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Running Head: EQUITY OF ACCESS

Equity of Access for Student Services at Northern Illinois University

Xavier-Thomas Mendoza

Northern Illinois University

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Equity of Access
The Equity of Access for Student Services at NIU

Northern Illinois University is a public university in Dekalb, IL, an hour west of Chicago.

The university holds over 15,000 undergraduates and over 4,000 graduate students (Wikipedia).

With a fourth of the population identifying as graduate students, that means a fourth of the

population have jobs, assistantships, and other personal activities outside of school. And yet,

offices close at 4:30 p.m. This means that graduate students have to find time to schedule any

meeting or student service on their free days, lunch breaks, etc. Although graduate students have

a better chance to be able to manage their schedules, what does this mean for undergraduate

students that may be in school part-time, has personal business they have to attend to daily, or

other situations the average person may not experience. This means that they may have trouble

accessing student services in person like getting an appointment with the Counseling and

Consultations Services (CCS) or meeting with an advisor. As a work-day policy, it is impossible

for professionals to always have extra hours after 4:30 p.m. to be able to help students. So, in that

case, especially with the current Covid-19 adaptations, there should be a service system to be

able to help students past 4:30 p.m. An idea for this could be a new online system separate from

the NIU website.

Primary Focus

The main idea of having a separate affiliated website of online services is so that students

can get tips and primary information on resources they could get connected to. This main website

will have different links and pages that will focus solely on student services and resources for

current students. The reason for having a focused website is because most university websites are

generally catered for anyone. So, this means there are links, pages, and information that current

students do not care for or usually ignore because they are already students. A study by Marzie
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Astani and Mohamed A. Elhindi on university websites supports the idea of a streamlined

website. The study was on the websites of the top 50 universities in the United States. Astani and

Elhindi notes that, “The key to a successful website is to understand the target audience and meet

their needs,” (p. 461). This supports the idea of a separate website would be catered towards

current students and not the general public or perspective students and family members.

Umbrella of Resources

The information available can be as simple as main information, office hours, and

frequently asked questions (FAQs) of each department. Although a simple information website

would not differ much to the current website, one idea to differentiate this idea would be having

the homepage have links of each department that have some type of student service. But, instead

of listing each department, imagine that each department has their department logo as a visual,

then under the logo could list the main links for contacts, department information, FAQS, and

general documents. This way, a student can find the links and information to the department they

are looking for without having to search all over the main website, that sends them to another

page, and so on and so forth. This also makes it equitable for first generation, international, and

post-traditional students to find what they are looking for. According to the University of

Southern California (USC) Dornisife College, “The lack of knowledge of existing resources may

often prevent first-generation college students from fully taking advantage of the academic and

social benefits of higher education,” (USC Dornisife). Which means that on the general

university website, first generation students may not even know what to search for. So having a

homepage with every resource available would be beneficial for all populations as it would make

it easier to see all resources available without having to search for a resource a student may not

know where to find or even exists.

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Student Employment Opportunity

Another feature this website could have would be the option to be able to talk to current

students about questions they may have about resources, student life, tips, things like that.

According to the University of California – San Diego (UCSD), “A part-time job can help you

become a better student and get a jump on your career track.” Which means this employment

opportunity could have many benefits for students. First of all, if students are able to work online

after 4:30 p.m. in short shifts, this would be equitable for students that have work, class, and or

other activities. Second, this will give students that may have to commute home right after

classes, the opportunity to access resources that students who are able to stay on campus and talk

to fellow students about their academics or involvements. All they would have to do is go online

and be able to reach out to a student employee about questions they have. Third, having student

employees for a medium like this would be a great resume builder. Students can learn skills for

digital related skills, networking and this could be a great employment for future higher

education professionals. Especially with employers using different technologies and computer

programs and having requirements to experience with technology, this would be a strong benefit

to a student’s resume. A fourth benefit to this opportunity is the obvious which is giving students

a chance for employment. Similar to the commuter scenario, if they seem knowledgeable about

the their resources and departments, even if a commuter student had to go home, if they had the

technological capabilities at home, they would be able to work for the school while also being

able to connect with fellow commuter students, first generation students, post traditional

students, and other populations. UCSD also notes that, “Studies also show that students who

work on campus are more likely to persist in their studies. Through your job, you'll become

better acquainted with faculty, staff, and other students.”

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Work Study Opportunity

Just like any student employment on campus, this position could pay students minimum

wage or work-study. Giving students an opportunity for work study is important for students

who may need financial assistance for their education. According to Federal Student Aid, over

18 million students applied for financial aid in 2017-2018. Which can be inferred that every

university has a population that needs financial aid to afford attending university. Turning this

employment opportunity as a work study opportunity can give students another way to pay for

school. James Paterson published an article on EducationDive about student employment. The

article noted, “[Federal Work Study] employed about 600,000 undergraduate and graduate

students during the 2017-18 school year, and it makes up a varying portion of campus

employment. It is the largest source of student employment funding for two-thirds of public two-

year colleges, according to NASPA,” (Paterson, 2019). An opportunity like this would be

important to help make college equitable for students to be able to afford college.

Cost

As a new project this will have projected costs. According to an article by Jason Smith

on, “Budgeting for Your Higher Education Website Redesign”, costs can be in the range of

$5,000 – $1 million depending on what an institution needs (Oho). This cost accounts for total

hours needed to complete the project with includes design, coding, media use, and outsourcing.

An estimated quote from WebFX of a website, on a high end of the range, costs $46,000, which

is a lot less than $1 million. Considering NIU already has a running website, hopefully tying it to

the current contract could make the cost be cheaper.

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Shareholders

For a website and program like this to work, stakeholders must be enticed to help the

cause. Board Members of the university, current students, alumni, faculty/staff, and the

surrounding community can be impacted by the website. These stakeholders can be listed as a

pioneer for the website which can place them as a part of NIU’s history. The website can list all

stakeholders’ names on a, “thank you” webpage on the website. This will mean that their names

will be known and appreciated as long as the website stays active. Stakeholders will receive

updates on current progress, impact, inaugural year results, feedback, assessment results, and

presentation on improving the program for the next year to show them that their time, effort, and

money is being used to support the correct program.

Conclusion

This project can be doable and could help with the equity of multiple populations. This

new website could be an umbrella for resources accessible to students at all times, an opportunity

for employment for students to help them boost their skills, their resume, and network. The

website could be another opportunity for work study so that more students can apply for another

way to help pay for their college education. Although the website could cost up to $46,000,

hopefully shareholders will help fund this project and will become a milestone and an important

resource for current and future students.

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References

Astani, M., & Elhindi, M. A. (2008). An Empirical Study on Higher Education Websites. Semantic

Scholar, 9(2), 460–465. Retrieved from

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/afa4/b7409e4fb2e4144ed0ac67276413a84670df.pdf

Federal Student Aid - Department of Education. (2020, February 19). FAFSA® Data by

Postsecondary School and State of Legal Residence. Retrieved April 25, 2020, from

https://studentaid.gov/data-center/student/application-volume/fafsa-school-state

How much Should a Website Cost in 2020? (n.d.). Retrieved April 25, 2020, from

https://www.webfx.com/How-much-should-web-site-cost.html

Northern Illinois University. (2020, March 5). Retrieved April 25, 2020, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University

Paterson, J. (2019, May 9). How colleges' role in student employment is changing. Retrieved April

25, 2020, from https://www.educationdive.com/news/future-of-work-study-how-colleges-role-

in-student-employment-is-changing/554404/

Smith, J. (2019, December 11). Budgeting for Your Higher Education Website Redesign. Retrieved

April 25, 2020, from https://www.oho.com/blog/budgeting-your-higher-education-website-

redesign

University of California - San Diego. (n.d.). Benefits of Student Employment. Retrieved April 25,

2020, from https://students.ucsd.edu/finances/jobs/student-employment.html

University of Southern California. (n.d.). First-Gen & Common Struggles > First Generation

College Students at USC > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Retrieved April 25, 2020, from https://dornsife.usc.edu/first-generation-college-students-at-

usc/what-are-first-gen-common-struggles/