AS booth offers students place to go with questions about campus

By Will Morelli

A campus like Fresno State can make a student feel like a spot of dust in an expanding universe.

It’s tough to keep up with the numerous locations on campus and the dates for every single event.

There aren’t too many people on campus who are willing to help students find out when the next financial aid meeting is or where to sign up for intramural sports.

But now those with questions and concerns can head to the Student Information Booth to have their problems solved easily by the booth’s volunteers. The volunteer staff is made up mostly of Associated Students senators and students doing community service.

Located in the Free Speech Area, the AS-sponsored booth has been available to students since the beginning of the school year, although the concept has been around for much longer.

“ The idea came from a model that is used at Texas

A & M,” AS President Neil Gibson said. “This idea was brought to me by a university professor, Dr. [Warren] Kessler, who has seen the need of this for years.”

Built over the summer by Senator of Agriculture Sciences & Technology John Williams and students Ryan Patterson and Mike Terra, the booth was set-up as a way of helping those with questions or concerns.

“ [Students] have all kinds of different questions,” said Matt St. George, one of the volunteers at the information booth. “[A woman] was wondering if an organization was putting anything on in the Free Speech Area at a specific time. I couldn’t tell her for sure.”

In these cases, when a volunteer is unable to answer a question, the volunteer will tell the student to write out the question and slip it in the mailbox at the booth. The volunteers will then research the question and get back to the student as soon as possible.

But with numerous materials in front of them, including binders of information, a school catalog, fliers and information from clubs, and a school phone and contact directory, student volunteers are prepared to answer any question.

Questions the volunteers have heard this year have ranged from the locations of computer labs to where to buy sports tickets to directions to certain buildings.

In addition to asking questions in person at the booth during the 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday-Friday volunteer period, students can leave questions in the mailbox or send an email to studentinfobooth@yahoo.com.

The cost of the booth, materials and labor came out of the “New Programs” line item of the Associated Students budget, money AS gets from student fees.

“ The students directly paid for this booth,” Gibson said. “I think this is a great reason to utilize the service.”

Volunteers estimate that anywhere from five to 20 students stop by each day to ask questions.

Even though there doesn’t seem to be a lot of knowledge of the AS service on campus, Gibson said he feels the booth is a great start and that there is a potential to do more to help students. “ There is no other place on campus where a student can go and get help,” Gibson said. “In order for this to be a true success, what we really need is for more students to know about it, and use it, because it is there for them, and it is a very valuable resource.”