Daily Egyptian Politics Editor

SIUC is changing the way it does business with its students as part of a plan to boost enrollment, the director of Admissions and Records says.

Walker Allen, who took the helm of Admissions and Records last year, said part of the University’s decision to hire him was based on the idea that he would improve the quality of Admissions and Records’ service to students, thereby increasing student satisfaction.

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Since that time, Allen has been working to introduce a concept dubbed World Class Service as a guiding principle for his office. The idea originated in the corporate world but recently has entered higher education, he said.

His first move in implementing the plan was to evaluate student concerns in a survey, which evaluated a cross-section of 500 students. The department is in the process of improving its operations based on the survey results compiled earlier this semester.

The survey identified areas where students had some sort of problem, but it also determined that overall, the University has a very good level of satisfaction.

That doesn’t mean we don’t need to work to improve in some areas.

In a report containing comments from the survey, one student wrote that SIUC was culturally backward.

It makes me feel like I’m going to some backwoods Kentucky hillbilly school. This place is a hole, the statement says.

However, another student had a different opinion.

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Overall SIUC has been a great experience, and I was surprisingly impressed by the operation and organization of this University, the comment reads.

Information from the survey also was used to develop a graph indicating issues students felt were important and their level of satisfaction with how SIUC handles those issues.

Quality of campus life was not the most important issue and scored a 0.74. However, it had the highest score in the satisfaction category, weighing in at 1.46 on a two-point scale.

Classroom instruction, by contrast, was deemed the most important at 1.51, though the level of satisfaction was 0.84.

Allen said after the survey was completed, his department began to lay a foundation that would make student-oriented changes easier.

I wanted [Admissions and Records staff] to have name tags, and I asked a group of my staff to design them, he said, pointing to the shiny, gold-colored plastic name tag pinned to the front of his sport coat. Now I’ve had three other offices wanting to know where we got them.

It’s a minor detail, but it shows the students we care.

Allen also gave his department the charge of developing a system by which the staff can stay posted on what kind of information needs constant updating and how to disseminate that information to each staff member.

Part of the solution is the development of an intranet computer system, which is partially completed. Allen’s staff members have access to e-mail and are all on a list-serv, or electronic mailing list, to provide constant updating.

Though Allen said his department has barely started to delve into the enrollment issue, the small changes already made have created results. SIUC’s enrollment increased last fall by 45 students, which was the first increase since 1992. In addition, enrollment for this fall also may be increasing.

This year, applications are about 5 percent ahead of the number we had at this time a year ago, he said. We think this trend will continue.