Staff Writer- Annie Garbers
Photo credits: Fin Gustafson
This school year, a new platform for student activities has been introduced to Gustavus; you may have noticed the eye-catching pink and white posters lining residence hall walls and decorating bulletin boards around campus.
Launched in 2025, lounge was specifically designed to connect student organizations and build stronger, more engaged campus communities, as stated on its official website. Users can easily create private or public groups (“lounges”), where they can communicate, manage rosters, track member engagement, register for campus events, and even handle finances and budgets. By bringing administrative tools and social interactions under one roof, the platform aims to streamline the student experience.
The Campus Activities Office (CAO) here at Gustavus began implementing lounge into clubs this fall, and has already received generally positive feedback. The platform got its first major test during First-Year Orientation, when Gustie Greeters and incoming students used it as their primary information hub to navigate welcome week schedules, send announcements, and coordinate group activities. During an otherwise overwhelming week, new Gusties appreciated the centralized communication.
“lounge has been really helpful in navigating my first few weeks on campus, I haven’t missed out on any fun activities,” First-year Eleanora Kucko states.
By giving the incoming class an accessible tool to find social events and connect, the platform helped ease typical first-semester anxiety and offered a smooth orientation.
When compared to alternate group communication tools, student preference remains unsure as Gustavus adjusts to the operational change.
“Using lounge is similar to the platform that I used to use, TeamReach. They are similarly oriented, and I don’t have a preference on which one I would choose over the other.” First-year Dallas Carey wrote.
Junior Finley Gustafson shares the neutral sentiment regarding its functionality:
“Seems fairly similar.” Gustafson writes. “A little more involved than, say, GroupMe, but it also has more options, like publishing events.”
While students are still settling into the school year and learning the ropes of the platform, many campus groups have already made use of lounge’s features like polls, calendars, and budget tracking. At this year’s Involvement Fair, many of the clubs that lined the lawn, including The Gustavian Weekly, replaced the typical sign up sheets and email lists by having prospective members scan QR codes to join their respective lounges.
CAO has also integrated the platform into the annual student organization re-recognition process. Club leaders now use lounge to upload updated rosters, constitutional documents, and request budget allocations for the upcoming year, ensuring that every active group maintains an updated digital presence.
Survey data collected by The Weekly shows strong momentum for the future of the platform on campus. A solid 60% of students surveyed can see themselves using lounge to manage their own groups and events, while the other 40% expresses a neutral stance. More importantly, the platform seems to be achieving its goal, 80% of respondents state that lounge helps them feel more involved in campus life, and the remaining 20% does not voice explicitly negative feedback.
So it seems, as the Campus Activity Office continues its rollout, lounge is proving to be far more than just another download on a student’s phone. By successfully bridging the gap between group management, event discovery, and everyday communication, lounge is well-positioned to become a staple of student life at Gustavus.