A reception staff member would assist in answering questions and properly filtering students to the different queues in Student Services Central in Newburgh streamlining student traffic in the Advising queue.
A reception area independent from Student Services Central (SSC) in Newburgh that provides clear guidelines for advising and registration is extremely necessary. Students come unprepared and sit waiting for assistance for long periods of time with no direction. It takes more advising man-hours at the Newburgh campus to advise each student because advisors are constantly having to re-educate students on how to look up classes and create their class schedules in order to register. Students expect staff at Student Services Central to advise them and conflicts escalate when their needs are not met. This is all complicated by the fact that students are assigned faculty advisors after their first semester and most full-time faculty are not available at the Newburgh campus. Therefore, students in their 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th semesters look to meet with general advisors instead of their faculty advisors resulting in long lines at SSC.
Also, without reception for advising in Newburgh it falls on SSC staff to make determinations about when and if to turn off the advising queue. Students do not understand that the staff at SSC are not reception for advising and are constantly asking question about when they will be called out, why it is taking so long and why they do not get called in order, etc. It is difficult for staff at SSC to estimate how many more students can get into the Advising queue before the end of the day without putting advisors in a position where they either have to stay past close, or turn students away even after a long wait.
This position would also manage the New START preparation process, that is, print and review New START rosters, and follow up with phone calls for appointment reminders or missing registration steps.
The advising traffic flow in Newburgh needs to mirror the one-stop model in Middletown where Advising is not part of SSC and has dedicated staff to triage and direct students based on their advising needs. |