Talking Stick - January/February 2009 - 54

38 continUed Assessing Assignments The Right Tool for the Job Canisius College (Buffalo, New York) Alan Pilato, Associate Director of Residence Life Ball State University (Muncie, Indiana) Cindy Miller, Assistant Director, Marketing, Communications and Technology Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) Rose Ellen Davis Gross, Assistant Director of Assignments and Marketing Canisius uses an in-house product that lets students select roommates, and then the roommate groups can rank their housing preferences. At Canisius, the staff learned that in-house software often has an advantage over commercial options. “We worked for 18 months with our IT department,” says Pilato. “We came up with something that fits our process. When we were looking at [commercial] software, we would’ve had to change our systems.” The system takes students through a two-part process. First, students log into the system and create a “team,” with a common team username and password. By sharing the username and password with potential roommates, students add members to their team. After this, students are locked out of the system for several weeks. Then the assignments phase begins as teams select up to 30 preferences for housing during a two-week period. Teams are matched with housing, based on a system that assigns points to students for high GPAs, semesters in housing, class rank, and behavior. Teams with the most collective points are assigned first, to their preferred locations. Incoming freshmen can access the system throughout the summer, so they can form teams with people they meet at orientation. One of the greatest strengths of the system is its efficiency: “It has saved us and the students so much time,” Pilato says. “It has made it a lot better for us administratively.” He also likes the fact that the onus of selecting a roommate is on the student, not the housing staff. “It puts them in control. We’d get hundreds of calls throughout the summer [about roommate assignments]. They take more responsibility for the selection.” 5 Talking STick At Ball State, students use in-house software to search for potential roommates and to select both rooms and roommates. It has been that way for roughly nine years. “I’m not sure if we’re the first but we were one of the first,” Miller says. Such a lengthy partnership requires a lot of cooperation between IT and housing, as the system is enhanced and tweaked each year. “We have a wonderful relationship with our computing services department. They were really instrumental in getting us enhancements year after year.” Constant changes are a part of the process. “You are never sure what you want,” Miller says. Only after the housing department – and the students – go through the process does it become clear what the system should do. Online renewal was so easy and became so popular that the volume of input temporarily overwhelmed the system. In the first year of its use, only students staying in the same room, with the same meal plan, could renew online. Even so, online renewal was immensely popular. The day after the system was launched, the server crashed at 3 a.m. from the volume of requests. Since then, the renewal times have been staggered. One holdover from the pre-online days came at the suggestion of the campus’ legal department. When students first enter the housing system, they are still asked to sign paper contracts. However, that signature holds for the remainder of their time in housing, so subsequent contracts can be handled electronically. Tribuo (Latin for “to assign”) is the built-in-house system that manages all aspects of Clemson’s housing operations, from assignments and roommates to repairs and maintenance. It started six years ago when they couldn’t find a commercial option that fit their specifications. So they, with the IT staff, began a four-year process to write, test, and implement the new system. The work was worth it, Davis Gross says: “It’s easy to use and intuitive.” They can do 1,100 assignments in four hours, and the check-in process now takes 30 seconds rather than five minutes. Tribuo takes care of bureaucratic processes, freeing staff and time for interpersonal interaction. “If we can allow the check-in process to take 30 seconds, then have the residence life staff greet them in their hall, that’s important.” The major problem with the system had more to do with personnel than with the system itself, since those who originally built and maintained Tribuo have moved on to other jobs. Some of the original creators are still in the university system, so the housing department can easily call on them for assistance, but their distance creates a dearth of immediate knowledge and experience.

Talking Stick - January/February 2009

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