Building student support to facilitate change

Purpose: In fall 2016, California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) students voted to increase their own fees in order to help fund 24-hour study in the library. How did we get to the point that students were willing to... [ view full abstract ]

Purpose:

In fall 2016, California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) students voted to increase their own fees in order to help fund 24-hour study in the library. How did we get to the point that students were willing to spend their own money in support of the library? This presentation will describe assessment’s critical role in developing a strong relationship with our university’s students.

Design, methodology or approach:

For over a decade, the campus-wide customer satisfaction survey showed
students’ largest dissatisfaction with the library was its limited hours;
but, little progress was made in solving this problem using conventional
approaches. We changed our approach in 2013 to incorporate assessment
evidence and strategic planning more effectively in decision making. In
particular, we no longer saw assessment as a monolithic, linear process.
We developed a strategy using multiple assessments and pilot studies
combined with incremental improvements in an iterative process. However,
we hadn’t anticipated how the new strategy would also enrich and deepen
our relationship with our stakeholders -- students in particular.

Findings:

We have succeeded in increasing library hours by 30% in three incremental steps over the past three years. The campus-wide survey tracked our progress as, first, weekday hours and then weekend hours showed improved student satisfaction. However, the surprising side effect of our new approach was the increased involvement and buy-in from our students. The more we asked, the more students were interested in answering. We believe that this was largely due to making the library’s process to increase hours more visible to students, in part, by making changes shortly after asking for input and then communicating the changes in a variety of ways.

The increased input from students made it clear that, while they were pleased hours were better, what they really wanted was 24-hour access – a goal that was still out of reach with the traditional funding available. At this point ‘buy-in’ from our students became literal. The university’s student government approached the library with a unique proposal to include funding for 24-hour library access in their proposed student fee increase. The student body showed its willingness to investment in the library by passing the fee increase in fall 2016. The library will begin 24-hour operation in fall 2017.

Research or practical limitations or implications:

Our strategy of small, targeted assessments and pilot studies made it easier for students to see the results of their input and feel a sense of participation, especially if the library made concrete changes shortly after asking for student suggestions. We believe this strategy helped demonstrate to students the sincerity of our efforts to listen to their concerns. It also helped us deal with the ultimate practical limitation to improvements in user services -- funding. By developing closer relationships with key players, such as students, we were able to find alternative sources of support to move our objectives forward.

Conclusions:    

We found that attempting to use a large, ‘complete’ assessment instrument in planning changes was too slow, unwieldy and limited in its ability to solicit student input. The more we asked questions and showed some results, even if only partial, the more students showed interest in participating in library assessment, volunteering their opinions, and, ultimately, in supporting the library.

Originality and value:

We weren’t expecting students’ feeling of ownership to increase to the extent that they would voluntarily help fund our final goal of 24-hour access. Our strategy showed the value of using multiple follow-up surveys and pilot surveys, which, while less complete that a comprehensive survey, achieved the important goal of creating ‘dialog’ with students. Making and advertising rapid, incremental improvements based on student data may have also made the library’s progress appear more visible and contributed to the development of a positive working relationship with our students.