It's a problem as old as Walnut Hill itself: You are trudging up Boston Avenue on your way back from the gym, and the hike up to the Academic Quad is just too much to handle. Where in the past students could do little more than grit their teeth and bear it, there is finally a real solution: enter Dowling Hall through the Police Department on level one, and take the elevator up to the student services center, where the Quad is only a footbridge away.
But Dowling, which first opened its doors in early June, signals the completion of more than just an easier way uphill - the facility marks the culmination of a two-year effort by Tufts' administration to restructure student services on campus. Moving trucks were a familiar sight on campus this summer, as the academic and student life deans, Career Services, Student Employment, the Bursar's Office, Financial Aid, Study Abroad, and the Academic Resource Center relocated to the new facility.
According to Dean of Academic Services and Student Affairs Kristine Dillon, consolidating the offices into one building not only creates a one-stop shop for student issues, but also facilitates interaction between the many different departments that are now housed in the same building.
In addition to the shifting of offices, the old Financial Aid and Bursar's office, have been consolidated into Student Financial Services in order to streamline monetary issues into one office. For the rest of the offices, personnel have been trained to field a variety of questions in order to prevent students from being needlessly transferred from one office to another.
Class teams will be implemented this fall to further organize student services. A new concept in advising, the teams match each year's class dean with a career services representative and a student affairs expert, and the three will work together to deal with issues that are specific to that class.
Dowling also boasts a spacious Resource Library, where students can peruse written material pertaining to studying abroad, potential careers, internships, campus jobs, graduate school, and academic resources. The library will also be used for tutoring through the Academic Resource Center, and is staffed by counselors trained to help students use computer databases to find job listings and internship opportunities.
The glue holding together Dowling's many offices is the centrally located student services desk and its staff of six professionals, trained to deal with a wide variety of student problems and concerns The airport-like design is "the heart of the place. It's extremely useful in making a students' visit to Dowling efficient and painless," said Dean of Students Bruce Reitman.
However, because the move occurred over the summer, the student services staff has yet to be given a chance to test its expertise. Over the summer, the front desk received an average of 500 phone calls a day, and kept the wait time to 21 seconds. But the start of school means that the volume of student visits and phone calls will increase dramatically, and glitches could be discovered in the system.
"I think as we get a lot more people here in person, that's bound to have an impact," Dillon said. "We're going to have some learning curve time. Since we haven't had prior experience, we don't know what will happen."
Dillon emphasized that student feedback will be key to improving the new services setup. A suggestion box has been placed in the lobby of the building, and students will be able to give comments through the enhanced students services website. Already student and parent feedback has lead to one major change. When the building first opened, phone calls were directed to an automated voice answering system, but complaints about the confusing menu and lengthy hold times led to the abolishment of the arrangement.
So far, the student response to the new facility has been positive. "It's a lot more efficient. [The information desk workers] seem very knowledgeable," junior Paul Lanks said. "The only drawback that I can foresee is that you might be transferred to a few different places."
"The student services desk is amazing because you can do anything there," said junior Christine Lao, who has been working as a greeter at Dowling during the month of August. "All the forms you could ever possibly ask for are by the door - you walk in and they're there. Also, if you e-mail student services, they're aiming to get back within 48 hours."
Junior Jonathan Perle, however, was not convinced that the construction of a new facility will cut down on the red tape he feels bogs down Tufts' student services. "The administration thinks that by co-locating the inefficiency, it is going to solve it," he said.
In order to introduce students to the new building, each class team will be holding a reception in which they will describe how Dowling works and offer tours. Seniors are being invited to come this afternoon, juniors tomorrow, sophomores on Thursday, and freshmen on Friday.
