Students can get their student records, financial aid and tuition services all in the same place starting in the spring of 2020.
The Texas One Stop for Enrollment Services center will offer the student services of the Office of the Registrar, Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid and Student Accounts Receivable in one place, said Jennifer Love, director of the center. These three offices are currently located in separate parts of the Main Building and Student Services Building. While those offices will remain operational, the services for students will all be located on the first floor of the Main Building.
"This is transformational," Love said. "Having a space in (the Main Building) dedicated for students to be served with exceptional levels of service, it is truly at the heart of what we have been imagining as services for students."
Love said the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost trained financial aid office staff on records, tuition and financial aid because these employees will be transferred to the new office upon completion. Love said the provost's office is also working to build an official Texas One Stop website.
"(The Texas One Stop) is reimagining and transforming the services for the students," Love said. "We are creating a new Texas One Stop website that is completely redesigned for a student to take care of certain tasks quickly and easily."
Project Management and Construction Services has not finalized a budget for the project. Linda Tsai, a project manager with construction services, said the estimated cost is going to be around $4 million. Tsai said construction should finish in January and staff will be moved in by the end of February.
Tsai said the crew tore down walls in part of the first floor of the Main Building where the Office of the Registrar used to be located.
"It is going to make a big difference to how the ground floor looks," Tsai said. "We are going to have really pretty glass doors into that space, and it is going to open up that hallway a little bit."
According to the blueprint plan, conference rooms and a furnished waiting room will be located in the first floor of the Main Building. The center will also contain a quick-stop booth for pick-ups and service questions and another booth for more detailed questions. Students will check in on a queuing system, so they will not have to wait in line, Love said.
Love said this is part of the initiative to help students in the center of campus. Psychology junior Meghan Leeves said she had to hike all across campus to find the right offices when she needed to collect her student records for a job application. She said she walked to the Office of the Dean of Students, the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid and the Main Building.
"It was miserable and very sticky," Leeves said. "I walked well over a mile altogether in hundred-degree heat. Being able to have financial aid and registrar in the same place would eliminate a lot of unneeded time spent walking all over the place and make things a lot less stressful."
