Mississippi State University has collaborated with Merit to launch the new student network, Merit Pages.
Merit Pages is a press distribution software designed to help students share academic accomplishments.
MSU joined an extensive list of universities who have partnered with the Albany, New York, based company to implement the Merit Pages platform within their online infrastructure.
Each student automatically has a personal webpage created for them, which will lists their name, hometown and educational background. As a student achieves new academic accomplishments, the page updates to include recent activity.
Sid Salter, MSU Chief Communications Officer, said the decision to implement the platform came from university President Mark Keenum’s conversations with parents of MSU students.
“This was something that Dr. Keenum brought to our attention,” Salter said. “He had seen it and had talked with some parents who had familiarity with it, and he said he thought that would be a great service to provide to our students.”
Salter said Keenum played a large role in getting the $20,000 collaboration launched and funded.
While the funding spent will not be easily recovered, Salter said he believed the benefits that the platform provides to students outweighs the financial loss.
“While we won’t directly recover that, the service to our students and the assistance it gives them … is something that I think students will increasingly come to want and expect,” Salter said.
On the administrative side of the platform, Merit Pages creates and “mass-personalizes” stories about commencement, as well as the Dean’s and President’s lists. According to Merit’s website, entire commencement stories can be created and distributed within as little as four minutes.
Additionally, Merit’s website boasts significant social media engagement figures.
When Merit published the University of Mississippi’s 2020 commencement story, it garnered 291,215 total page views and 501,636 Facebook shares. Of the 5,428 students who were sent the story via email, 83% opened and read the email.
Salter said the university’s collaboration with Merit has already started making waves and gaining feedback from across the state.
“The reception has been fantastic,” Salter said. “We’ve heard from state legislators; we’ve heard from parents … we’re excited about it and looking forward to growing it moving forward.”
Michael Hedrick, a junior majoring in computer science, found Merit Pages when he received a story written about him making the Dean’s list.
Hedrick said he thought the stories would be great for posting on social media.
“I could see myself sharing it with my family and close personal friends,” he said.
Similarly, Alexander Ketzle, a freshman majoring in aerospace engineering, discovered the platform after making the Dean’s list.
“It was a nice surprise getting that email,” Ketzle said. “I figured they would probably have put something about the Dean’s list in my CAPP compliance or on Banner.”
Though Ketzle was pleased to receive the automated story about his accomplishment, he said some students may not feel comfortable with their information and achievements being shared on an external platform.
“There may be some people who don’t want that information out there,” Ketzle said. “It would probably be better as an opt-in system than an opt-out.”
Currently, all students are enrolled in Merit Pages unless they sign in to their account and manually opt-out of the platform.
Although the platform is new to MSU, Ketzle said he thought students may not have a reason to interact with it when comparable platforms, such as LinkedIn, are polished and more widely recognized.
“Honestly, it seems like it’s trying to be a LinkedIn replacement, in terms of a personal profile, but it doesn’t have quite the recognition of LinkedIn,” Ketzle said. “I don’t think it’s going to be something that people use extensively.”