Three clicks. That's how simple it can be for CHEP students to find answers to their questions about academic advisement, graduation requirements, clubs and organizations within the College, summer research and internships, study-abroad opportunities and a host of other topics.

"We wanted to create a place where students and faculty could visit one web site and get all their answers within three clicks," says Kimberly Yackoski, CHEP assistant dean for student services and one of the creators of the College's Office of Student Support Services' award-winning new web page. "It's really one-stop shopping."

The office is a resource for all the departments in CHEP. It supports academic advisement, administers academic policies and procedures, maintains student academic records, coordinates recruitment and orientation activities and oversees such events as Honors Day and Convocation.

The web site, [www.udel.edu/chep/osss], went into operation in January and has since won an award from the National Academic Advising Association as the 2002 outstanding electronic publication. The 6,500-member association's goal is to promote quality academic advising to enhance the education of students nationwide. The award will be presented in October at the association's annual conference in Salt Lake City.

Staff members in the Office of Student Support Services have been assisting students and advisers in person and by phone for some time, and Yackoski says the office has a reputation for being accessible and helpful. But, she notes, its services couldn't be available to students and faculty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unless it supplemented its staff with an equally user-friendly web site.

To create such a site, Yackoski enlisted the help of freelance web designer LeAnne M.E. Wilson, AS '95, who worked on the project from her home in Washington state, and Kristine Ritz, coordinator of CHEP's student support office.

The result is a web site containing a wide range of information that is specific to the College, as well as facts and advice that apply throughout the University. With two or three clicks, students can learn how to monitor their academic progress throughout their undergraduate years, where to find resources on campus to help them improve certain skills, what majors and minors are offered in CHEP and who can help them line up volunteer or internship experiences.
A special checklist "for seniors only" reminds graduating students to take care of such essentials as scheduling a final meeting with their academic advisers, ordering caps and gowns, asking faculty members for letters of reference and making hotel reservations for Commencement.

Other topics on the web site, probably more useful to first-year students, include registration reminders and procedures, a map of campus buildings with their abbreviations and a glossary of academic terminology, from academic progress report and auditor to Winter Session and
"Z" grade.

Michelle Smolowitz, CHEP 2004, says she has visited both the web site and the physical Office of Student Support Services many times to check on requirements for her fashion merchandising major and to ensure that credits from a class she took at another university last summer could be transferred.

"I like the web site because everything is there, and it's easy to use," she says. "But, I like going into the office, too, because the people there are always helpful and friendly."

Yackoski says she wanted the web site to reflect that aspect of the office, as well as its goal of providing useful information to students and faculty. "I would like people to view our office as a friendly, warm and welcoming place," she says. "The web site is a reflection of our office as a place where they should feel comfortable and know that they are getting their questions answered."

Other colleges at UD and other institutions are welcome to use ideas from the CHEP site, which also will be accessible through a link on the National Academic Advising Association web site, [www.nacada.ksu.edu], Yackoski says.

"I want other schools to use our site as a resource and not have to reinvent the wheel," she says. "I want them to use it as a model and feel free to borrow any ideas we had. We're all in this together, trying to make students happy and successful."

--Laura LaPonte, AS 2002