New text system launched for groups

Through the recently developed group text messaging system SwoopTEXT.com, leaders of campus organizations have a new communication platform that allows them to conveniently send free text messages to their members.

SwoopTEXT is a student communication platform that “enables instant and targeted group communication via text message,” according to the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students website. The platform offers free, unlimited text messages for student leaders to send to members of their respective groups.

“Unlike Facebook and Twitter, SwoopTEXT recognizes the pivotal role of groups in campus life,” according to the website. “SwoopTEXT ensures that you are always in the loop. Never miss a frat party, football game or famous speaker again with instant, customizable text alerts about campus activities and events.”

The technology allows users to create and collect RSVPs for public and private events, promote events to followers and use a calendar aggregated from individual group subscriptions. The calendar can be synchronized to iCal, Google Calendar and Outlook.

Michael Keaton ’11 and Michael Perl ’11, the developers of SwoopTEXT, proposed the idea to ODUS last year. ODUS began using the platform last spring to communicate up-to-the-minute updates on last year’s graduation events.

“Within six days of releasing the platform, half the senior class opted in to receive text messages,” Keaton said. “After graduation, we surveyed the students who had used the platform, and 95 percent of them indicated they would like to use SwoopTEXT to organize their campus groups and events.”

In response to the positive feedback, ODUS has now made it available to all campus organizations, according to the ODUS website. Videos on the website demonstrate how campus leaders can create groups on SwoopTEXT, send group messages and maintain event calendars. Individual users can become “members” or “followers” of certain groups to receive targeted text and email messages.

Among features Keaton and Perl plan to add in the coming months are native smartphone applications, search bars that allow students to find organizations and events more easily and more filtering criteria to help students find organizations of interest to them.

Other universities approached Keaton and Perl with interest in the platform, and SwoopTEXT has gone live on a number of other campuses. SwoopTEXT.com lists 22 participating campuses.

Keaton and Perl said they seek to recover their costs by asking universities to pay for a subscription to SwoopTEXT, but they added that they do not refuse service to any interested school.

“We’re very committed to making sure that it’s always free for campus groups and for students to use,” Keaton explained. “We’re never going to say no to a school simply based on price or its willingness to pay, but we hope that universities see the value in it and are willing to help us out with the cost of sending the messages.”

Yoga Club president Allegra Wiprud ’14 has recently begun using SwoopTEXT to communicate with her club members. She described SwoopTEXT as helpful and efficient, though a bit difficult to use.

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“The interface isn’t very clear,” Wiprud said. “It says these are all the things you can do, but it doesn’t tell you what to click to do it. Once we get everything sorted out, then it’ll be really great, because right now I’m texting everyone and this will make it a lot easier.”

Meanwhile, other campus leaders have said that they find the platform useful but are wary of group text messaging becoming too intrusive.

Students for Education Reform Princeton chapter president Emily Myerson ’12 said that the leadership of SFER has not yet used SwoopTEXT but has discussed how to use it to communicate informally with those who request it.

SFER’s leadership decided to use the technology for social purposes such as informal gatherings because “text messaging is a more informal form of communication,” Myerson said. She added that the leaders considered texting the entire group only “for really big events that were special.”

“It’s something that SFER is being thoughtful about how to best use,” Myerson explained. “Often, our email inboxes can be flooded, and so a text message from an organization can seem different and stand out, but at the same time because your cell phone is your personal means of communication, it runs the risk of being intrusive or disrespectful.”

USG President Michael Yaroshefsky ’12 also said he felt group text messages could be inconsiderate. He said he would not use SwoopTEXT to communicate with the student body.

“I currently do not plan to use [SwoopTEXT] to contact students,” Yaroshefsky explained in an email. “Text messages are more personal and invasive than emails, so it would have to be opt-in and only for very special uses.”

Yaroshefsky added that the USG is considering using SwoopTEXT for internal communication.

While Keaton echoed the sentiment that the intrusion of sending group text messages is a concern, he said he thought that leaders could use it appropriately by using the tools within SwoopTEXT to send messages to only the relevant recipients.

Leaders can use recipient selection tools to send texts to subgroups by gender or class year, for example. They can also create their own subgroups such as board members or members of a certain project, Keaton explained. “We think that those kinds of features will ensure that the messages stay relevant because you can very precisely target who’s getting a text or who’s getting an email.