Background

Student Services Reengineering (SSR) is part of the MIT reengineering effort, which began in January 1994. From November 1995 to January 1996, the Student Services Redesign Team worked in collaboration with the MIT community to design a new approach to the delivery of MIT student services that would improve their quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. The new approach includes changes to the overall service structure, as well as to the processes and technology. The report detailing these proposed changes and the work of the Redesign Team can be found on the Web site http://web.mit.edu/studentserve/www/.

In April 1996, SRR established a large-scale effort to work with the MIT community to implement the proposed improvements over the next 12-18 months. Called FAST (Financial and Academic Services Transition), the undertaking directly affects processes in the Offices of the Registrar, Bursar, Student Financial Aid, Student Employment, and MITSIS (MIT Student Information System). Indirectly, its initiatives affect the Offices of Admissions, Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs, and Graduate Education, as well as academic administrators in all of MIT's 26 academic departments and the MIT faculty.

Justification

Discussions, interviews and focus groups with over 1,500 people from the MIT community and extensive analyses of process data revealed the following problems and concerns about the current structure and delivery of MIT student services.

Complex processes: Current processes are paper-driven, difficult to navigate, and time-consuming. Information on accomplishing tasks is not easy to find. Students are often shuffled among offices, wasting valuable time and energy.

Lack of institutional leadership and coherent organization: Some student services report to the administrative side of MIT, some to the provost, others to individual departments. These services could all be better managed and could better support MIT's educational mission if their objectives were well-defined and if they were part of a coherent operation.

Poor management of human resources: Because there is no consistent organization in the administration of these services, some staff do not get the leadership and Institutional support that would make it easier for them to do their jobs well and would, therefore, increase their job satisfaction. There is no mechanism in place that facilitates collaboration with other staff around the Institute doing similar or related jobs; that enables them to connect more broadly with people in the MIT community outside of their own department; or that provides opportunities for professional growth and advancement. This results in decreased morale, limited opportunities for creativity and initiative, and less than optimal service. With no consistent job standards or training policies, some managers and staff do not have the skills to manage projects, create change or adapt to advances in technology.

Poor use of technology: MIT is not taking advantage of the potential of new technologies. It does not have a shared database that would provide easy access to up-to-date information for authorized users and that would eliminate both the redundancy of effort that exists now with many separate database systems as well as the confusion that results when they contain conflicting information. A single database would broadly support the decentralized delivery of student services.

Concern for MIT's culture and mission: As a result of these inadequacies in the delivery of student services, MIT is wasting valuable resources--both in time and money--that could be better spent forwarding research and education. Building on the Institute's commitment to this mission, its strong sense of community and its traditions of looking at whole systems to solve problems, MIT can design a better program of student services that would benefit not only students, but the MIT community as a whole.

FAST will address these issues in order to increase service, quality and cost-effectiveness. In addition to specific process changes, the redesign will:

• Restructure the manner in which MIT delivers its student services, through automatic services (those that are performed without any intervention except for the initial set-up, such as electronic fund transfers or notification of impending deadlines), self-services (for example, routine transactions like transcript requests and address changes) and easily-accessible 'generalists' and 'specialists' who can provide the appropriate professional support when students need it;
• Provide a unified, widely available student information system with expanded functionality;
• Create a convenient, centralized Student Service Center staffed by broadly-trained 'generalists.'
• Redefine the roles of undergraduate and graduate administrators within the individual departments. We will provide these staff members with common tools and simplified processes to improve their abilities to provide services. The work and type of services provided by these employees should also become more uniform across the Institute.

FAST also will lay the foundation for future implementation efforts as other Student Services Redesign Teams (such as Co-Curricular Support, Career Assistance, and Orientation) complete their work. FAST efforts in such areas as communications, human resources, Student Service Center, and technology will continue beyond FAST in order to support broader changes in areas related to student services.

Summary of Overall Deliverables

• Overall project plan with major milestones for each quarter through Dec 97 (Aug 96)
• Overall project budget (Sep 96)
• Overall assessment of costs and benefits of improvement efforts (prelim Sep 96, refined Dec 96)

Academic Administrators Network
Institute a professional organization of academic administrators at MIT (Sep 96)
Develop and implement counseling supervision program (pilot in Oct 96)
Create a professional development program for academic administrators (Phase I - Jan 97; Phase II - Spring/Summer 97, Phase III - Spring 98)
Analyze 1) work load, compensation, appointment level, education background, previous professional experience; 2) job satisfaction; needs for improvement (Nov 96)
Propose new models to provide student services in academic departments (Jan 97)
Develop implementation plan for selected models (by May 97)

On-Line Access to Student Information
Provide new on-line student access to administrative services via Athena (Sept. 96)
Investigate and implement other major technologies for student access, which may include electronic signatures, WWW, telephone access, and on-line forms (Spring 97)
Provide on-line (WWW) access for students to view bill and account activity (Sept. 96)

Automated Registration
Automate the subject selection process and integrate this process with academic advising, lotteries, scheduling, catalog/class schedule information access, and seminar/IAP subject selection (pre-registration pilot in Nov 96)
Allow students to commit to MIT regarding their intent to register (RcontractingS) so that they may use student services before classes actually begin
Automate and simplify the process for students to add and drop subjects (pilot for Spring 97)

Automated Academic Requirements
Provide students with wider access to current MITSIS degree audit functionality for general Institute requirements;
Simplify and automate a system that lets students track their progress toward meeting department degree requirements;
Create a single source of information regarding academic requirements

Catalog Submission
Simplify and automate the process to gather, review, and implement curricular changes

On-Line Graduate Awards and Appointments
Phase #1 -- Streamline and automate the process for graduate awards and appointments (Aug 96)
Phase #2 -- Improve reporting features; Provide downloading capabilities (Dec. 96)

On-Line Hourly Payroll
Streamline and automate student hourly payroll processing

On-Line PLUS
Redesign and automate processing procedures for Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS); accept EFT PLUS loan disbursements (Aug 96)

Direct Deposit
Provide students with direct deposit of their student account refunds

Simplified Loan Processing
Consolidate steps in comaker loan processing, create on-demand loan note printing, and improve communication to reduce time between award notification and disbursement of funds

Simplified Financial Aid Processing
Use technology to simplify work processes, which may include reducing incoming paper student information (pilot with Feb 97 transfer matriculants, rollout with freshmen applicants in summer 97), using Relectronic cohortsS to perform need analysis (July 96), linking INAS and MITSIS, and ensuring real time access to data managed by Admissions (June 98)

Best Practice Research
Study, compile, and share information regarding how other universities and companies have implemented services similar to those within the scope of FAST (Aug 96)

IT Mobilization
Align MITSIS with SSR and broaden MITSIS ownership (Sep 96)
Design overall student services information and technology architecture (Sep 96)
Plan high level implementation schedule for technology improvements; institute a systems development methodology for implementation (Sep 96)

Communications
Create ongoing, effective communications using a variety of media and forums
Create new, holistic image, style, and approach for communications in areas related to student services

Human Resources
Plan, create and implement training program to support transition to new processes, technology, and organization
Plan, create, and implement new organization design for the Rhome offices.S The plan will include Bursar, Registrar, Student Financial Aid, MITSIS, and Student Employment and may relate to Admissions, Undergraduate Education and Student Affairs, and Graduate Education Office (design by Oct 96; implement at the earliest in Spring 97, at the latest by Summer 97)

FAST Overall Project Objectives

In undertaking FAST, MIT is aspiring to create a system of student services that is equal to the standards of an MIT education--not only by improving the quality and delivery of these services, but also by increasing efficiency and reducing costs so that more resources are available to support MIT's educational mission. Our students deserve no less. FAST's goals are:

• to create an environment where students have self-serve access to most MIT administrative processes and easy access to personal assistance when they need it;
• to reduce time faculty must to devote to administrative processes, thus increasing their opportunities for more productive relationships with students;
• to improve staff efficiency and morale by providing a work environment that encourages and awards creativity and initiative, that makes it possible for employees who work directly in the areas involved to function in teams that set priorities and solve problems, rather than having to rely on established hierarchies;
• Implement specific performance measures for teams, individuals, and processes. Tie rewards and recognition to these measures;
• Develop a management culture of RcoachesS that supports self-directed work teams, as opposed to hierarchical supervision, thereby facilitating a reduced need for management personnel.

Processing Improvements

• Reduce errors and resulting rework so that error rates, now as high as 15 percent, are reduced to zero percent;
• Simplify processes and thereby reduce processing time;
• Reduce Rwork aroundsS that are a result of inefficient processes (e.g., making cash advances because financial aid cannot be released on time);
• Provide students with timely, and when possible, instantaneous notice of transactions and changes, rather than making them wait several weeks;
• Reduce paper forms, sorting and mailing (XXXXXX thousand per year)
• Reduce need for Rshadow systemsS (paper or electronic); Increase number of OLSIS users to 70 percent of the MIT student body by Dec 96;
• Reduce by 20 percent of student calls to offices for information that is available on OLSIS.

Cost Effectiveness

• Process improvements, better training, more efficient use of the seasonal variation of work loads, and better communication and data sharing should make services more cost effective and, over time, reduce staffing requirements;
• Improve cash flow (MIT will receive funds up to 3 months earlier).

Satisfaction

• Significantly increase student and faculty satisfaction from convenience, simplicity, quality, timeliness, and friendliness of service, which will measured through surveys and customer feedback;
• Satisfy X% of student inquiries or requests at the point of first entry (through the Student Service Center and through improved cross-training among the various student service offices;

• Promote and provide professional development and support so that work is performed effectively and with high level of satisfaction as measured through staff surveys;
• Create more opportunity for lateral and vertical mobility of personnel within student services;
• Improve parity across the Institute in terms of work load and salary for student services personnel, which will be measured by personnel surveys and reviews.

Send comments to fast@mit.edu Mail can be sent anonymously; you need provide your name only if you want to.

Student Services Reengineering Homepage | FAST Homepage

This page http://web.mit.edu/studentserve/fast/www/FAST_Scope.html