Students First! Final Report
Executive Summary

Lane Community College (Lane) needs to improve services to students now. This assertion may be initially puzzling, in light of how well Lane is perceived by its students. In fact, most Lane students think very favorably of the College. In a telephone survey of a random representative sample of current students conducted in May 1996, fully ninety-four percent of respondents said they would recommend Lane to a friend, and sixty-eight percent said they are very satisfied with Lane services.

Why then does Lane need to improve services to students now? There are several compelling reasons to take action at this time:

• staff are working very hard to buffer students from inefficient and unnecessary processes
• students expectations are changing, and they need to be served quickly and efficiently to remain satisfied customers
• the higher education marketplace is increasingly competitive, requiring that Lane enhance services to students to remain competitive
• funding patterns indicate the potential for an impending budget shortfall, requiring that Lane use its resources as efficiently as possible
• Lane faces a unique window of opportunity, with the passage of the 1995 construction bond measure

Students First! Redesign Team Process

• research design - the team considered various alternatives for gathering information and decided on those best suited to their objectives
• data collection - the team gathered information using the techniques of:
  • input sessions to hear the perspectives of employees involved in conducting processes about what works well and what needs improvement, and a second series to hear their perspectives on initial findings. One hundred and thirty-one employees representing 38 departments participated in these sessions.
  • an input session with students to learn of their needs, concerns, and satisfaction levels
  • a statistically significant phone survey conducted by the Oregon Survey Research Laboratory (OSRL) to identify student needs and satisfaction levels. Click here to view results of the survey.
  • customized questions on the annual ACT student survey to learn about studentsí evaluation of specific services
  • site visits to Clackamas and Linn Benton Community College to learn about their approaches to improving services to students
  • guest visitors from Maricopa and Central Oregon Community College to learn of their process redesign efforts
  • site visits to local businesses with reputations for excellent customer service to learn about their practices and innovations, including SELCO, the Employment Development Department, and Jerryís Home Improvement Center
  • site visits to the Cottage Grove, Florence, and Downtown Outreach Centers as well as the Linn-Benton Community Collegeís Lebanon Center to learn about serving students in locations other than a main campus
  • development of process maps illustrating the tasks performed in each of the major services to students process areas, including information dissemination, financial transactions, enrollment services, and support services
• data analysis - the team analyzed each of these sources of information to establish common themes regarding the need for and alternative approaches to improving services to students
• development of preliminary recommendations - the team developed preliminary recommendations, based on their data analysis
• testing of preliminary recommendations - the team reviewed their preliminary recommendations with groups of employees in affected areas to better understand the implications and feasibility of the recommendations
• refinement of preliminary recommendations - the team refined their preliminary recommendations, based on the additional input received from employees, and developed for each recommendation a detailed description of the current situation, desired situation, proposed solution, and action plan for implementing the proposed solution
• communication of findings and recommendations - the team developed this report to communicate their findings and recommendations to the Lane community

Students First! Recommendations

Service Delivery

• Develop a one-stop approach to providing information and delivering enrollment, financial, and advising services to students. Create a new organizational structure that utilizes cross-functional teams to deliver services to students. Students will receive services at a centrally located Students First! Center and other College locations. The new structure will be supported by a coordinated system for the dissemination of information and the delivery of services in a variety of formats to both students and employees. In addition, managed college-wide advising teams, a comprehensive career and work information center, and strong alliances with support services will strengthen the studentsí experiences and ensure their success.

Information Dissemination

• Coordinate the collection and distribution of information available via cable television, College Wide Area Network (WAN), student database, printed materials, and telephone. An ìinformation support teamî working closely with the Students First! Center will be responsible for ensuring that information pertaining to student administrative transactions, instructional programs, facilities, and services is easily understood, consistent, accurate, and accessible by both students and employees.
• Cable television: Make full use of the capabilities available on cable Channel 12.
• College Wide Area Network (WAN): Establish a coordinated, on-line information system that is accessible to all employees and students, regardless of location.
• Printed materials: Ensure that information about services to students in the class schedule, student handbook, college catalog, and student services department brochures, is consistent and easily understood by students and employees.
• Student database: Integrate student database information to reduce duplicate entry and maintenance of multiple databases. Provide all employees with easy access to student information.
• Telephone: Integrate and make full use of the capabilities of Laneís phone systems. Routinely revise the automated phone scripts so that students have better access to services and information and can use the systems more effectively.

Financial Transactions

• Modify the billing statement. Create an improved statement of charges and credits that is clear, understandable, and detailed.
• Review student charges, payments and adjustments, and cashiering. Regardless of the location of service provided, employees will be able to transact charges, payments and adjustments directly to a studentís account. Move the cashier function to the Students First! Center so that it is in closer proximity to other services to students. Provide students with access to their appropriate records via an account on the WAN.
• Revise policy for extending credit. Students with a current account balance will be allowed to register and charge other services at any time. Students with non-current account balances will be required to pay cash for any services until the account balance reverts to a current status. Internal collection of delinquent accounts will be emphasized in order to minimize referrals to external collection agencies and bad debt write-offs.
• Change Federal Student Loan processing. Create a Student Loan team in the Students First! Center to administer the entire process for the Federal Perkins Loan and Federal Direct Stafford Loan. Determine options for servicing Perkins Loans in order to address the loan default rate.

Enrollment

• Develop a standard admissions application and streamline admissions processing. Utilizing self-service capabilities with the WAN and simplified on-line entry of the master files and/or admissions information, develop one user-friendly data entry format and standard admissions form accessible to all employees and students. Recommend an examination of the inconsistent information and requirements of programs with selective or limited admissions.
• Broaden the new student information session. Create incentives to improve student attendance at new student information sessions in order to enhance student success and retention. Provide alternative ways to deliver information describing new student processes and related policies and procedures.
• Increase access to and revise administration of placement tests. Reallocate resources to expand the location, hours, and availability of employees for administered placement tests. Continue to research the feasibility of computerized placement testing. Investigate opportunities to increase WAN access to testing information and study materials.

Advising, Counseling, and Career Development

• Establish a revised college-wide advising system. Create advising teams composed of counselors, advisors, and instructional faculty and staff to deliver program information and advising and career development services to academic clusters (including outreach and community learning centers), Support and Diversity Services, and the Students First! Center Team. Expand program orientation sessions to include participation of all advising team members.
• Create a Career and Work Information Center (CWIC). Consolidate career and job related services (i.e., Career Information Center, Job Placement Center, Federal Work-Study) and include representation from Cooperative Education and Training and Development. Co-locate all services so that they can share resources and jointly contribute to student success.

Support and Diversity Services

• Create a Support and Diversity Services Team. Students will be served at multiple points of entry to the College. In addition to receiving customized service and support, students can access advising, full enrollment services, and referral for other college services.

Next Steps

The completion of this report marks both an end and a beginning for Lane. The work of the Student First! Redesign Team is now complete, but the hard work of implementation, or ensuring that the improvements recommended by the Students First! Redesign Team really happen, has just begun. An Implementation Team will be working intensively throughout August and September on developing a detailed implementation plan for executing these recommendations.

Lane has invested much energy, enthusiasm, and resources in redesign thus far. Lane now needs to continue the momentum that has been developed toward positive changes in services to students. Before beginning implementation it is helpful to be aware of the factors critical to its success, based on the experiences of other institutions, and to ensure that they are in place at Lane before proceeding with implementation. These success factors include:

• commitment from leadership - the single most important factor to success is the commitment of Lane leadership to change. In fact, the other success factors all depend on leadership to ensure that they are in place, and that sufficient attention is devoted to them. The role that the Lane Executive Leadership Team must play during implementation to ensure its success is described below.
• continuous and clear communication - Lane needs to continuously and clearly communicate to the campus community what changes are occurring, why and when they are occurring, and how they will influence the work of employees. Dedicated time from the Institutional Advancement department toward this end will be critical during implementation.
• anticipation of potential resistance - Lane needs to anticipate where potential resistance to change may occur, and address it before it spreads. Concern over adverse consequences of the changes, fear of change, and insecurity about loss of power and influence are powerful motivators that can seriously impede implementation. Lane has already begun to anticipate potential resistance and to address it through the development of employment security policies. The development of these policies can serve as a model for anticipating and addressing potential resistance early on.
• sufficient resources - Lane needs to commit sufficient resources to implementation. These resources include the dedicated time and energy of many individuals within the organization to work on implementation, training for employees whose jobs will change, adequate technology support and programming time, funding for the acquisition of new technology or upgrade of existing technology, and funding for external resources as required. Laneís limited staffing in the Computer Services area make it particularly vulnerable to not meeting this critical success factor, unless a commitment is made to address this shortcoming.
• willingness to modify policies - Lane needs to be willing to modify existing policies and procedures that may impede implementation progress, despite tradition. Both explicit and implicit policies regarding training, cross-training, work hours, job assignments, technology, communication and the like must be revisited for implementation to succeed. The technology and personnel functions will play a key role in addressing the necessary modifications that may arise, and will need to engage the support of the campus as they do so.