By: Lydia Rogers ~Campus News Editor~

The Student Hub permanently replaced the MyXU Portal as the center for student information and resources during the Spring 2014 semester.
The switch has caused a bit of confusion for returning and new students alike.
The Office of University Communications and the Division of Information Technology partnered over the past year to deliver a new internal web experience for Xavier students and employees.
The switch was prompted by the frequently-changing nature of the Internet as well as shifting user habits over the past 10 years.
“We made the switch with our students and employees in mind in order to assist them best with their use of Xavier’s technologies, systems and resources to help them be successful,” Executive Director for University Communications Douglas Ruschman said.
The Student Hub is designed as an internal homepage for Xavier students with a layout of direct links to the most frequently accessed tools and services such as academic calendars and schedules, the library webpage and a course description catalogue.
Unlike the Portal, the Student Hub utilizes Google Analytics to provide insight to user behavior, which allows the university to continue to develop services to meet user needs.
The Student Hub can also be accessed on mobile and tablet devices.
The Division of Information Technology and the Office of Communications also incorporated a new security mechanism that accompanies the Student Hub. Xavier’s Central Authentication Service (CAS) allow multi-system access so students can access tools in the Self-Service tab and Banner using their Xavier username and password.
Once they are logged in, they can access any CAS-Enabled service without having to re-enter their username and password, and they will remain connected to the browser until they manually “disconnect” from CAS.
Although most of the features of the Student Hub are straightforward, such as the Pay Bill, Email and Canvas tabs, the Self-Service tab takes a bit more time to get used to.
The Student Services tab on the MyXU Portal laid out most of the tools in one section. The Student Hub requires students to click around a bit more to navigate the tools and find their personal and academic information.
For example, in order to find final grade records, hold information or the DegreeWorks tool, students must now click the Student tab in Self-Service, and then the Academic Records/Registrar information tab to see a menu of options.