Written by: Alissa Flores
The School of Health and Kinesiology is in the process of introducing a new management system that will transform how its intramurals program and other operations are run, according to Troy Walker and Darren Bissel, two faculty members in the department. The new software could be operational by the time basketball intramurals begin in the winter semester.
Southern Adventist University’s intramurals program is currently run using IMLeagues, an online program utilized by many schools to help students register for intramurals and monitor their status as a team and as individuals, according to IMLeagues’ website.
According to a previous Accent article, Southern’s intramurals program has seen significant growth in participation over the last year. Bissel, facilities manager for the School of Health and Kinesiology, said the new system will organize the program more efficiently. It also will help with student worker schedules and payments, as well as community-centered activities like swimming, checking in and items purchases.
Bissel said the new system, DSE, which stands for DoSportsEasy, will completely replace the current system , which consists of multiple different programs like Google and a check-in system IT set up, in addition to IMLeagues.
“[IMLeagues] has been working great. We just wanted something that would involve everything all in one platform,” said Bissell.
Walker, director of intramurals, said last summer the department started discussing a system change. He was curious about what other schools were using for intramurals. According to Walker, many universities use IMLeagues, including one of Southern’s closest university neighbors, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. However, he added that IMLeagues has had issues with lagging and multiple ads that make the platform unfavorable.
“The students have to deal with the ads or pay five bucks to get rid of the ads,” he said. “There are other schools, a lot of the bigger ones, that use a piece of software that runs their whole wellness center and intramurals at the same time.And it’s really cool what I saw other schools doing. So, I was like, ‘Why not us?’”
Walker said although he believes it will have the largest effect on intramurals, the new system will also interact with the department’s student workers database, which includes checking in at the wellness center, scheduling fitness classes, checking out equipment and more.
In addition, Bissel stated that DSE will affect how community members sign up for swim lessons and gym kits. Individuals will be able to make payments online with the new system.
“All those things combined with intramurals will really streamline things nicely,” said Walker.
When asked if there are any negative effects of the new system, Bissel stated, “A trade-off is we have to pay some money for it. It’s kind of an expensive system. But I think it’ll help us be more efficient at our job here. It’ll help us with our scheduling and our student workers as well. It’s got a scheduling platform where you can text all the workers, and it’s kind of a built-in system.”
He said the department has been readying the system for the past few weeks.
“Our IT should get students all uploaded and staffed,” he said. “It’s going to be a little bit more challenging for our community members. There are around 360. We’ve got to manually put them in, so that’s going to take some time. But other than that, things have been going pretty smoothly.”
According to Bissell, the department may be able to set up some of the system’s modules before Christmas break.
Walker said this timeframe would give him the opportunity to study the program over the last couple weeks of the semester in hopes of understanding it and getting it to run smoothly before it is introduced to the students.
When asked about how this system will be introduced to students on campus, Walker said that they plan on sending word out through Instagram and flyers around campus. Although, he clarified that the most effective way they will spread the word is by a mass email utilizing IMLeagues’ database of students who have participated in intramurals in the past.
Walker hopes he’ll have the system ready for basketball season in the winter, but he’s not sure that will be the case.
“[Last season, there were] around 52 basketball teams,” he said. “If I have that many again, and I’m learning a new program at the last second, that makes me nervous. I don’t like to roll that way. Change is good, usually, but change can be hard, not only for the students but for me too.”
Walker explained that although DSE is exciting, challenges come with it.
“We have to learn the program first,” he said. “So, it might be a little bit of a learning curve, and there might be some growing pains. But in the long run, we feel like it’ll be worth it.”
