News Briefs | Jan. 26, 2012

Registrar Extends Hours

The Office of the Registrar has decided to implement additional hours to improve availability for the student body. The office is currently open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with new extended hours on Thursday evenings when it will remain open until 7 p.m.

Registrar Colleen Mallet implemented the new hours after careful investigation and planning that she has conducted since her promotion from associate registrar in August 2011. "Over the years I noticed that a Vassar student's body clock is very different from the standard office hours. We have very little student traffic in the morning, with business increasing in the afternoon. Sometimes students call our office and are racing to get here before we close; especially on deadline days such as the last day to add, drop or preregister," she stated.

Beginning last Thursday, Jan. 19 the Office of the Registrar remained open until 7 p.m. It will operate under the extended hours for the duration of the spring semester, excluding Spring Break, as a trial run. Employees will monitor the traffic, both in person and by phone, to determine if students welcome the later hours and take advantage of them. If successful, the Office of the Registrar will operate under the new hours in future semesters. On the first night of late hours, 21 students stopped by between 5 and 7 p.m. The registrar thought this was great traffic for the first night. ‘Students were appreciative and enthusiastic with the extended hours," observed Mallet.

Additionally, Mallet pitched the idea of extend hours to other student service offices to see if they would like to adopt a similar schedule. For the moment, they are taking a wait-and-see approach. However, if the Office of the Registrar receives a good volume of traffic on Thursday evenings this semester, others may join this iniative in the future.

"I hope that students find these later hours helpful. I also encourage faculty to stop by or call with any business we can help them with," Mallet said. "Everyone at the Registrar's Office is excited about this change and opportunity to provide additional services to the campus."

VSA Begins Saturday Shuttle

This semester, the Vassar Student Association (VSA) Weekend Shuttle has changed the VSA Shuttle schedule. Beginning last Saturday, Jan. 21 the shuttle started running exclusively on Saturdays from 3 to 10 p.m.

The shuttle will run each Saturday for seven one-hour loops to its usual weekend stops—starting at Main Building and then the Poughkeepsie Train Station, the Walkway over the Hudson, Stop and Shop Supermarket, and the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall. The last stop back at Vassar each Saturday will be at 9:55 p.m.

Previously, the shuttle ran on both Saturdays and Sundays and completed four one-hour loops. VSA Vice President for Operations Jenna Konstantine '13 said, "Jeff Kosmacher, director of Media Relations and Public Affairs, got me introduced to the system and the idea of eventually transitioning to a Saturday-only run."

The decision to change the schedule was made based on many semesters of data collected by the transportation provider, Ed Gallagher at Leprechaun Bus Lines, about when and where passengers on the shuttle traveled on the weekend route. "His data showed, overwhelmingly, that people used the shuttle more on Saturdays—to the point where we had to turn some people away—and most people used it to go to the Galleria Mall. We decided to change the system to accommodate the needs of Vassar students," Konstantine added.

Changing the shuttle schedule provides students with an opportunity to go off campus on Saturday nights, save the money they would spend on taxi fares, and go to the mall or the movies. The budget for the VSA Shuttle for the whole year is only $15,000 and each day of operation costs around $600. "In addition, by consolidating the hours into one day," Konstantine explained, "the VSA is able to save enough money to extend the shuttle's Saturdays of operation from 6 to 10, effectively extending the run until the end of April. "

In addition to the VSA Shuttle, students can use the Shopper's Special and Main Street City of Poughkeepsie bus lines free of charge because the President's Office will fund student travel throughout the semester.