I hope everything is going well for everyone as we move past the mid-point of the semester. As many of you are very aware, our community is experiencing a totally new operating environment this fall as construction on our new home begins. While we were able to do a great deal over the Summer months to enhance the space we inherited from Executive Education and the Executive MBA program (e.g., creating two new tiered classrooms, adding more power outlets in many of our classrooms, etc.), it should be pretty clear to everyone by now that our 'cozier' surroundings still present significant challenges for our community to navigate over the course of the next two years.
To meet these challenges, key staff have been working hard to make sure that we learn about operational issues students, faculty, and staff are encountering and getting the message to the right set of people as quickly as possible. These efforts have involved staff from the School's different support units reaching out to students for additional feedback, meetings between SGA leaders and directors of the School's key support functions, and other 'listening posts' such as the email solicitation all business school faculty, students, and staff received from Associate Dean Kathie Sutcliffe and myself a few weeks back.
The response has been tremendous. We have heard from all constituents about a wide variety of issues ranging from academic services to career services to facilities to food service to information technology.
The most common area for which faculty and students have suggestions is facilities. In particular, the design of the 'off-site' classrooms given to us by LS&A for our BBA core classes presents challenges - especially in terms of sightlines and acoustics. Faculty are trying to minimize these issues by using microphones when needed and modifying pedagogy to better suit the layout of the classrooms. We've also replaced many of the projectors over there in order to ensure better viewing of presentations. Everyone is getting a little more used to this new teaching environment and making the best of it, but we will have to continue to work to find the best possible solutions here - including working with LS&A to find appropriate rooms for our style of teaching going forward.
Here at Ross, facilities issues primarily fall into the categories of 'maintenance' and 'bottlenecks'. Feedback from students and faculty let facilities staff know about everything from obvious maintenance issues such as bathroom messes and broken chair backs to less easily observable issues such as obtrusive fan noise in classrooms and the need to re-program elevators to accommodate new usage patterns created by our move. Many 'bottleneck' issues were also reported - doors not working properly, water fountains during class breaks, microwaves during lunch, and so on. While these may seem like small things, they do add up and our facilities staff is keen to know what can be done to improve the 'basics' around here. They've been busy repairing the fans, doors, and other items that have been brought to their attention, as well as working on new solutions like the additional bike racks recently installed between Ross and the School of Education for use by RSB students, faculty, and staff.
Another area receiving a large volume of suggestions is the food service run by our partner, Sodexho. A number of faculty, staff, and students noted the long cashier lines during peak hours. Sodexho has since added an extra cashier between 10AM and 2PM, as well as new machines in an effort to speed up the queue. Suggestions have also helped make sure we have better hours for the $1 coffee jar and evening students, as well as better signage for everyone. Sodexho is still getting to know our tastes and how best to provide the right varieties of food and beverages, but they are learning fast and we hope they will be an even more valued partner going forward.
A third area on which we received widespread feedback is Computing Services - especially with regard printing and wireless. On the printing front, new software has been installed and CS is monitoring the situation closely. We are also asking faculty to trim down printing requests for their courses to the extent it makes sense to do so. The wireless signal issues are also being diagnosed carefully. In some cases, it has turned out that a community member's laptop needed updated drivers. There have also been cases where laptop 'density' has created signal strength issues, especially in K1310, K1320, and the surrounding study rooms. CS is monitoring these areas for unusual loads and taking action as needed. A longer term issue is to move to a newer type of wireless network, but the migration does need to be considered carefully as many student and faculty laptops are not yet equipped with the latest wireless cards.
I hope the above gives everyone a sense of how our community is working together to identify and resolve operating issues that can bog us down in our efforts to get on with the main academic mission we're all here for. While some of these issues may seem small, they do add up and can really get in the way of the real work in which we're engaged.
Going forward, please continue to let the appropriate support units know when you have suggestions. Here is contact information for RSB's main support units:Academic Services:
rossacadservices@umich.edu
Career Services:
ocd@umich.edu
Computing Services:
helpdesk@bus.umich.edu
Facilities:
facilities@bus.umich.edu
Food Service:
bobcarr@umich.edu
Kresge Library:
kresge_library@umich.edu
Be forewarned that the unit may reach back out to you to work to better understand your suggestion or even to ask you to work with them to come up with the right response! In any case, please do let them know your thoughts and suggestions.
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