Panther Connect is a disconnect
Photo Collage by Easton Clark, Photo Editor
As a club officer, I’ve accepted that some challenges are inevitable: creating budgets, low turnout or event planning, to name a few. But one I never expected was fighting with a website.
I’m the vice president of the Fiber Arts Club, where we teach others how to crochet and knit. We have regular meetings every week, but before we can get to those meetings, our club president and I are busy figuring out how to use Panther Connect.
First implemented in fall 2024, Panther Connect was meant to coordinate club management resources on one website. Club officers can book rooms for meetings, manage budgets and coordinate event ticketing through the platform.
With over 200 student clubs and organizations, finding a way to coordinate resources is a major task that was once scattered across various websites. While I have never used the previous program, I can admit that having a centralized location for all club business is convenient.
However, that isn’t the issue.
The actual convenience of the website quickly becomes overlooked when the website crashes, room bookings are canceled and there is overall confusion on how to use the website.
For the first two weeks of the school year, there is a classroom block, meaning that during this time, room reservations for meetings before 10 p.m. can’t be made as class schedules are still being shifted around.
On Sept. 8, at 9 a.m., that block was lifted and an all-out war broke out. Those 200 club officers flooded Panther Connect, trying to set up their upcoming meetings, leading to the website being down for several hours. An inconvenience, to say the least.
Once the website came back, my own personal war began.
While filling out the form to create an event submission was seemingly straightforward, there were hidden challenges. I was trying to create recurring meetings for every week remaining in the semester, and luckily, there is just the setting to do so. However, that little button created more issues for me as the system wouldn’t allow me to add a room. As a result, I had to create each meeting individually. Yet another inconvenience.
This wasn’t the first time that I have struggled with using Panther Connect to book rooms. Last semester, I had completed the form and gotten an email confirmation that the form was submitted. When I went back to check on the pending approval the next day, the temporary booking was nowhere to be found.
After reaching out to the Student Organizations office, I was able to get some assistance with my claimed incomplete form, and the meeting did happen.
While I can admit that maybe it was user error, I know that I am not alone in having some confusion and frustration towards Panther Connect. I have several friends in club leadership who have experienced similar situations.
Guidance on how to use Panther Connect is given to club presidents during a three-hour-long leadership summit hosted by Student Organizations at the beginning of the school year, and one-on-one meetings are offered throughout the semester.
While these provide the basic information on how to book a room or other simple operations, they don’t address the errors and glitches that can occur.
We are all busy students who use clubs as an extracurricular activity and a break from academics. While the website meant to streamline club business creates more stress for us, it also creates more work for Student Organizations, who have to sift through emails to provide support.
Technology will always have its flaws, and there may never be a “perfect” system, but having a user-friendly system that actually streamlines the club organization process can go a long way.
Panther Connect was a step closer, but there are still changes that need to be made.