Students can now easily find how to access University resources in one place online.
The Student Association created a new resource page on its website this academic year, featuring tools like printing features for student organizations, ways to rent study spaces and information on support services, like Mental Health Services and Disability Support Services. SA leaders say the directory should make it more convenient for students to find resources they need.
SA President Erika Feinman said the page is designed to feature links to everything from tutoring programs to the CARE Network.
“We have really found between freshman and senior year there are a lot of resources on campus, a lot of avenues to go through for different things,” Feinman said.
Feinman added that students can compare resources and decide which would be most helpful in their situations, whether it’d be finding out where to print a paper or helping a friend who is struggling academically.
The webpage also features a test and syllabus bank, which is only accessible to students, that includes a database of tests and syllabi from past classes.
The page links to other programs that assist students. GW Listens, a peer support network and hotline, now has its own tab on the SA’s website. This project could be delayed by as much as a semester, but the resource page states that it will open this semester.
At other peer schools, administrators have used strategies to collect resources in one place and make them accessible to students.
Frederic Jacobs, a professor at American University’s School of Education, said American’s administrators work to ensure students are aware of what resources they have and how they can access them.
“Considerable time is spent during orientation making sure students know what is available at the university,” Jacobs said.
In addition to what is provided at orientation, Jacobs said the education school’s faculty is expected to highlight health features to students in their syllabi. Professors at GW include health resources like Mental Health Services and disability services on their syllabi.
The GW Blackboard homepage lists resources, like the CARE Network and the Sexual Assault Response Consultative Team. Last year, then-SA President Andie Dowd successfully lobbied to include emergency contact information on the back of GWorld cards.
Elise Zaidi contributed to reporting.
