Getting to Know: Student Transition And Registration Team (START)

Q: What is the concept behind the START office?

About seven or eight years ago, there was an opportunity to really look at how Student Services was structured at CSC. At that time we were in the early stages of using PeopleSoft and we began to evaluate other ways we could make the student experience more efficient and customer-friendly. Prior to START, it was determined that a student might need to interact with three to five different offices to accomplish one task. START allowed for a one-stop-shop atmosphere where students could take care of a variety of questions in one place. START works primarily with enrollment, registration and financial aid, however START advisers are trained to answer basic questions pertaining to a student’s admissions status, bill, housing, etc. Behind the scenes, we have processors in financial aid and enrollment. The intention is that START handles the student questions and issues, allowing the processing teams to continue working to maintain overall efficiency for the student. 

Q: What services does START offer incoming and current students?

For incoming students, START serves as the main contact once the student is beyond the admissions stage and has a “Ready to Register” status, meaning he or she is are ready to enroll in courses. We assist students with enrolling in classes, provide preliminary academic advising and work as the student’s financial aid counselor to help them navigate the process of applying for financial aid and having their balances paid on time.

For current students, we continue to assist with course registration, with guidance from the student’s faculty adviser, which they are assigned to about a month after the student begins classes. We remain the sole contact for financial aid related questions throughout a student’s time at CSC.

We also help with submitting change of major, change of adviser, and help students work on course substitutions, navigate their MyCSC account, and read and understand their degree audit.

Q: How does the START office coordinate with academic departments when helping students?

This question is really timely as we have implemented a more formal process for this, which will begin Fall 2018. As a part of the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan and the Advising Model embedded within, we have assigned a START Liaison to each of the six academic departments. The liaison will be the point person for helping faculty and students in that program with changing majors, changing advisers, substitution requests and understanding the ins and outs of the programs within the department. Also, the liaison will attend department meetings and be responsible for helping make sure the advising tools are up-to-date such as the four-year course rotations and advising templates. They are also responsible for bringing back pertinent advising information from the department to the START team.

One thing that is not changing is that any START team member can assist any student with registration. All the START team members will have the training necessary to assist a student in building a schedule. If a START team member has a question about a particular program or department, they can visit with the assigned liaison. It allows for an extra layer of knowledge and we hope it helps to further connect the academic departments and Student Services to ensure a positive experience for the student.

Q: What success stories come to mind when you think of students helped in the START office?

I think one of the most rewarding things we see is when students reach the end of their program and we are able to help them graduate. We have become more intimately involved in this process recently in helping the Records Office complete graduation checks. We look at the students who have applied for graduation, contact them if they are missing anything, and help them tie up loose ends so they still hopefully graduate on time. It really helps us close the loop and is gratifying to see students who started with us four to five years ago, finishing their degree, and we have seen them through START to finish.

Other stories are related to the everyday successes, from finally seeing a student’s financial aid post to their account after we have helped them through some of the many federal aid hoops to having a substitution approved so they can graduate sooner, to helping them find a major they truly love. The best thing is when a student comes in to take care of something simple like adding a class, but as the conversation moves forward, we discover something else we need to address. When that happens we often get comments like, ‘I am so glad I came in to see you,’ or ‘You were so helpful, I never could have figured that out.’ That’s what keeps us coming back to work every day.