'Survey says': students dissatisfied with campus Financial Services

Although many of the statistics of the 2001 Continuing Student Survey were congruent with the results of previous years' surveys, students' opinions of some aspects of JMU dropped significantly.

The Continuing Student Survey gathers responses from JMU undergraduates about their perceptions and degree of satisfaction with JMU and their personal values and beliefs, according to a release by the Division of Institutional Effectiveness.

This year's survey was administered during class time in late October and early November of 2001 to 2,535 students.

A major area of lowered student agreement with a JMU-related statement involved Student Financial Services. Down by 22 percent, the percentage of students who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Student Financial Services provides prompt service" in 2001 was 32 percent, compared to 54 percent in 2000 and 48 percent in 1999.

In addition, only 30 percent of the polled students agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Student Financial Services directs me to correct area when unable to answer questions," down from 54 percent in 2000 and 50 percent in 1999.

Director of Student Financial Services Linda Combs said changes already are being made to improve customer service. In October, the office underwent major changes, including the hiring of Combs as the new director, she said.

"We have been striving to improve customer service," she said. The office has been cross-training with other offices like admissions and the registrar's office so employees in the Student Financial Services office will have better knowledge of other areas, she said. With this increased knowledge, the employees more effectively can direct students where to go when unable to answer questions.

"I hope these statistics will be better next year," she said.

Senior Meg Craig said she went to the office last semester. "In general, they are pretty helpful," she said. "I had been given a little bit of the runaround in the beginning. Someone said I was supposed to talk to one lady while she directed me to someone else." However, she eventually got the help she needed, she said.

Student opinion dropped 8 percent from the 2000 survey in the area of "electronic mail system." The percentage who responded "satisfied" or "very satisfied" to this item dropped from 88 percent in 1999 and 2000 to 80 percent in 2001.

"We were very surprised by that," said director of Technical Services Dale Hulvey. "We're not real sure what caused the students to drop their satisfaction level."

Hulvey said he intends to talk to the creators of the survey and suggest narrowing down questions next year to address specific aspects of the electronic mail system at JMU, including questions about the e-mail client and the e-mail delivery system, to discover what exactly students are concerned with.

Some students said they are concerned about the times when the e-mail system is down. "I rely on my e-mail for information about classes, homework and tests," freshman Patrick McMichael said. "When the system is down, it irritates me and delays my progress as a student."

Student opinion on the degree of "prompt, courteous service in dining facilities" dropped 5 percent between 2000 and 2001, from 77 percent to 72 percent.

Towana Moore, vice president for Business Services, said these results do not correspond with surveys conducted by Dining Services.

"Every semester Dining Services conducts customer surveys," she said. "The students fill them out, and then they are sent to an independent company that compile ratings based on the responses they receive. Different categories from food quality to customer service are rated on a scale of 5 for excellent to 1 for poor. During the past Fall 2001, the results of these surveys increased over Fall 2000. In the areas of overall service scores rose from 3.98 to 4.06 and friendliness of staff from 4.09 to 4.19. We saw scores increase in all of the 15 categories."

The drop in student opinion evidenced on the Continuing Student Survey was recorded just months after the renovation and reopening of D-hall, a major change in campus dining.

"As for the change of D-hall, we have received positive feedback from students and continue to see a 19 percent to 30 percent increase in students dining in this facility over last year," Moore said.

"Decreases in this (Continuing Student Survey) score may have been attributed to students becoming familiar with the new layout and serving style."

Dining Services continues to work to satisfy the JMU community. "Dining services continues to be responsive to the needs of our students and meets weekly with the [Student Government Association] food committee to address any concerns or suggestions students may have."
Some students' problems with Dining Services involve its meal plan policies. "I know its been complained about before, but the rules regarding punches are ridiculous," freshman Michael Taft said. "A punch should not expire until the end of the week, end of story. We pay for the $4 punches, and when we get no food for one, the school is simply cashing in. At the very least the weekend punch rules should be changed. It's frustrating."

Another drop in student opinion occurred in response to the statement "Library's online catalog (LEO) is easy to use." The percentage of polled students who indicated they agree or strongly agree with the statement was 63 percent, down from 70 percent in 2000, although 63 percent responded the same in 1999.

However, there have been no changes in LEO since last year, according to Dean of Libraries Ralph Alberico. "Probably what we're seeing is changes in the way students look at computer information systems," he said. Students are becoming more used to dealing with systems like Google.com and Amazon.com, so LEO could be looking less like what they're used to, Alberico said. He suggested that LEO might need to change its look to match student expectations.

Junior Chris Gannon said, "[LEO] is not very user-friendly. It's hard to cross-reference stuff."
The library will take part in a national library survey called "LibQUAL+" later this spring, and Alberico said they will see how the results from that survey relate to the Continuing Student Survey.