Behind the Scenes: Campus Card Office

Victoria Lloyd
Victoria Lloyd, IT Telecommunications Specialist/Supervisor, uses RT to keep operations running smoothly in the Campus Card Office.

You can use your red campus card for purchasing meals, swiping into buildings, printing in the library, and so much more. But have you ever thought about who enables your card to do these things? Victoria Lloyd, the IT Telecommunications Specialist/Supervisor, is just one of the many individuals who work to provide you with easy access around campus. In addition to producing campus cards for students, Lloyd is responsible for making red cards for faculty, staff, and businesses that rent space on campus. She is also in charge of making D-Cards that departments can add funds to, as well as gift cards to Chartwells venues and the UMBC Bookstore.

The Campus Card Office constantly receives questions about meal plans and cards that aren’t working properly. In addition to these issues, Lloyd oversees requests from vending and the Comm-Store. In order to manage all of these areas, Lloyd and her staff must keep extremely organized. Before using RT, the office’s help process involved stacks of paper that could easily be lost. “Because we didn’t have a good way to organize, it was hard to keep track of things like which student ordered a meal plan or who needed to be billed for one,” Lloyd explains. As the student population on campus increased, Lloyd knew the Campus Card Office needed a system that would allow for multiple eyes on each request so everyone would know who was working on what.

DoIT reached out to the Campus Card Office to introduce RT in November 2010, and within one month the system was up and running. At first Lloyd was overwhelmed by RT, since the new system was so drastically different from the Campus Card Office’s previous methods. But once she realized that she could customize the user interface to prioritize and achieve a faster turnaround time, she became a fan. Students also quickly became accustomed to the new system, appreciating the speed at which their tickets were resolved. “Most requests are resolved within 24 hours,” Lloyd says. “And after the ticket is closed, students can go back to review their request if they want to compare it to their bill or if they have the same question later.”

If the new system is helpful for students, imagine how helpful it has proven to be to the Campus Card office. Lloyd and four co-workers all have access to system, and each individual is in charge of different ticket queues. When a student submits a ticket, everyone is notified by email. Upon opening the request, they can see everything from the identity of the student and time it was submitted down to who else in the office has viewed that ticket.

Lloyd prefers the methods of the RT system because it has completely transformed the way her office deals with request. “We can see what tickets need to be worked on and what has already been resolved,” she explains. “It’s easier to manage the workload this way, since we know the volume we’re dealing with and who is in charge of what.” Lloyd also says that the greater organization and accessibility eliminates any confusion if someone is out of the office on a particular day.

One of the most helpful aspects of RT for the Campus Card Office is the ability to create templates for tickets. For example, if you submit a ticket requesting a meal plan change, there is a series of dropdown menus that you must complete asking for information such as the plan you are requesting, the term, and where you are living on campus. “It’s impossible to mess up,” Lloyd laughs.

It is evident that RT makes operations in the Campus Card Office easier, but you may not know that the system makes things easier for students too. Prior to RT, you couldn’t complete certain requests over the phone because it was impossible to verify your identity. However, since RT tickets are attached to your UMBC log-in information, staff members can immediately make requested changes to your account.

Lloyd is passionate about the positive changes her office has achieved through RT, and she enjoys sharing her experiences with others. Since implementing the RT , Lloyd has done a presentation with ResLife to help transition their offices to the new help system as well. In the future, she hopes to expand her use of RT to include REX reports that will provide her office with more information on the students who are using the help system. She also plans to incorporate RT information on the flyer students are given when the receive their campus card, ensuring that the campus community is aware of how to resolve issues more easily.

–Article and photo by Laura Lefavor ’13, Summer 2012