- Team Building and Exercise at NSD
- New Students Participate in Service Learning
- HC students learn the trials and joys of dorm life
Hazelrigg Student Union will continue to be updated, thanks to the $50,000 grant from the Armstrong-McDonald Foundation Tuscon, Ariz. The funds will be allocated to a number of services dedicated to student satisfaction on campus.
HC Does Weekends received $5,000 from the grant to fund larger events around campus. The lease for exercise equipment in the Armstrong-McDonald Fitness center, named for the Foundation, was paid for with $40,000 of the grant.
The remainder was used to purchased smoothie equipment and coffee flavorings for the Crimson Cup and salaries for part-time student workers.
The library received two new Wii gaming systems.The HSU lounge has a new flat-screen TV and will soon display two digital message boards for campus activities and organizations. Another message board will most likely display the daily Sodexo menu.
The funds were allocated quickly and Ron Chesbrough, vice president for student affairs, said the grant money has gone toward student satisfaction. The main criteria for the grant from the foundation is to improve student life on campus.
All of these changes are small individually, but they add up to meet student needs and make more things available on campus, Chesbrough said.
Retention is on every college administrator's mind, especially in the current economic climate and Chesbrough has been tasked with maintaining student satisfaction and improving retention. Chesbrough said this year HC student retention, the number of students who return to HC after the first semester or their first year, has improved. HC had a 92 percent first-year student return rate, 1.5 percent above the eight-year average.
Unsure if there is a direct correlation, Chesbrough said that these little improvements like smoothie machines or digital message boards are not a retention strategy. "All of these things are not huge for retention, but all of these things together improve student life and retention."
Gary Freeman, president of the Hastings College Foundation and Judee Konen, associate vice in the office of the president worked on the grant with the Armstrong-McDonald Foundation and on past grants from the foundation.
The Armstrong-McDonald Foundation's headquarters has a direct connection to Hastings. The offices of the McDonald department store chain were based in Hastings and J.M McDonald Sr. funded the J.M. McDonald Foundation. His children took over the foundation and now it is incorporated in Tucson, Arizona. The relationship between the original corporate offices and the Armstrong-McDonald Foundation continues to fund HC student satisfaction initiatives.
The Foundation has helped HC fund many minor renovations that had been put on hold. The major renovation to come is the dining hall in HSU. The contract with Sodexo was renewed to improve student satisfaction and for the first time HC is first in the district for customer satisfaction with overall satisfaction of 46 percent in the division.
The new renovations to HSU add to the responsibilities of Pat McCauley and his staff who oversee the building and its equipment. With recent vandalism, security in HSU is one of McCauley's top priorities.
"We are trying to remain vigilant and improve in that area [security], including attendance and adding a few extra cameras," he said.
Overall, McCauley is happy with the renovations and said he hopes the fitness center gets good use and the coffee shop continues to bring people in.
