By Whitney Ransom
As BYU-Idaho rushes to find teachers, seats and facilities to accommodate its growing student population, the University''s testing center is also coping with growth.
BYU-Idaho will expand from 8,600 students to approximately 13,000 in the next five years, said John Dexter, BYU-Idaho testing center manager.
'And we are going to accommodate those students in the testing center with the same number of seats,' he said.
The testing center was affected before the announcement was made that the transition to BYU-Idaho would be made, Dexter said.
University President David A. Bednar asked each department to plan on compensating for the vast influx of students without more buildings.
There is more than one testing center at BYU-Idaho. After 3 p.m., students must take religion, humanities, philosophy, music and family science tests in the Taylor chapel, another building on campus, said Carlene Grover, testing center secretary.
It has been a struggle to find ways to give tests to students. The main testing center seats 210 students and the Taylor seats 60, Dexter said.
'We''re not currently giving out more individual tests. We are however, giving more tests for more teachers,' Dexter said.
The length of time a test is open depends upon the number of students who take a test in a given day, Grover said.
Each day when the total number of tests being taken has reached 1,400, tests start closing at 5 p.m. When that number reaches 1,900, tests close at 3 p.m. The maximum number that can be taken in a given day is 2,900 tests, Grover said.
Another change in the testing center is the way students receive their scores, Grover said.
Until last year students received a printout of their test score. Now that more students are taking tests, BYU-Idaho is using a television and monitor system, similar to BYU''s.
The goal is to save paper, time and wear on printing machines, Grover said.
The new television grade report monitor will save approximately $2,000 per semester in paper and toner, Dexter said.
Some students are unhappy with the new monitor system. It is frustrating because students have to wait to go online to find out which questions were answered correctly, said Lindsey Adams, 19, a sophomore from Anchorage, Alaska majoring in international studies.
'It''s frustrating if you want to know your score. You find out which answers you got wrong, but it doesn''t give you the answer you put,' Adams said.
Other BYU-Idaho students are pleased with the new system.
' I kind of like it because I was always nervous about someone seeing my score if I did bad. Now, it''s more confidential,' said Erin Lowder, 20, a junior from Brigham, Utah, majoring in accounting.
Up until two years ago, Ricks College charged a fee for students to take tests on the last day. They made the decision not to charge because they were budget supported rather than self-supported, Dexter said.
'Hopefully the charging of late fees will encourage students to come earlier,' Dexter said.