By ADIA REYNOLDS
Tiger Media Network
For Fort Hays State University students living in residential buildings, when issues arise with those spaces, there is a process in place to submit a work order to resolve the issue.
In theory, the process of submitting a work order is painless. Posters plastered around the halls of residential buildings on campus insinuate this as they outline the steps an individual should take if they run into any issues.
- Go to the Residential Life Web Portal
- Click ‘login’ or ‘FHSU student login’
- Log-in with your TigerNet username and password
- Click ‘maintenance requests’
- Click ‘new work order’ and begin your maintenance request
(information provided by the FHSU Department of Residential Life)
Director of Residential Life RJ Schnack, affirms all the information available online.
“When a work order comes in it goes into our Starbite system, then it’s assigned to a technician,” he said.
While the software being used is new for this academic year, this method of problem resolution has been in place longer. However, some limitations within the system have caused some students to experience difficulties in getting their work order requests rectified.
Ainsley Green, an honors student living on campus for the last two years, has had three instances of putting in a work order request that took longer than expected to resolve.
“The A/C in the building broke last year. Work orders flooded in from people across the building, but it took them weeks to address the issue,” she said. “When one of our laundry machines broke, I tried to put in a work order but the system wouldn’t allow it because there was no option to select the laundry room as the location of the issue.”
Green also had issues with the lock on her room malfunctioning.
“At the beginning of this year, the lock to my dorm room broke. It wouldn’t let me into the room even though I had my ID because the battery had died with little to no warning,” she said. “I had to submit three separate work orders before the problem was fully resolved. On top of that, there was no way of knowing if or when the repair technician would be stopping by.”
There are a number of reasons that explain the complaints lodged by residents. According to Schnack, there are always more work orders at the beginning of the year when students are just returning.
“The average right now, during a slower time of the year, is about 15 work orders per day…Not all 15 take up a lot of time,” he said.
Schnack said with only about five full-time employees and three or four student employees, it can take time to work through each work order. Some can be resolved in an afternoon, while others, such as stair repairs, can’t be resolved until the summertime.
For those students encountering difficulties getting work orders fulfilled, Schnack recommends students check the comments left on the work order, or email him directly. He can be reached at rcschnack@fhsu.edu or srl@fhsu.edu. Additional contact information for residential life employees can be found here.
At the end of the day, Schnack “advocates for students to put in their own work orders.”