ONE-STOP CENTER OFFERS WIDE RANGE OF ASSISTANCE FOR STUDENTS

As director of the Campus Assistance Center at Southeast Missouri State University, Linda Rabold sees her job as that of a mother, Chamber of Commerce and counselor all rolled into one.

Her job and that of the other personnel in the center is to assist students with their myriad concerns, problems and questions.

"The whole focus of the Campus Assistance Center is to help every student on this campus," she said.

The center was established July 1 as part of a massive restructuring of the university's student affairs division.

The rush began the first day of classes. Rabold recalled "it was a killer day." The center was swamped.

Some of the assistance center personnel were stationed in the bursar's office during the first day of classes to better assist students. "The first day of class is a nightmare," she said. "Everybody is lost."

The assistance center is housed on the second floor of the University Center, but plans are to eventually put it on the fourth floor of the facility in space now occupied by the residence life office.

The residence life office will be moving to Cheney Hall, one of the campus dormitories. Rabold said the assistance center may be in its permanent home by October.

The center staff basically comprises personnel brought together from various campus offices, dealing with everything from international students to minority students.

Rabold, herself, had been a career counselor with the Career Planning and Placement office for six years before moving into her new position this summer.

Besides Rabold, the center is manned by three other professional staff members, two secretaries, two graduate assistants and three student workers.

In addition, Juanita Spicer, the widow of university official Edward Spicer, is volunteering 20 hours a week to the center. Her husband, who served as associate to the president at Southeast, died last year. In his role as ombudsman for the university, he dealt with campus concerns and complaints, many of them involving students.

"It is a brand-new concept," an enthusiastic Rabold said of the assistance center.

In the past, different student services have been spread out among various offices. Now they are concentrated in one area.

"We will be working with international students, off-campus and commuter students, adult learners, minority students, students with disabilities and gender issues," said Rabold.

"Those are our focused areas of programming. If these students have special needs, they can come to our office," she said.

But she stressed the assistance center is intended to help all students. "The campus assistance center is the place to come for information."

One student, Rabold said, called her to explain that she had just had surgery and wouldn't be able to come to campus for two weeks. Rabold said she advised the student to contact her faculty members and send them a doctor's statement.

Disabled students are also being aided by the center. Rabold said she has been writing letters to faculty members in behalf of disabled students, explaining that such students may need two hours instead of an hour to take a test, or to sit at the front of a classroom, or to bring a tape recorder to class.

This fall three deaf students will be attending Southeast. Each is being provided an interpreter who will accompany them to classes.

Rabold said special fire alarm lights have been installed in their Towers dormitory rooms and special keyboard telephones have been purchased for them.

"If they want to go to a program the university is sponsoring, we have an obligation to provide them an interpreter," she said.

As a result of having the deaf students on campus, an effort is under way to develop classes in Southeast's College of Education to train more people to serve as interpreters, Rabold said.

The assistance center, she said, advises students on how to handle particular problems or concerns.

"We make suggestions, describe how things work, give encouragement and sometimes go to bat for a student," she said.

Many students, she said, don't know where to go for help or specific information about everything from academic problems to questions about financial aid.

"A lot of students come from families and from high schools and small towns where people basically took care of them," said Rabold. "Now we are expecting them to suddenly become adults."

She said college students often need a little assistance and advice.

Rabold said the assistance center is not a one-stop student services office, but will direct students to the proper university office to deal with a specific problem.

"We are not going to do anybody else's job," she said. "If an international student has an admissions problem, we will send him to the admissions office."

But, she explained, the assistance center has the time to sit down with students and figure out specifically what they need and from which office.

The center is developing a "buddy" program in which returning students will assist freshman black students, Rabold pointed out.

Helping commuter students is an important task of the assistance center, she said.

Of the university's approximately 9,000 students, only about 2,400 live on campus, she said. The rest are commuter students.

Many of them, she said, never really get to know the campus. "They never get to feel like the campus is home."

Commuter students, she said, are often unaware of what is happening on campus or where to turn to for assistance.

Rabold said the center is considering publishing a newsletter for commuter students.

For now, she said, the staff is hard at work alerting students and faculty to what the center has to offer.