URI students sample new communication platform
Lance San Souci
Issue date: 3/17/10 Section: News
3/17/10 - University of Rhode Island faculty and students filled the Memorial Union Ballroom yesterday afternoon to participate in a live demonstration of Regroup, a new communications platform that may soon be implemented at the university.
Chris Utah, director of sales at Regroup, said that the Web-based application enables a person to reach out to the URI community via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and a variety of other social media outlets. He said that this tool also allows students to create campus interest groups from which users can choose to receive messages.
He said that with Regroup university administrators have an easy way to reach students on their preferred platforms and to send important announcements with the click of a mouse.
"Regroup integrates seamlessly with social media and is an efficient, cost-effective way to reach people in the higher education marketplace," Utah said. "Regroup's strategy behind providing this service is to provide administrators and their constituents with a platform that is reliable and reasonably priced."
In order to implement the system at URI, the university must pay a flat rate of $10,000, which accumulates to less than one dollar per student, Utah said. Regroup addresses high costs that schools feel they are forced to pay for an emergency messaging system by providing Regroup to schools at a cheaper rate, he added.
Utah said Regroup also addresses the issue of over-messaging and student-desensitization to e-mail, by giving the group administrator the ability to broadcast over multiple social networks all from one interface.
Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender club member Joe Santiago said that he likes the idea because it creates collaboration between students and faculty, and may save a lot of time in the long run.
To save time, Utah said navigation of the platform is simple because recipients have the ability to adjust their settings in Regroup in order to control how they receive a message.
Chris Utah, director of sales at Regroup, said that the Web-based application enables a person to reach out to the URI community via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, text messaging and a variety of other social media outlets. He said that this tool also allows students to create campus interest groups from which users can choose to receive messages.
He said that with Regroup university administrators have an easy way to reach students on their preferred platforms and to send important announcements with the click of a mouse.
"Regroup integrates seamlessly with social media and is an efficient, cost-effective way to reach people in the higher education marketplace," Utah said. "Regroup's strategy behind providing this service is to provide administrators and their constituents with a platform that is reliable and reasonably priced."
In order to implement the system at URI, the university must pay a flat rate of $10,000, which accumulates to less than one dollar per student, Utah said. Regroup addresses high costs that schools feel they are forced to pay for an emergency messaging system by providing Regroup to schools at a cheaper rate, he added.
Utah said Regroup also addresses the issue of over-messaging and student-desensitization to e-mail, by giving the group administrator the ability to broadcast over multiple social networks all from one interface.
Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender club member Joe Santiago said that he likes the idea because it creates collaboration between students and faculty, and may save a lot of time in the long run.
To save time, Utah said navigation of the platform is simple because recipients have the ability to adjust their settings in Regroup in order to control how they receive a message.
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