Planning an event requires much effort and great planning tactics. When planning an event, one of the most important factors is securing the venue, where the event to take place.
Here in Leo Land, there are almost always rooms available for meetings, but what happens when rooms are unavailable or locked?
Ad Astra is a remarkable program that is promised to ensure that room reservations for events and meetings are set up to fit your schedule for the event. The main purpose of Ad Astra is to enable visibility into three components, which are the events scheduled by Saint Leo University, academics and resources in just one calendaring tool. Considering the fact that Saint Leo is known for meetings and events, Ad Astra aims to allocate the space usage of events and classes simultaneously.
According to Karen Hartfield, if a room seems to be available, one should use the Ad Astra program to reserve a secured room on campus for the approved event.
According to Karen Hartfield, Registrar of Saint Leo University, the events component of Ad Astra was recently added in December 2018. Hartfield noted that since that time, faculty and students have scheduled 1,500 events on campus ranging in type. According to Hartfield, if a room seems to be available, one should use the Ad Astra program to reserve a secured room on campus for the approved event.
Additionally, to minimize any unwanted errors, the program is integrated with The Student Information System to allow an impeccable flow of information while minimizing errors.
As it is a new program to the Saint Leo Community, Hartfield mentioned that they will be launching Ad Astra Schedule and Platinum Analytics, which aims to keep students on track with their progress moving towards graduation. This service of Ad Astra will leverage student degree audit information and anticipated enrollments to produce suggestions of courses offered each term. Additionally, it will give information on which courses are offered and how many sections of that course is available.
Likewise, this program also automates the room assignment process for academic sections. To make the process of booking a room easier, an algorithm is used to optimize space utilization, and it is applied to determine the best placement for meetings and events.
To minimize any unwanted errors, the program is integrated with The Student Information System to allow an impeccable flow of information while minimizing errors.
Hartfield acknowledged that because the program is new to the Saint Leo Community, it is their aim to precisely increase the knowledge of staff and students about the program. The AD Astra program can be accessed through Okta single sign-on. Users will have the same login account as their Saint Leo sign-in through Okta. On the homepage of Ad Astra, users can access tutorials and users guide to gain a general overview of how to maneuver through the program. The request form of Ad Astra is intuitive and not much instruction is needed.
Shantae Whyte, a junior, bio-med major on University Campus, explained that Ad Astra has been very useful to her when planning events. Whyte is a board member for clubs such as CSA and has the task of booking rooms for meetings. Whyte said that she is enthralled at the way the program is set up and how it gives a basic overview of what events are taking place on campus and room availability.
Similarly, Kali Thompson a senior, biology major, described the program as a useful tool when planning events. Thompson who is a board member for the SISTUHS INC on University Campus, says that she has found this program to be useful because she can gain access to rooms on campus at the time of 8:30 p.m., because it’s more convenient for members of the chapter. However, Thompson added that guidance is needed when accessing Ad Astra for the first time, as you must follow through with the room scheduling via engage Leo.
Consequently, Hartfield stated that if one needs additional assistance with the program, they can contact UTS or email roomservices@saintleo.edu for further information.
