Business and Auxiliary Service

 

Assessment

 

FY2005-2006

 

Institutional Mission Reference

The division exists in support of the University’s overall mission by assuring that the service environment supports students, faculty and staff.

 

Institutional Goals Supported

“Bread and Butter” Goal 5 “The University experience.”  West Georgia prides itself as a service provider, responsive to the needs of a diverse campus community.  To accomplish this, the university will provide excellent service throughout the business and auxiliary service units.

 

Intended Objective 1

Provide the highest quality business processes for the procurement of goods and services.

 

Method for Assessing Objective 1

1.      Purchasing Service will conduct annual workshops for departments covering purchasing and travel regulations, bid procedures and inventory control.

2.      Using the results of annual state audits, services will be evaluated using statewide procedures and any findings will be responded too.

3.      Using the State of Georgia purchasing card to gain efficiencies in the purchasing process.

 

Summary of Assessment Data Collected for Objective 1:

1.   Purchasing Services conducted two general purchasing and travel workshops in FY04 to update departments on changes in purchasing and travel regulations and to solicit feedback for improvement. 

2.   FY03 audit resulted in no findings for Purchasing Services.

3.   The number of purchasing card transactions increased to 9766 in FY 04.

 

Purchasing Services was realigned from responsibility under the Controller’s office back under Business and Auxiliary Services in April 2006.  A purchasing manager was hired.

 

Intended Objective 2

Provide a high quality dinning experience for students taking into consideration current trends in campus dinning.

 

Method for Assessing Objective 2

1.      The food service contractor, as well as the university, will survey students on and off the meal plan each semester to benchmark quality and service.

2.      The university will continue to evaluate, through annual facility audits, the condition of its food service facilities and equipment.

 

Summary of Assessment Data Collected for Objective 2:

1. The university’s food service contractor surveys dinning students each year to ascertain their levels of satisfaction with the quality of food, service and from this make recommendations to the University for Improvements.  The surveys were conducted in fall and spring semesters.  The number of respondents for fall 05 vs. fall 04 decreased by 9%.  Fifteen key indicators were ranked by national importance and UWG surpassed the national mean in all except “convenience.”  The number of Spring 06 respondents increased 54% over Spring 05.  Of the fifteen key indicators, UWG surpassed all except “convenience” and “hospitality.” 

In addition, to these formal surveys, survey documents entitled Campus DiningStyles are on file in the Auxiliary office.  Aramark conducted a “Market View” in fall 2005 to determine how Aramark could enhance and improve services at UWG.    The document entitled Market View for University of West Georgia is on file in the Auxiliary office.  Assessment results highlighted a need to better serve commuter students, an enhanced weekend dining service; more service locations in the Quad area; improved customer service training.    

2. The office of auxiliary services and the office of facilities conduct inspections of its food service facilities and equipment on a continuous basis.  From these inspections, funding priorities for improvements are developed and included in the annual capital budget requests for each fiscal year.  FY 07 funding request for $268,462 in new food service improvements has been submitted. 

 

Action Taken

1.      Results of the dining surveys were reviewed by Aramark and University officials.  While all indicators point to quality services being provided, the university is addressing the “convenience” factor by expanding the meal serving times and days of operation.  Aramark is conducting customer service sessions with its staff to improve on the “hospitality” concern.

           

The Market View survey highlighted interests of focus groups who participated.  The most important action taken by the university was to establish a seven day meal plan starting fall 06.  This plan will address some of the concerns of students who were looking for convenience by expanding meal serving time and having a full meal service on the weekend.  The university had to defer any action to improve service in the Quad due to funding and facility issues.  Customer service improvements are constant challenges for any organization and Aramark is committed to making improvements in this area.

 

Intended Objective 3

Provide faculty and students with the instructional resources by maintaining a high quality bookstore with a well-trained staff.

 

Method for Assessing Objective 3

1.      Annual survey to faculty assessing how well the bookstore completed their book orders.

2.      Survey a random number of students each semester looking at all aspects of the bookstore.

3.      Examined current job duties of each employee

4.      Examined the number of books and titles acquired from buyback and from used book wholesalers

5.      Examined store to find high visibility locations for name signs.

6.      Examined current staff training, customer service and services offered.

7.      Examined order processing times and shipping times to ensure efficiency.

8.      Promoted on-line bookstore option to orientation sessions.

 

Summary of Assessment Data Collected for Objective 3:

1.         This new survey will be implemented November and February of each year to collect data from the previous semester.

2.        Shifted responsibility for purchasing and managing art supplies to front of store employee

3.        Increased acquisition of used books and utilized non-standard pricing where costs permitted in an effort to promote value of the used book and save students money.

4.        Received signage from three major soft good providers to promote high visibility locations with the goal of increasing sales.

5.        Customer service training is an on-going process.  Staff is able to answer more questions, improving operating efficiency.

6.        Orders are shipped within 24 hours of placement.

7.        Staff spoke to freshman orientation sessions to increase awareness of the stores on-line web ordering process.

 

 

Intended Objective 4

Provide high quality mail service to campus departments and students having mailboxes.

 

Method for Assessing Objective 4

1.      Annual Mail Service survey to departments and students.

 

Summary of Assessment Data Collected for Objective 4:

1.   No surveys were done in FY 06. However, Mail Service did institute a new process to save the institution postage by contracting with a company to process daily first class mail at a lower cost per mailing.  The estimated saving per first class mailing is $.04 per first class piece.

 

 

Intended Objective 5

Provide enhanced services to students using the campus OneCard program.

 

Method for Assessing Objective 5

1.      Survey students annually on how well the OneCard program is meeting their needs.

2.      Using financial data from the system, determine how best to expand services based on utilization.

Summary of Assessment Data Collected for Objective 5: 

1.  FY 04 utilization serves as the base year for data from which all succeeding years will be assessed against.  Data is collected and on file in the Auxiliary Office.  Students made 30,726 deposit transactions totaling $379,000 on the card.  The system processed 816,650 transactions across the reader system.  Feedback from students indicates that satisfaction of the card office is relatively high.  Request for vending readers in academic buildings are being evaluate to determine if the investment cost can be justified.

 

Intended Objective 6

Provide a high quality summer camp program for contracted groups by providing housing, food and facilities.

 

Method for Assessing Objective 5

1.      Survey each camp program within 30 days of their stay on campus.

 

Summary of Assessment Data Collected for Objective 5:

1.  Each camp director goes through a pre-camp and post-camp interview. Data collected from this allows Auxiliary Services to make adjustments to its camp program.  Improvement in food services was the major complaint in summer 2003 and this has been addressed for the summer 04 sessions.