Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

University of Northern Iowa--Students--Services for--Case studies; University of Northern Iowa; College students--Services for--Iowa--Cedar Falls--Case studies; College students--Services for; Students--Services for; Iowa--Cedar Falls; Academic theses; Case studies;

Abstract

Every student who attends a college or university will use at least one of the following offices in student service before they graduate: academic advising, admissions, the business office, career services, financial aid, or the office of the registrar. The literature has shown that a number of colleges or universities found through assessment that their services were organized in a way that was cumbersome for the students. A new approach to student services, referred to as an integrated student service center (ISSC), or a "one-stop" shop, is designed to allow students to access answers, solutions, and knowledge from a central location. The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) adopted the approach in 1999 and opened the Follon Student Services Center in August of 2004. The purpose of this qualitative study was two-fold: first, to determine the reasons why and how the center was implemented and second, to create a historical documentation of the redesign of student services at UNI. Interviews with eleven administrators and departmental staff, one focus group of six students, and 41 written documents provided information that was used to better understand reasons behind choosing an integrated model of services for students. Six themes emerged from the data analysis in regards to the implementation: overall, this was a very successful implementation, integrating departments increased rapport between staff, the research and assessment was a valuable tool during the preparation and planning, more communication with student, staff, and faculty was needed, strong leadership and support was essential during the implementation, and using technology to integrate services was also very important. The six themes are explained in detailed within three categories: preparation and planning, research and assessment, and communication. Recommendations within the three categories provide an interpretation of the successes and areas that needed improvement within the implementation at UNI. Documenting the process leading up to and the rationale behind the implementation of the integrated student service center at UNI can provide others insight as to how they might create their own integrated center. Also included are a number of suggestions for future research.

Year of Submission

2005

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership, Counseling, and Postsecondary Education

First Advisor

Michael Waggoner

Second Advisor

John Henning

Third Advisor

Calvin Phillips

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2005

Object Description

1 PDF file (111 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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