Incoming freshmen in the 2016 class at Indiana University will have a new digital way to connect with potential roommates. The university is piloting Uversity’s Roommate Finder 2.0, a digital application that joins students within a private network. The application will be added to the university’s existing private network for new students, called Schools App, which launched in 2013 for the 2014 incoming class and uses Facebook profiles for authentication.
University Information Technology Services business analyst Jay Steele said no university-sponsored private network existed before Schools App.
“Before Schools App, we saw students self-organize,” said Steele, adding that many students created their own private groups on Facebook to connect with each other. “One of the reasons we did this is because we wanted to have something we could call the official social network for IU.”
Last month the app produced more than 14,000 connections between IU students, said Steele.
”The primary objective,” he said, “was to give the admitted students an opportunity to make those connections before they get on campus.”
© 2024 HeraldTimesOnline, Bloomington, IN