The Naveen Jindal School of Management last November launched an online student support system called the JSOM Question Desk that has improved the student experience and helped streamline operations.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a seismic shift in Jindal School operations. When the building shut to all but essential workers, tasks that once filled staff members’ calendars — greeting visitors, arranging faculty travel, purchasing, printing documents — were reduced or eliminated. Although students had questions related to navigating the new virtual landscape, their ability to get quick answers had vanished.

“All of a sudden, we weren’t in our offices,” says Dr. Monica Powell, senior associate dean and graduate dean. “We weren’t here where students could find us.”

Traditionally, students would have made appointments with the JSOM Academic Advising Office or tracked down a program director, professor or administrator. Now they had to go online to find answers, but a centralized location did not exist on the JSOM website for this.

Administrators were realizing that many positions within the school had become compartmentalized but every staff member needed to be available to students.

Early in the fall semester, Dr. Hasan Pirkul, Caruth Chair and Jindal School dean, asked his leadership team, “What are we not doing?”

That question helped Powell realize that looking for answers could solve two problems.

“I knew we had people on staff who did not typically address student questions or concerns,” she says. “We also had a service that we weren’t providing for students. We put them together and came up with the JSOM Question Desk.”

She and her staff created a system, processes and procedures for the question desk and put them into action. Staff quickly began fielding inquiries and collecting the answers in a database.

CARE AND NURTURE

Corina Cantua, JSOM advising office director, says that when students join the University, they have a lot of information to consume in a short time. The learning curve involves more than academics.

“The Student Center is new to them; campus is new to them; organizations, departments — everything is new,” she says. “Our office took a big role in trying to give them that type of information so that they would feel more comfortable and get ready to join the UTD and JSOM family.”

“The pandemic has put us in the mindset of having to care for and nurture our constituents,” Powell says, “not just provide them services.” Enrollment increases in recent years have made it more challenging for academic advisors to provide students with information not related to academics, Cantua says.

“The JSOM Question Desk expanded the resources and the people who are knowledgeable and can assist the students with that information,” she says. “That goes for continuing students as well. There’s always something new coming up. The question desk staff either provides them the answers or guides them to the correct department and the correct person.”

SPANNING DEPTH AND BREADTH

Janet Hacker-Collins, associate director of JSOM Undergraduate Programs, works on the question desk. She started at JSOM in the advising office and says that advisors, to be effective, need a pool of knowledge that spans the depth and breadth of the JSOM community.

“Even if I didn’t know the intricacies of financial aid, for instance, I knew where to send the students,” she says. “We gave them the option of where to go, even if we couldn’t immediately give them the exact answer.”

The question desk team takes the same approach. Members have expertise in their respective areas but also enough experience to be able to point students to other resources.

Cantua says they chose the name Question Desk because the name Help Desk is used so much for technical support. “We wanted to make sure that [students] know it’s broader and more general than that. What question do you have? We’re here to help you.”

Powell says the pandemic has forced Jindal School staff and faculty to move beyond their usual thinking about what their respective jobs entail.

That perspective helps improve the quality of students’ educational experiences and will continue to do so after the pandemic has ended, Cantua says.

“When a student is lost, they might not even know where to start,” she says. “The JSOM Question Desk provides that place where the student is free to say, ‘I have no idea who to contact. I can’t figure it out. ’ ”

Questions can range from parking costs to difficult life decisions, Cantua says. Even providing students with a to-do list that helps them make progress can help reduce their anxiety. “That’s what we are trying to do at the JSOM Question Desk,” she says.

IN TUNE WITH WHAT IS HAPPENING

Angela Howard, whose primary role is assistant director for graduate programs in the advising office, works the question desk and says it not only helps students but also helps staff members stay better in tune with what is happening in the school.

“It’s not just us in advising or those in the Dean’s Suite that are answering questions,” she says. “Now JSOM is one JSOM. Not just one group has to provide all the answers.”

Question desk workers, Howard says, gain satisfaction from being able to serve students and confidence from expanding their own knowledge and realizing they can help.

Reaction has been overwhelmingly favorable. In an anonymous survey, one student wrote, “ [I] love this feature, [as] it solves all my concerns in just minutes.”

Another wrote, “I believe that the Question Desk is amazing! It is nice to get quick responses to small questions instead of having to wait for advisors to email back.”

A graduate student wrote, “Norma Rodriguez was extremely professional, helpful, and kind. She answered my questions promptly and was an invaluable resource.”

Rodriguez, a project manager at JSOM, helped put together the system and was the first to field a question during its pilot phase. She and Jaqueline Camargo, an administrative assistant for JSOM’s Undergraduate Programs, worked the desk for two weeks to test its capabilities prior to its official launch. Since then, a team of about 20 JSOM staff members has been fielding questions.

Rodriguez, who continues to put in time on the question desk, says it has been incredibly helpful in providing students another avenue to seek assistance.

“The staff … have contributed to a better student experience in JSOM,” she says. “This system allows students to get answers to their questions quickly while also allowing staff to become more knowledgeable about information outside their roles. This implementation would not be successful without the amazing teamwork from everyone involved.”