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Event Management at Cornell Made Easy with CampusGroups
Cornell University uses CampusGroups to manage a wide range of campus events. Student organization leaders rely on the platform to schedule events, issue tickets, collect payments, submit budget requests, and engage members. Its broad adoption and intuitive tools make it the go-to solution for large-scale events.
Slope Day: An Annual Campus Tradition
Slope Day, held annually on the Wednesday after the last day of classes in May, is a long-standing celebration dating back to 1902. The event features live music, and takes place on the "Slope" area of Cornell’s campus. Student committees lead much of the planning for Slope Day, including selecting performers, with strong support from the Campus Activities team. In recent years, the event has drawn a significant portion of the student body, with over 10,000 students participating.
Slope Day is a substantial undertaking requiring the involvement of numerous volunteers and resources. CampusGroups plays a critical role in the event's success, providing a platform for student registration and event management.
CampusGroups and Slope Day Management
Students, staff, and alumni register for Slope Day in advance of the event through CampusGroups. In 2025, 9,348 students registered ahead of the event. This pre-registration provides organizers with valuable attendance data and allows students to collect wristbands prior to the event, speeding up entry on the day of. The Cornell team uses card swiping to efficiently distribute wristbands.
For Slope Day 2025, over 15,000 students, alumni, and staff members collected their wristbands in advance, with over 5,000 of them registering during wristband distribution by simply scanning a QR code. This digital process minimizes on-site bottlenecks, streamlining event entry, and captures essential information and required waivers, eliminating the need for paper-based processes and allowing the team to capture different ticket types. The event has different tickets for undergraduate students, graduate students, alumni, and staff members.
The team at Cornell also uses CampusGroups in a creative way during Slope Day at the beer tent for students over 21. In addition to checking government-issued IDs, staff swipe student IDs in CampusGroups to verify age, and confirm whether a wristband has already been issued. This double verification helps prevent the purchase of multiple wristbands and ensures that everyone with a wristband is 21, helping to encourage safe alcohol consumption during the event.
Volunteer check-in is also managed through CampusGroups, providing organizers real-time data into volunteer attendance and assignments. By handling volunteer registration on the platform, the team can ensure that they have the right numbers at events. This year, there were 421 staff volunteers and 161 student volunteers who signed up. They register for a ticket, allowing the Cornell team to then also send emails to all volunteers to explain shift responsibilities, etc. via the platform. CampusGroups is also used for all of the reminder emails, collecting T-shirt sizes and more.
Slope Day 2025 was a tremendous success, with over 12,690 students, staff, and alumni attending all or part of the event.
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