This article was featured in the July 29, 1996 issue of "Community College Week".
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For more information contact Linda Waddell, Executive Assistant to the President, (541) 463-5200, Fax: (541) 463-5201, Voice Mail: (541) 463-2313.

If you are like many of my colleagues, you believe that the current organization of student service operations needs to change if we are to be responsive to the challenges of increased enrollment, demographic changes and new technology. What's more, at most schools, these challenges are occurring at the same time as budget cuts. Managing effective student services will require the ability to innovate and to evolve to meet the demands of a changing environment.

During my 20 years as an administrator in community college student services, the focus at many colleges has expanded from providing the essential services that support enrollment programs to providing an array of services that promote student success through development of the total individual: however, the service delivery is relatively fragmented. As a result, students often must seek services from a variety of departments and locations. The services are expensive to administer, and results are difficult to measure. Most services are organized around department or isolated functions rather than around processes, and these services are nor organized in a way that makes it easy to deliver the service through technology.

Many colleges have used technology primarily as a tool to speed up traditional processes-- essentially to duplicate manual processes. This often creates systems that remain fragmented and become redundant. Meanwhile, as our students become more convenience oriented, the pressure to deliver services in new and flexible ways increases. We can either let technology drive our processes or we can take the time to define processes that make sense and then seek technology to help us.

The opportunity exists for colleges to fundamentally rethink and radically improve the processes that make up student services and to reinvent them into streamlined, easily managed and measurable processes that enhance student success. Lane Community College is trying this approach.

In 1987, Lane started automated touch-tone telephone registration. More recently, the college made grades available through the touch-tone system, and added self-service kiosks to provide a variety of information services. As classes and complete degrees become more attainable via technology, colleges also will need to rethink how to deliver student services electronically as well as in person. Why would students drive to campus for orientation or advising when they receive instruction via the Internet?

How do we deliver services to students who elect to attend a virtual college?

One method for fundamentally rethinking and radically improving service delivery is through the use of redesign (re-engineering) tools and principles. Unlike continuous quality methods that support incremental change, redesign methods seek radical change across traditional functional boundaries with the goal of achieving higher quality service and continued or reduced operating costs.

Prior to tackling redesign, Lane initiated a number of college-wide changes that included organizational restructuring, team-building and leadership training, along with significant investments in information technology. The college started its redesign efforts in the spring and summer of 1995, with an assessment of the college's technological readiness to support change.

Also as a foundation for redesign, the college negotiated agreements with employee groups involved in redesign that assured continued employment. The agreements promise the training to help staff develop the skills to perform the new work that might result from change proposals.

The first step in the actual redesign process was to identify the college's core administrative processes. "Services to students" was selected as the first core process to be redesigned, therefore the project was called "Students First!". A Redesign team was formed with nine staff and one student representative. It was charged with gathering information, rethinking student service processes and making change proposals. The services-to-students process was defined as beginning when a student requests information from the college, and ending with the completion of educational goals and the retirement of educational debt.

The Students First! team members, released from their regular assignments for 18 weeks, received training in team decision-making and problem-solving, as well as redesign methodology. External consultants were hired to teach the methodology and to coach the team in the assessment, the synthesis of information and the development of the change recommendations. One important aspect of this effort is that the changes are student-and-staff- driven. Hundreds of students and staff spoke their minds in interviews, surveys and forums. The team also studied industry "best practices"--exemplary practices at other colleges and businesses with a reputation for exceptional service.

The Students First! team has recommended changes to be implemented in two phases. The first, a two-year phase, which will begin this fall, calls for the development of specific areas on the main campus and outreach centers where integrated student services can provide general information, enrollment services, student financial transactions, advising, career opportunities and diversity services. The goal is for students to have more of their needs met by staff organized in teams and able to provide all the steps in a process. The second phase, which kicks in within five years, will create a virtual service delivery, with services available electronically, as well as in person.

These news processes will result in the need for a new organizational structure, new leadership and management styles and a new definition of staff roles. Staff will be organized in cross- functional teams, with some staff serving as generalists and others as specialists. These changes require a significant investment in staff training, human resource and labor contract development and new technology.

To manage effective student services in the future, we must be transformational leaders, able to provide support and vision for the staff to work successfully in teams. Our colleges must become more market driven and listen more closely to what our students need. We will be expected to demonstrate the effectiveness of processes in promoting student success, and, to that end, we in the service areas need to align ourselves more closely with the delivery of instruction.

Finally, we must define our service processes and then seek technology as one tool to help us in their delivery.