KCTCS to offer 24-hour call center next year

State community colleges are revamping the way they serve students.

Kentucky Community and Technical College System has launched the first phase of the creation of a centralized 24-hour call center to serve students in areas such as admissions, registration and financial aid every day throughout the year.

The first phase includes visiting each of the 16 colleges to meet with officials in a variety of areas to gather information about student service practices. After the information is gathered, KCTCS officials will determine the best practices for student services and standardize them throughout the colleges and in the call center, said Gloria McCall, the vice chancellor at KCTCS.

Officials will visit Elizabethtown Community and Technical College on Oct. 3 and 4.

McCall said the initiative for the call center came because of an enrollment boom throughout the system, which inundated student services centers at individual colleges. The centralized call center, which will be in Somerset, will help pick up some of that slack.

Students want around-the-clock availability.

“Students more and more are demanding services beyond the 8 to 5 hours,” she said.

When students call the center, those answering will know the student’s name and where they’re calling from, she said. Local people will be the service representatives.

The information-gathering and recommendation phase will likely last until the end of the year, and then soft roll-out will come in the spring to test the service, McCall said. It will be fully available in July 2012.

Blackboard Student Services will operate the call center.

Kelly Cantrall can be reached at (270) 505-1747 or kcantrall@thenewsenterprise.com.