The Student Helpdesk team in Student Affairs IT impacts the campus community as the primary source of IT assistance for students. This teamprovides technical resources and support to students through in-person and Zoom drop-in sessions, phone, email, and in-room appointments (for those living in university housing). Over the past year, the team has expanded in several ways, and their success during the fall startup was a culmination of all of this hard work.
In the first four weeks of Student Helpdesk fall services, the team successfully addressed nearly 1,800 service requests, providing direct support to students via email, phone, Zoom, residence hall rounds, in-room appointments, and in-person drop-ins. This amount is nearly double compared to Fall 2022, where the team addressed 958 requests. Student Helpdesk Manager Clark Bilorusky shared, “We were able to reach out to more students this fall. Even if we erased the residence hall rounds, we still did more outreach than last year!"
Here are a few of the new initiatives the team has launched this past year:
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Began hiring new team members monthly and utilizing online, asynchronous training for new hires allowing them to meet the demands of as many students as possible.
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Created a new position, student helpdesk analyst, to ensure quality assurance through reports, customer interviews, audits, and more. Madelyn Sparks, hired as the student helpdesk analyst in July, has been instrumental in providing high-level reports and insights, enabling supervisors to focus more on coaching and genuine interaction with staff.
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Updated team training before fall instruction to be shorter and more engaging, allowing their drop-in support services to begin a week earlier than usual.
Another huge feat this team took on during the fall startup was residence hall rounds. During move-in week, the team split up and went to different residence halls, spending about four hours a night assisting students. Over the course of these six nights, the team directly helped nearly 500 students with Wi-Fi connection and general technical support. This is the first time in years the team has undertaken this task, and it was a tremendous success.
“There were moments during rounds where I went ‘Oh my gosh’- we just did three days of effective training, we started our services early, and I am seeing my staff thrive… they were engaging with customers, having fun, and understanding why we do things the way we do.”
- Clark Bilorusky, Student Helpdesk Manager
New trainees also benefited from getting tangible experience in seeing how to support customers directly. As a whole, student staff members felt the effects of their service to the campus community and found it rewarding to help students from various backgrounds.
“I was very proud to see how many students we were able to help, and to see the impact we had on the student community. I got to interact with so many students and tell them about our services… [such as freshmen, transfers, and student parents]. It required so much planning over the summer to get right, and it ended up being a huge success.”
- Carolina Ternero, Student Helpdesk Supervisor (student lead)
Overall, the team is continuing to expand and explore new strategies for reaching students while also cultivating a culture of wellness on their team. Learn more about the Student Helpdesk and meet additional team members at studenttech.berkeley.edu/techsupport.
Written by Makena Umnas, Student Program Analyst, One IT Student Leadership Program.
This article is part of the One IT Student Leadership Program’s 4th Quarter Report featuring the impact of student teams in higher education.