“No Crinkles” across USU Statewide

Utah State University Wasatch Region has a new mission statement: “No crinkles.” This region of USU campuses covers Salt Lake City, Orem, Heber and Park City. The statement was created to help students navigate college, which, according to some statewide staff, can sometimes be a crinkly experience.​     ​​     ​ 

 During training, staff at USU Salt Lake were tasked with creating a vision for their campus. David Vernon is the senior associate vice president of the Wasatch and Southwest Regions. His position has allowed him to see how being in campuses other than Logan’s can make accessing certain resources more difficult.   

 “I came up with the vision of, ‘We change lives by degrees.’ It was a pun,” Vernon said.  

 After sharing his mission statement with his staff, campus resource specialist Tatyana Felt and academic advisor coordinator Olivia Lee offered up “No crinkles” to provide a “seamless” statewide student experience.  

 “They told me that their idea was better,” Vernon said. “I was like, ‘I really like my idea, but they’re right.’ It is better, and I like it.”  

 Felt shared some of her process behind helping come up with the idea. She felt their old mission statement was a bit vague, and they wanted something that would help remind them every day what their goal for students is.  

 “The goal is to make the academic journey less crinkly for our students,” Felt wrote in an email to The Utah Statesman. “There are always going to be challenges – academic, financial, personal, etc. and if we in student services can make it a little easier for the students to navigate their college journey, our job becomes meaningful and more gratifying.” 

 USU Logan campus has amenities such as the Office of the Registrar and the Career Design Center. Students who have in-person classes can more easily access their professors rather than setting up meetings over the phone. These are some of the things that can make the experience less seamless for statewide and online students.  

 Vernon first came to USU as a master’s student in Salt Lake in the early 2000s. Trying to get accurate information from advisers and registering for classes was not a smooth process for him.  

 “When you have students, you want them to spend their energy on doing the assignments,” Vernon said. “Figuring out what classes to take and all this other stuff, getting registered — it can be really challenging to try to figure this out.”  

 Vernon went on to share a story he felt was very powerful about a student who was trying to take the ALEKS test, a math placement exam. A student came in trying to take the test after the deadline for it had passed, two days before Christmas.  

 “At first, we were like, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, we can’t do it.’ Then we decided, well, let’s just call the math department and see why we can’t do it,” Vernon said.  

 After calling the math department, they found out it was because the testing center was closed at that point. This being the only reason, the team was able to find someone to come into the testing center to allow the student to take the test despite the deadline. This made the experience smoother for the student. 

 “If you’re involved in higher ed, you understand how to navigate through it. You know the acronyms and the language and who to contact for what,” Vernon said. “For someone coming in from the outside, it’s like someone trying to learn a new language and learn a new system.” 

 Each day, staff is encouraged to reflect on how they made someone’s USU experience less crinkly, for students and colleagues. Felt shared it has been going well so far, and everyone is familiar and mindful of the mission and do their best to uphold it.  

 “We have the mission statement on the wall at the center, and it’s a good tangible reminder of what we are trying to accomplish here,” Felt wrote.