ACUI Open Forum

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  • 1.  Main Floor Welcome Desk/Admin/Scheduling

    Posted 05-25-2021 16:04
    I'm looking for any schools that have recently renovated or are in the planning stages to see if anyone made a conscious decision to combine (or not) your Welcome/Info Desk with the Administration/Scheduling/Conference Services offices into the same physical space. Or if you currently have or had a such a setup, I'd love to hear your thoughts on benefits, challenges, opportunities, etc.  Or even if you have any thoughts in general about it. We're looking to consolidate services and have some physical challenges and are thinking that having the Scheduling/Conference Services offices also act as the Welcome/Information Desk could check a couple boxes for us but I'm curious to hear others' experiences and thoughts. Thanks!

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    Jon Burk
    Director, Union & Conference Services
    Baldwin Wallace University
    Berea OH
    jmburk@bw.edu
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  • 2.  RE: Main Floor Welcome Desk/Admin/Scheduling

    Posted 05-26-2021 08:57
    Good Morning Jon,

    At the University of Akron we are in the process of combining our Information Center with our Operations Team. Our Ops. Team has been run out of one of the larger offices in our Student Life office suite. Our Admin Desk will remain in our Student Life office suite and our Ops. Team will be moving down the hall to an area we previously(pre-pandemic) used for our Information Center. Since we have a large office suite for Student Life, it is definitely necessary that we keep an Admin Desk in tact.
    While we are not including our Admin Desk in the new space, we believe that by combining our Ops. Team with our Information Center Team - it will streamline the facility and event services we offer. It will allow us to have a "one stop shop" for anything concerning facilities and/or events and information. We will always have either an Information Center employee or an Operations employee in the new office. We will also be able to have longer hours as we will be keeping it open until 7/8pm in the evening unlike the Admin Desk that will be the standard 8am-5pm.
    Our Admin Desk employees will start to take reservations for events this fall. It's a good setup for us when someone wants to make an in-person reservation and they stop at the Information Center, we can send them to the Student Life suite which is basically right next door. Down the road, we may also look to train our Information Center/Ops. Team in taking reservations.
    I think it is definitely beneficial if you can combine specific areas if you're able to clearly split up the functions/duties of each area. Our biggest challenges will be getting the Ops. Team acclimated to the new area and training some of our student employees on taking reservations. With that being said, we definitely see it as a great opportunity to put our best foot forward in providing the best customer service and facility/event operations as possible.

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    Vaughn L. Myers Myers
    Associate Director, Student Union Operations
    The University of Akron - Jean Hower Taber Student Union
    Akron, OH
    330-972-7274
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