Organizations combine to help serve students
Five formerly separate student service organizations on campus have joined together to form the new Access and Diversity Center.
An open house will be held Wednesday, Sept. 15 from 2-5 p.m. in room 315 of the Taggart Student Center.
“It will provide students and faculty an opportunity to see the changes that have been made and to meet the staff,” said Michelle Bogdan, the director of the Access and Diversity Center.
“The Access and Diversity Center was created to leverage the synergy of what were previously five separate student service offices,” Dr. James Morales, vice president of student services, said. “Combined under one umbrella unit, these offices can now better serve students by working as one aligned entity.”
Morales said the idea for the Access and Diversity Center stemmed from a similar organization he created while at the University of Minnesota. When he interviewed for his current position with USU President Stan Albrecht, he brought it up as one of his ideas that would help the university grow and develop.
This new organization brings together multicultural student services (MSS), veteran services, non-traditional student services, educational outreach, and the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and ally (GLBTA) services.
Each of these organizations has a lot to offer students, and this change is going to make things better, Bogdan said.
Once they had the go-ahead from university administration to form the Access and Diversity Center, the committee took the idea to students.
Bogdan said it was important to have their support for the changes that were going to be made.
“Even positive change can be unsettling,” she said.
“Each of the separate units were already providing excellent service to their respective target group of students,” Bogdan said, “but students can now expect an even higher degree of service because the center’s staff will be cross-trained, student groups will be interacting more and resources will be shared and thus brought to bear on needs and opportunities in a much more focused way.”
Morales said the Access and Diversity Center will benefit the university in four main ways.
The first is that it will increase visibility of the five organizations.
“Individually, they may be easy to miss,” he said, “but combining them makes it a more collective opportunity.”
Second, forming this group will create synergy, he said. It will combine the expertise from across the university, forming an even stronger group.
“We selected the most talented and experienced staff,” Bogdan said.
Morales said the new model will require staff to reach across their particular responsibilities to support students in other areas.
The third benefit to the merger is that it will increase funding for everyone, Morales said.
“It allows us to leverage the money we have. Pooling the money will give us strength to use it better and more effectively,” he said.
The other huge benefit is that it will increase opportunity for interaction both at the university level as well as globally, Morales said.
“In effect, the center will allow for new efficiencies and even better levels of student service,” Bogdan said.
Student services refers to the old organization as the “separate silos” model, and it wasn’t working, Bogdan said. Morales said it wasn’t supporting students to the best of the organizations’ capabilities.
The office has created an internship program and there is scholarship money available to students in all five of the services, she said, which will create more opportunities and outlets for students.
“Our goal is to instill a sense of stewardship and leadership in students,” she said.
“A lot of students may come in to the center not really knowing what they need or where to go,” Morales said. “Everyone in our office is well-equipped to help students the best they can. It’s a one stop shop.”
Bogdan said the key is knowing the right questions to ask.
“We chose very strong people,” Morales said, “and that is a key benefit.”
Hopefully other universities will realize the benefits of a program like this, he said.
“Utah State University is a leader,” he said. “This shows our commitment to students and our leadership in regards to access and diversity.”
–megan.allen@aggiemail.usu.edu