One stop student services : a student perspective

Abstract

Colleges and Universities have a myriad of choices in how to organize enrollment services delivery. Formalizing collaborative services to create stronger more comprehensive linkages and cross-functional service delivery in a student-centric, relationship-oriented manner is important for meeting the expectations of today's students. In support of student learning, it is important to provide an interconnected collaborative system of student services. The development, maintenance, and growth of an integrated service delivery model requires an understanding of how students experience a one stop service delivery environment. A recognition of the emerging trend of integrated student service delivery and the unveiling of how little is known about if the new delivery strategy is meeting students' expectations as consumers/customers of these services is revealed through literature. This qualitative research single case study examines, through direct observation, document analysis and interviews, what students, on one campus, have experienced as a result of the implementation of an integrated one stop student service delivery model. Seven themes emerged from the research and were demonstrated through participant responses: service expectations, academic connections/relationships with faculty, most helpful place on campus, campus climate, communication, web services, and transfer concerns; including common course numbering. One stop services provide an interface during critical moments of the student life cycle. If service is the intersection of people, processes, and tangible deliverables; expectations are beliefs about service delivery that serve as reference points against which the performance is judged. Leveraging interfaces is the point at which efficiency and effectiveness become partners to serve students. It is not enough to simply re-organize physical space, cross-train staff members in student service functions, and re-name an operation aimed at integrating student service delivery if in doing so, campuses fail to be wholly inclusive of the relationships students have with academic faculty and the opportunities which exist to be partners in the journey of student degree attainment.