New One-Stop Center Provides Convenience for Students
Wilson College opened a new student service center in Lenfest, formerly known as the college bookstore. The center gathers three different offices – Financial Aid, Student Account & Billing, and Registrar – into a one-stop shop to bring better experiences with more convenience to Wilson students.
The idea for the one-stop shop came from a survey conducted a couple of years ago when students had to go to different floors between Norland and Edgar Hall to access financial aid, account and registrar services. Therefore, the new center’s purpose is to provide centralized services convenient to Wilson students.
As Jose Dieudonne, Associate Vice President for Technology and Library Services, explains, “The Financial Aid, Billing, and Registrar offices run with two functions; operation and student services. What we do is to separate the two parts: move the centralized services into a new center while still retain the operation in Norland and Edgar Hall.”
In addition, Wilson provides each student with a personal counselor, whose offices are in the new student center services area. There are three counselors, each of who are assigned students in alphabetical order. Christy Friese has students whose last names end in A-G; Hillary Swartz has last names ending in H-O; and Heather Ellerbrock has last name ending in P-Z.
Currently, students do not have to go separately to financial aid or the registrar’s office to receive services.
Photo by Tram Ho
The personal counselors can assist students from start to finish with every issue in the new student service center. In addition to financial aid, billing, and registration, the counselors can put students in contact with the right people on campus to solve their problem. Along with academic advisors for course consultancies and academic arrangements, new personal counselors would certainly provide a comprehensive assistance for students during their study at Wilson.
The staff gathered and worked hard in three months over the summer to successfully implement the new center. Dieudonne shares, “We were looking to older universities to see how they design the layout, then decided what architect or how much space we need for the new center.”
The new student service center is on the first year of implementing and ready to make any improvement based on Wilson student’s feedback. They are in the process of building a website and application for smartphones for students to access the service via Internet.
For more information, feel free to contact to your personal counselor or Jose at jose.dieudonne@wilson.ed.