking for (and will never find) is what is onethe social calendar for the next weekend. Drake will never allow the Greek organizations to advertise their weekend parties on this calendar, and quite frankly, that’s what the students are looking for.