By Zach Palermo
Staff Writer
A new online program premiered this fall that will replace the various forms and applications students and faculty are required to fill out for athletics, off-campus activities and external study programs.
Called UU Horizons, the program offers an easier-to-use process that will store student and faculty data online.
Union students can sign up for UU Horizons by going to the Portal site and clicking the Horizons Travel Registry link.
Cindy Jayne, professor of language and associate provost for intercultural and international studies, said she is satisfied with the program.
“[Union is] expected to take some responsibility in supporting these activities, and this is a way of helping us do that,” she said.
UU Horizons makes it easier for the school to contact people, streamline the submission of applications and forms for off-campus activities and generally make the travel process more convenient.
“In many respects, it’s simply a way of using the technology to do what we’ve been doing with paper,” Jayne said.
She added that security is a factor in switching over to UU Horizons, because the process was formerly paper-based and had become less and less secure.
The program will make it easier for Union to access contact information for students and their families if and when an emergency occurs, she said.
Students formerly had to submit hard copies of forms and applications every time they traveled to an off-campus event such as a Global Opportunities trip. However, with UU Horizons, students only submit forms once online.
Jayne said students will only need to enter personal information once, after which it will automatically be accessed by the school when needed.
