By Jacob Conde
Average back-to-school errands might include shopping for new clothes, getting a new five-subject binder and purchasing a set of blue or black ink pens (which will be lost one by one over the semester).
One of those errands would be a visit to One-Stop Student Services, where students can do things such as pay tuition, health insurance, add or drop classes or even take a tuberculosis test.
One-Stop is being held from April 26 to May 4 in the Wilkinson Center Terrace. The service has been running for two years and each year continues to improve its services.
“In the past, everyone was going all over campus,” said David Orton, campus technology support manager of the Office of Information Technology. “This is just an effort to bring it more together.”
Orton also said students could use kiosk computers and print class schedules and other information free of charge.
Other services include purchasing all-sport passes, obtaining financial aid and getting parking permits.
Jean Bath, human resource representative of the student health center, has worked with One-Stop since it began a few years ago. She said One-Stop goes to lengths to listen to what students want and provide better services.
“This year I think more students are aware of it and taking advantage of it,” Bath said. “It seems like every time they do little improvements.”
One of these improvements is extending how long One-Stop will be running. Last year, One-Stop services were available for only three days in the spring. However, to meet the needs of a large volume of students, this One-Stop will be open for seven days this spring term.
According to Lori Gardiner, an assistant in the associate dean”s office of Student Academic and Advisement Services, 28,000 different students used One-Stop”s services in Winter Semester 2004. Because there are fewer students enrolled in spring than winter, she also said they didn”t expect nearly that many people to go through One-Stop Services.
In addition, students can log onto onestop.byu.edu to check the lines at the different tables. Web cameras placed in the terrace allow students to see the lines for themselves.
So far, however, lines have been under control and students are pleased with One-Stop”s system of everything in the same place.
“I think it”s wonderful,” said Ben Weston, 22, a junior for Sacramento, Calif., majoring in Russian. “I think it”s real simple and straightforward; you can get a lot done.”
“They help a lot of students and we see the results,” said Frencis Karagjozi, a freshman from Albania majoring in finance.
