OATdb Archive - Sam Houston State University

OATdb Archive

2011 - 2012

Lowman Student Center, Director

Goal

Facilities And Services

Provide high quality facilities and services in support of the university's mission.

Objective

Quality Operations

Provide guests with high quality facilities, equipment and services.

KPI

Quality Operations

Using an assessment survey, measure the quality of the operations for service and the facility. The service portion of the survey is broken into 3 areas: communication, efficiency, and courtesy. Facility issues surveyed were quality of tables, chairs, equipment and special needs. Each of the areas allowed the responder to select a rating of excellent, good, fair, or poor. The survey provided space for additional comments from the responder. A copy of the survey is attached. The goal is to maintain a 90% rating of excellent or good in the quality assessment survey.

Result

Quality Operations

Using the Student Voice survey instrument to evaluate our facility and operations, we have received a 96.3% excellent or good response overall. Our reservations section received an overall 97.7% approval rating and the facility side attained a 95.2% approval.

Action

Quality Operations

In addition to the 96% approval rating, the comments on the survey were overwhelmingly positive. One of the requests made early in the survey cycle was to develop an online reservation system. We purchased that option with our current reservation system with very positive results. We will expand the number of users this coming academic year. We have also upgraded our technology in the meeting rooms to include large flat panel televisions and Skype access.

Goal

Programs And Events

Encourage student participation in programs and events held in the student center.

Objective

Program/Event

Provide university community with programs and increase participation in line with university growth.

KPI

Program Participation

The programs sponsored by the LSC will increase student participation by a factor equal to the university growth.

Result

Program Participation

The on campus population remained static for this past year. The participation in the Kat Klub programs is down a little more than 10% while at the same time the number of people coming into the game room is up 4%.

Action

Program Participation

During the second half of this evaluation period we have been short at least one full time staff member. The result was the Kat Klub programming has not been the emphasis of our efforts. The overall student population at SHSU has grown, but the students attending class on the main campus has remained the same as last year. We have hired a new full time staff member to assist with the programs and participation which will greatly improve our student involvement in the future.

Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement

Plan for continuous improvement During FY 2012 the Lowman Student Center used a survey instrument developed by Student Voice to assess our customer service and the quality of our operation. The survey is e-mailed to every customer the day after they used the facility. The staff reviewed the feedback on a regular basis to see if there were any trends or areas where we need to focus our efforts. In the reservations section of the survey there were 310 excellent, 28 good, 5 fair and 2 poor ratings. In the facility portion of the survey there were 356 excellent, 38 good, 15 fair, and 5 poor ratings. Our cumulative rating of excellent or good ratings was 96.3% which is well above the standard we set. Based on feedback on the survey and comments received from our guests we worked to improve our facilities and process to support over 1 million people who enter this building on an annual basis.
1. Departments and students have asked for an online reservation system. This past year we purchased and tested an online component for our existing Events Management System. During the first semester we had a couple of our main customers use and critique the online reservation process. Using that information we modified the process templates and opened the online reservtions to more of our customers.
2. In the past we have had several poor ratings because we have not had rooms opened on time for events or meetings. We emphasized that to all our office and operations staff and this year we did much better with only one negative comment. This year we received positive comments about the rooms being open and ready on time.
3. Audio visual and technology are at the top of every one of our guest's wish list. This past year we were able to complete an entire facility upgrade to our sound system in the ballroom and theater as well as new data projectors in both areas. We installed new 55" flat panel televisions in all the small conference rooms and ceiling data projectors in the large rooms. We have received positive feedback in all areas.
4. As we looked for ways to use the new a/v equipment, the LSC staff used a conference room and flat panel TV to conduct Skype interviews for an open position. We purchased a good quality microphone and camera to enhance the Skype experience. When we were confident it worked well we advertised that capability to the campus. We have had several departments use our facility and equipment to conduct Skype meetings and interviews saving them time and money. We received positive comments on the survey and in person about this added service.
5. To support our students we added equipment to support Skype sessions in the game room. We have a private TV room that we added a computer, camera and microphone so students can use Skype for their personal meetings, interviews or just to call home.
6. The poor comments we received on the facilities part of the interview were related to equipment, tables and chairs. As previously mentioned we have upgraded our a/v equipment through out the building. Our tables and chairs are 10 years old and we have started the process to begin replacing that aging equipment.
This coming year we are starting the process to expand our student center. We will continue to survey and monitor the feedback we receive from our students, faculty and staff to ensure we are providing the new and expanded services they want in an expanded facility.