The Miami University student activity website, The Hub, has grown over the past year, with over 7,000 students registered.
The Hub currently has 429 student organizations registered and has become an online involvement center with features such as online event registration.
The latest national survey showed 83 percent of Miami students participated in activities and organizations on campus.
This is much higher than schools similar to Miami that reported an average of 52 percent of students participated in extracurricular activities.
The Miami Student editorial board believes The Hub is a good start for student organizations to connect and communicate but needs to be improved in order to gain more users and more credibility.
Currently, only half of the student population is registered on the Hub, meaning nearly a third of students involved in organizations and activities are not benefiting from The Hub.
The website needs to be advertised more effectively, as it is essential for student organizations seeking Associated Student Government funding to be registered on the site.
As a board, we have found the site difficult to navigate and, until a link to the site was included in the new MyMiami webpage, we found the site itself difficult to even find.
The website is a good way for organizations to connect with other Miami student groups and for group members and administrators to communicate.
But, communication is mainly done through listserv emails and the Hub is not updated frequently enough for students to use.
One of the main problems is the lack of education about The Hub among upperclassmen at Miami.
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
Many students were accustomed to using listservs as the primary form of student organization information and still use listservs to contact members.
Students who were at Miami before the Hub was introduced were never properly taught how the new site would operate. A simple tutorial could be shared with current students as to how the site works, and new students would learn about it during oreintation sessions.
We understand it takes time for sites like The Hub to be fully integrated into student life, but we encourage the university to listen to student input so the site can become the useful tool it was created to be.
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.