University staff discussed new functions that will be added to BlueStar at the Jan. 24 Student Government Association’s (SGA) general body meeting. The primary goal of the BlueStar redesign is to add functionality and support students. 

University Registrar Michael Wright and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs Caryn Chaden explained that Bluestar, a tool used to communicate and schedule appointments with academic advisors, will be updated to include a “Help Center.” 

Under BlueStar’s current system, most students opt to speak with their academic advisor who may have to redirect their questions to another department. The “Help Center” will streamline this process.

“Students will not need to guess what office can assist them with a problem,”  Wright said. “Their questions will be routed to the right office for a timely response.”

Chaden said this change will not take away from the personal relationship between students and their advisors. Rather, she told SGA during the meeting that the Help Center will give students broader connections in addition to their relationship with advisors.

Wright also said BlueStar will now include “knowledge articles,” which aim to give students one central place to search for specific articles, instead of searching various department websites.

Frequently searched knowledge articles will be displayed in this area of the redesign. Wright and Chaden cited FAFSA deadlines and billing information as examples of knowledge articles that may appear in this section. These articles will be based both on what students frequently search for and what information the administration deems useful to the student body. 

 “We look forward to releasing these improvements as a way to continue to elevate the services we provide students,” Wright said. 

At a later date, a university-wide chat function is planned to be rolled out to accompany the knowledge articles. The chat feature will allow students to seek help from related departments. 

“There were many offices across campus that were involved in this implementation and the communication and coordination needed was extensive,” Wright said. 

At the Help Center, students can also file a support request. To ensure a swift response from the related department, Wright said the new program will continue to ping administration until a reply is sent to the student. 

“I am cautiously hopeful we as students will be able to access more timely, responsive support from the university,” SGA President Parveen Mundi said.

The roll-out of these new functions is currently scheduled for March. 

“Students will receive email notifications as we approach the go-live date,” Wright said.

“There will also be a Newsline article later this quarter that will have more information about the coming change.”