The University of New Mexico's Institutional Support Services (ISS) has announced the launch of its new website, CampusExperience.unm.edu. The new website was developed with beginning Lobos in mind, bringing together important information about services they will depend on throughout their entire UNM campus experience – services like student housing, campus dining, parking, shuttles, and more.
“It takes more than just great professors and dedicated learners to graduate thousands of students from UNM every year,” said Chris Vallejos, associate vice president of UNM Institutional Support Services. “Students need suitable classrooms and study spaces, places to park their vehicles, housing, food, course materials, and even electricity and water.”
UNM Institutional Support Services (ISS), which is comprised of 16 service departments, is the University's division dedicated to providing the infrastructure and services UNM relies on so it can operate much like its own city.
ISS departments work together to provide the University's housing and restaurants, transportation system and parking services, bookstores and ID cards, golf courses and Broadway shows, building maintenance and landscaping, real estate development and campus planning, utilities and more.
Traditionally, students receive information on some of these services during UNM’s in-person New Student Orientation (NSO) programming. However, in response to COVID-19, NSO moved from the traditional in-person setting to a new virtual orientation format this summer.
While the new, online orientation format offers more flexibility, students and parents are now allowed to choose the content they want to engage with, making it is easy to miss or overlook critical information and important deadlines like housing application deadlines and parking permit sales dates. New students may not know they need to seek out information on some of these services, like how to save money on course materials.
Before the new campus experience website was launched, students had to seek out the important deadlines and information on the various departmental websites, if they didn’t sign up for the departmental presentations during NSO.
“Many of our services are interrelated,” says Vallejos. “Before this site was developed, it was difficult for students to make the connection between UNM’s Freshmen Requirements, like the Freshmen Residency Requirement and the Freshmen Meal Plan Requirement, and the student housing and meal plan options available that meet those requirements. This new site brings all of this information together in one place, to help students navigate the policies and understand their options.”
Additionally, while students attend the new online orientation sessions, The University is still working to implement COVID-safe guidelines and develop plans for operating safely in the fall.
“This new campus experience website allows us to post live updates about what to expect from our service departments in the new environment,” said Vallejos. “as new guidelines emerge and our departments develop comprehensive plans to safely provide these critical functions in the fall, we can communicate the latest developments in real-time, all together in one place.”
The ISS leadership team encourages students and parents to attend the various departmental webinars offered during summer orientation. However, if new Lobos are short on time, the new Campus Experience website, located at http://campusexperience.unm.edu, provides a short guide to making timely and important decisions about the services they will depend on throughout their entire UNM campus experience.