Starting today, Binghamton University will change how students receive daily online announcements.

On Oct. 7, B-Line was divided into two separate entities, B-Line Calendar and B-Line News, according to members of the Communications and Marketing department, the Student Affairs Assessment and Strategic Initiatives office (SAASI) and the Student Association (SA), who were behind the change.

According to Kate Ellis, Binghamton University’s senior director for Communications and Marketing, the current B-Line will now be filtered through B-Engaged. Students will not have to take any additional action besides submitting their event to B-Engaged in order to publicize events.

“By going into B-Engaged students will be able to submit one time and it will feed to the University events calendar,” Ellis explained. “The University will still send out that listing Monday through Friday, but it’s going to be called B-Line Calendar. It will be the current day’s events and the next day’s events.”

B-Line News, on the other hand, will distribute administrative announcements from the University.

“B-Line News is going to mirror ‘Dateline,’ which is for faculty and staff, and it’s going to be for those greater University things,” said Chris Zamlout, executive vice president of the SA. “B-Line Calendar is going to be the B-Line that we have today: It’s our student group events. One’s largely administrative and one’s more student-oriented.”

According to Zamlout, Communications and Marketing and SAASI wanted to phase out B-Line because they had no way of measuring whether students were using it or if it was effective.

“They wanted something where they could track the information and make sure the information they’re sending out to students is useful for them, but also not getting rid of something the students wanted,” Zamlout said.

Zamlout sent out testers to observe what students thought about getting rid of B-Line. According to him, students were upset about the notion, prompting him to work with the University to create both the calendar and B-Line news.

“I’ve seen the calendar and the beta of what the e-mails are going to look like, and it should be a smooth transition,” Zamlout said. “This new B-Line will link straight from the calendar so whenever you click on something it will take you to the events calendar and give you all the information.”

B-Engaged features aspects that the developers hope are more user-friendly. The site highlights thumbnails of fliers showcasing upcoming club events and allows students to organize their clubs into a co-curricular record of activities.

Harris Weiss, president of College Democrats and a junior majoring in political science, said that he was concerned about the transition for many students.

“I’ve been dealing with B-Engaged all summer so I’m used to it but for anyone that has spent five minutes on it — it is so easy to get lost on there and not understand it and not know where to click and where to go,” Weiss said.

According to Cassie Lolo, a junior majoring in integrative neuroscience, B-Engaged would be an asset if it were more well-known.

“I think B-Engaged is really convenient but it’s not used as much as it should be,” Lolo said. “If people aren’t using it, it’s not helpful, but now that B-Engaged is the center for clubs, students may see its use.”