In a sea of 70,000-plus undergraduate and graduate enrollees, Rutgers University–New Brunswick students who require Student Accounting, Billing, and Cashier Services’ (Student ABC) assistance will get the individualized help that they need in a faster and more convenient fashion than ever before. That’s thanks to the fall 2021 launch of Rutgers–New Brunswick’s One Stop Student Services Center, says Anthea Jeffrey, MBA, Associate Controller of Student ABC.
“The vision was to encompass information on financial aid, student accounts, and registration in a dedicated place where students know that they can get service in all of these areas,” Jeffrey said.
The size of Rutgers–New Brunswick’s student population and the prevalence of inquiries related to financial aid, student accounts, and registration—three topics for which students most commonly seek support at college campuses around the nation—prompted the university to establish the One Stop Student Services Center, which Courtney McAnuff, vice chancellor of the Division of Enrollment Services at Rutgers–New Brunswick, called a “major leap in the customer service experience for students” in an interview with Rutgers Today.
The One Stop Student Services Center, McAnuff added, is part of Rutgers’ University Strategic Plan to improve the student experience, and the personalized attention afforded to each student during the Student ABC assistance experience is key to this endeavor, Jeffrey told University Finance and Administration.
“When students walk into the center, their names are on the service screen. This makes them feel important; they know they are going to be taken care of,” she explained.
This is just one aspect of the dramatic operational change to how students customarily sought the aid of Student ABC in the years that preceded the establishment of the One Stop Student Services Center. Prior to the launch of the One Stop Center, students frequently faced long lines at Records Hall on the College Avenue campus, where cashiers and other personnel fielded student questions and requests for help related to Student ABC’s focus areas: charges and credits related to tuition, fees, housing, dining, payments, financial aid credits, tuition remission, and Student Health Insurance Plan premiums.
Following a permanent transition to Busch campus that began in 2019, Student ABC is now co-located in Dr. Samuel Dewitt Proctor Hall in the One Stop Student Services Center, which consolidates Student ABC with Rutgers–New Brunswick’s Office of Financial Aid and Registrar’s Office is outfitted with self-service stations; a queueing system that allows students to sign in and populates their information for their assisting student services advisor; and consultation spaces for students, should they need further assistance. The services offered by Student ABC in the spacious new center are complemented by remote support options that allow students to “accomplish the same things as if they were taking a bus to come to the building,” according to Jeffrey.
“We've used the pandemic as a great opportunity to continue the virtual Student ABC services that we have provided to students during 2020. They still got the same level of service as if they were physically in person,” she said, citing video chatting with a student or family as an example of a remote service that Student ABC extends to the Rutgers–New Brunswick student community. Students are also able to digitally submit inquiries to the Student ABC team online via Rutgers–New Brunswick’s One Stop Portal.
The One Stop Student Services Center welcomes walk-ins from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Friday
