Brandyn Krampert
In Motion Staff Writer
A central concern at the Board of Trustee’s meetings at Daytona State College this semester has been to increase student retention in preparation for the performance-based state funding model, put into effect next fiscal year.
But an unlikely related topic is Late, last month, Interim President Thomas LoBasso pointed to the things the College has done in attempts to improve such as getting feedback from text message surveys from students. The last survey was conducted in April that showed 89 percent of respondents rated customer service as good and excellent but only 20 percent of the people who received the survey responded.
Photos by: Justina Newman / In Motion
In their report, LoBasso said, “They said we have good bones but there certainly were some issues with processes, with communication versus what happens.”
The board approved a contract with Tampa-based marketing firm, Orange Theory to create a customer service program for DSC. The president of the company, Trimeka Benjamin has roots in Daytona. She’s a graduate of Bethune-Cookman University and worked at NASCAR in their marketing department for 6 years from 2001 to 2007.
Interim Vice President of Student Development, Richard Pastor, who’s handling the deal said that Benjamin will conduct a presentation to the board later this year to show them the company’s vision.
Some of their clients include companies like Seaworld Parks & Entertainment, Southwest Airlines and St. Petersburg College.
LoBasso characterized the move as becoming the “magic kingdom of higher education” drawing parallels to Disney. But LoBasso mentioned thatheavy student involvement is essential
for a development of such a program.
In other news, Vice Chair of the Board, Forough Hosseini gave an update on the presidential search committee proceedings, which she is part of. The committee put together an online survey on their website seeking more public participation that was available through April 30.
Hosseini said that the survey in conjunction with the listening sessionsheld earlier this spring at each of the campuses will help serve as criteria to find a new president as well as better inform the committee whenever a search firm is hired. The results of the survey will be shown to the Board on May 28.