Chancellor James C. Schmidt held a roundtable discussion Wednesday, Feb. 17 to introduce The Student Services One Stop – now called Blugold Central Student Services – which will open June 13 on campus.

The meeting was held in the Chancellors Room on the third floor of the Davies Center with every seat filled.

A few of the services students can receive include registering for courses, paying bills and managing financial aid. Instead of traveling between various different offices around campus student can receive these services in one place, according to an information sheet Schmidt distributed during the roundtable

This service will be located in the campus’ Old Library, replacing what used to be the 24-hour computer lab, as well as space the LTS and The Institutional Research Center use.

Last March, Schmidt made changes to the services offered around campus and a task force was put in place to pursue the matter. These plans were made in part for services to function more efficiently under the new annual budget instated by Gov. Walker in July.

Durwin Long, executive director of Blugold Central said the task force looked at what other colleges were doing around the country to increase service quality for students. Winona State University, Minnesota State University and Chippewa Valley Technical College all provide a one stop center to students.

Based on a wide range of inputs from students on campus, it was recommended to make a change and adapt to what other universities are doing.

Long said the chancellor is committed to creating a different physical location for a 24-hour computer lab sometime in the future. The new center will be under construction the next three months and should be finished in time for summer

The Blugold Central Student Services hired new student team members who will undergo hours of training to help students with services over phone, in person or online. There are an equal amount of employees and students working in this office.

The service is being created to simplify experiences on campus for students and to increase efficiency, Long said.

The goals of the Blugold Central Student Services is to improve the quality of services to students and increase operational efficiency, according to the document.

There are five different teams working on this transformation: business process reengineering, front line operations, I-T system integration, space relocation service, and a communication team.

Next year will introduce this new system to the years to come, with hopes of giving students a smoother process throughout the school year, Schmidt said.

“We are hoping to do something for the entire student body,” Schmidt said. “We have great people who are committed to working hard to really make this work and create something we all are proud of.”