Reservations desk to undergo changes

A new software system will end the backlog that has stymied student groups’ attempts to… A new software system will end the backlog that has stymied student groups’ attempts to reserve rooms.

In order to reserve rooms for meetings and events, student groups have to make reservation requests to the desk on the Main Floor of the William Pitt Union. But the current system causes extended waits — sometimes weeks long — as well as overlap, in which the same room will be reserved by multiple groups. SGB Board member Gordon Louderback decided to start a pilot program, beginning this summer, to help ease the process of reserving rooms.

“The current software is primarily designed for the registrar’s office to use academic space,” said Associate Dean and Director of Student Life Kenyon Bonner. “It is much different than student groups reserving rooms for events. The software wasn’t designed for student groups, and the limitations of the system have become obvious.”

Kate Malekoff, a senior who helped Louderback take action with this initiative, said the new system will make the process of reserving rooms “more streamlined.”

“The system we have now is so divided that it can be really hard to make sure that you’re not over-reserving. The implementation of the new system will make things clearer, and that will be a huge help in itself,” Malekoff said.

The reservation system currently in place is run by software called R25, which lists the all the rooms and buildings within the University. A student can request a room through the software online, and workers at the reservations desk will confirm whether or not the room is available through email.

Louderback, who campaigned in the fall on the initiative of reconstructing the reservations-desk process for student groups, said that oftentimes the requests accumulate too quickly for people at the reservations desk to keep track of them. When this happens, multiple groups can request the same room and not know whether they will actually have the room for another two weeks.

Bonner said that thousands of requests are made for room reservations each year. From July 1, 2010, through May 1, 2011, the reservations desk received more than 8,000 reservations, including requests from student groups, faculty and administration.

“One of the biggest issues is just the fact that you put in a reservation and you have no idea what’s going on for the next two weeks,” Rainbow Alliance president Tricia Dougherty said.

Dougherty said that the current system forces groups to put in reservations for rooms a semester ahead of time.

“For this semester’s meetings, we put in the request [for the room] last October. But if you want a speaker, which cannot always be planned, there are a lot of issues,” Dougherty said.

She said Rainbow Alliance has had to reschedule contracts with intended guest speakers on quite a few occasions because the club could not reserve a room on time. This happened with guest speaker Lt. Dan Choi, who came to campus in October to speak about his fight with the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law that restricted LGBTQ individuals from the military until its repeal last year.

Such problems inspired Louderback to take action. He arranged meetings with Bonner and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey to talk about his concerns with the current system and figure out a way to implement new software that will make the room-reservation process more efficient.

Louderback said that the new system will have a “pending requests” function that will decrease backlog. If a room is available, a student will be able to see that and reserve it based on that information.

The software will not only decrease the reservation backlog, but it will also provide a virtual set-up of the rooms. This way, students can indicate through a computer the way the want the space in their reserved rooms set up for their meetings, instead of writing out detailed directions.

Louderback said that all the aspects of room reservations — from catering forms to table arrangements — would be taken care of with the new software.

“The software will give you the proper information based on what room you select,” Louderback said.

Bonner would not comment on how much the new software would cost.

Malekoff said she thinks the new system is definitely necessary.

“I think that the changes that are going to be made for reservations will be better for students and administration,” Malekoff said.

Bonner said that the new software would allow the University community to reserve space in the most efficient way possible and that this coming summer would be the best time to begin the new process.

“When you’re implementing any large software program, you definitely don’t want to implement it mid-year,” Bonner said.

The reservations office will take advantage of the summer to implement the new program. Bonner said the staff can use those first few months to get used to the new software. If all goes well, the new software will be used in the fall for all student organizations that want to make room reservations.

“We’ll use the summer term to implement it, when traffic is lowest and the staff can use it without the hustle and bustle,” Bonner said.