Page 11 - Campus Technology, May/June 2019

“We’ve really tried to create this to be a hub where our students want to hang out, because we know the more they’re here, the better off
their grades are going to be.”
would invite patrons to make quick stops for checking e-mail or wheel over a whiteboard or two and collaborate on projects.
Bringing Stakeholders in Early
When Hoover, Lowe and Eppinette came back from their library tour, they spent time “dissect- ing” what Hoover called the “good, the bad and the uglies” to create a plan to take to the stu- dent government association. That only made sense since the SGA was backing the use of stu- dent technical fees for the makeover. Those stu- dents were a big part of the decision-making. A student committee of eight, each person repre- senting a different academic area, college or department, advised throughout the planning.
Before the purchase order was put in for the new furniture, for example, the trio held an open forum for four hours on the second floor, provided cookies and punch and walked stu- dents through a presentation on what the newly redesigned floor would look like. “We wanted to make sure there were no surprises,” said Hoover. “We didn’t force it down their throats. Involving them in the process early is key.”
That’s also important for another reason: Hav- ing a place people frequented would feed directly into student success efforts.
“All the statistics and evidence show that the more students are on campus — whether it’s
work on campus, homework on campus, live on campus — the better off their grades are,” explained Hoover. “We’ve really tried to create this to be a hub where our students want to hang out, because we know the more they’re here, the better off their grades are going to be.”
Of course, not everything the students want- ed (24/7 operations?!) was possible. “But where we can be reasonably, meaningfully responsive, we want to be,” added Lowe.
Intersecting Interests
Make Funding Possible
According to Eppinette, the current student tech fee is $60 per semester. That totals just under a million dollars a year. The library also kicked in some reserve money, which Lowe as library director considers a worthwhile investment.
“I think it makes perfect sense,” she said. “The library and IT really have to work together to create the resources that our students need to carry out their learning and their research. If the computers aren’t great, then the students can’t really do what they need to do. If they don’t have powered furniture and technology- equipped spaces, all of our databases don’t mean as much. We also have to anticipate the digital divide that a lot of our students are coming in with. We have to ensure equity by equipping these spaces with technology that
campustechnology.com 11