One of the most valuable, albeit cliché, pieces of advice that every college student is guaranteed to hear is the simple phrase “get involved.” This year, Marquette Student Government is teaming up with the Office of Student Development to make it easier for students to do just that.

For the past year, OSD has been working to bring all 257 student organizations on campus together using the new Involvement Link website, according to Matt Lengen, Marquette’s coordinator for student organizations and leadership.

“We have all of our organizations on the page, so now we’re actually starting to have them register their events and use the site as a resource,” Lengen said. He said Involvement Link is “a student’s one-stop-shop for involvement opportunities on campus, as well as events that are happening.”

Johanna Anderson, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and the president of Marquette’s Yoga Club, praised the site’s consolidation efforts.

“It’s a good central location for all of the information for everyone on the E-board and members of the club,” she said. “You don’t have six different people receiving emails from four different places and trying to communicate it all. It’s right there.”

Along with OSD, MUSG has played a major role in the launching of Involvement Link by funding half of the project. MUSG’s financial vice president, Brittany Riesenbeck, a junior in the College of Business Administration, likened the new website to “a social networking site specifically for Marquette students who want to be involved.”

Like many other social networks, Involvement Link offers its users the ability to link their page to Facebook, Twitter, and their own organization’s website.

Meghann Rosenwald, the president of Active Minds, a campus group that hopes to remove the stigma surrounding mental health issues, expects this feature to help her group spread its message. Rosenwald is a junior in the College of Health Sciences.

“We’re changing the conversation about mental health,” she said, “and (students) can check out all of our Facebook and Twitter stuff through this one website, so you don’t need to go to a million different websites to go see what we do.”

Both Rosenwald and Riesenbeck said they are pleased with the OSD’s utilization of the new platform, which should help the university stay current and offer a more convenient alternative to traditional methods.

“We’re all moving towards the cyber age; everything is moving online … and so we learned that Involvement Link will help Marquette (better) connect with student organizations,” Riesenbeck said.

One of the website’s key features is its interactive event calendar, which shows a digital bulletin board with event flyers highlighting upcoming campus events.

“Students can see what’s happening on a weekly basis, or even a monthly basis,” Lengen said. “They can sort by event, they can sort by event type, event category, even organization if you just wanted to know what a certain organization was doing.”

With more than 2,000 Marquette students on the rosters for 257 student organizations according to Lengen, Involvement Link is poised to be the predominant resource for student involvement in the upcoming year.

“Some people can’t always make it to O-Fest,” Rosenwald said, “but (Involvement Link) is like a virtual O-Fest all the time.”

Check out the website at marquette.collegiatelink.net.