Consultants aim to improve campus

Outside consultants from Tennessee have been hired by Cal State Long Beach's Blue Ribbon Task Force and are currently taking gathering data on students' needs on campus.

The Innovation Network, a higher education consultant firm based in Brentwood, Tenn., will work closely with the task force to collect data for the next few months from various students and focus groups. The data will provide insight on how to improve the campus. The network is represented by Tara Singer, a consultant with the firm.

The task force was created in the fall to gather student input on how to improve services on campus.

Karl Anatol, provost and vice president of academic affairs and the head of the task force, said that the consultants have taken over in the process of collecting data.

"They are out there crafting the questions and asking the questions of various focus groups, (such as) student needs at the various windows and counters and desks of the university," Anatol said.

"What's good about this is that we have objective outsiders coming in and asking questions perhaps we have never asked before," Anatol said. "In times past, when we thought something was wrong, we went ahead without any extensive insight. Now, whatever adjustments we make will be on the basis of what our students are telling us that they need."

Data collected by the Student Needs And Priority Service and recently released in a survey that was created to reflect student needs at CSU campuses, should have an impact on how the task force and consultants will go about finding their needs, Anatol said.

"We are trying to analyze and assess data," he said, "and that information is valuable."

The SNAPS survey showed that CSULB had low rankings in such services as parking and also ranked below average in quality of instruction and the learning environment, with the exception of course work.

Singer said that CSULB students and faculty are not the only ones that have been surveyed.

"We have been interviewing prospective students at high schools and community colleges, finding out what their impressions of Cal State Long Beach happen to be," Singer said. Some questions asked of these students include why they select a college and what is important to students in terms of selecting a college, she added.

Singer also said that one thing that CSULB could do to recruit students is to explain to them that students who come from this institution with a degree end up getting good jobs.

Singer said that surveys have been given to random CSULB students, asking their opinion on several services that are offered on campus. She expects that after spring break, walk-in surveys will be given to students at various offices around campus asking to rate services as well.

Interviews with non-returning students, such as students who have dropped out after the fall semester, will be conducted over the telephone, Singer said, to get information on why they dropped out and what experiences they had at CSULB.

Singer said CSULB has much potential that has yet to be realized.

"(CSULB) has an abundance of resources that need to be better tapped into. It has so much going for it and I have a hard time understanding why students don't select the university."

Anatol said that the task force has spent $50,000 out of the $150,000 that they were allocated from the CSULB state budget.

Singer said that they expect to give their report on the surveys sometime in May.