246 Church: it's where it's at

DAVID GEST/YH

Laura Perciasepe, TC '04, is a bit forgetful. She has only been at Yale for two weeks, and she has already managed to lose her ID card twice. For this reason, Perciasepe has become "very familiar" with the new ID Center. Located in the basement of 246 Church St., the ID Card Center is the latest office to join an expanding array of University services offered in the building. The Center's move to its new location several weeks ago is the culmination of over five years of work on the University's part.

In 1994, perhaps with students like Perciasepe in mind, University administrators decided to simplify the confusing list of services offered to students, especially undergraduates. In an effort to consolidate disjointed operations, Dining Services, Fiscal Operations, Student Agencies, Student Financial Services, Student Information Systems, and the Registrar's Office were combined into a new Student Financial and Administrative Services (SFAS) division.

SFAS chose 246 Church St. as its home, a building that had housed Financial Aid for nearly two years. The building was renovated floor by floor, with different services coming in as space became available. Perhaps the most important service to move into the Church Street office was the new Student Financial Services Center, which Ernst Huff, Associate Vice President of SFAS, describes as a "one-stop shopping" service. "Before, students would often receive a bill and then call the office that had sent it to them, only to be told that payment was handled by a different office," Huff said. "Now, they can call or visit a personal representative at the SFAS and handle all of their financial needs. The whole idea is to deliver service from the students' perspective."

DAVID GEST/YH The new SFAS building has consolidated Yale's operations.

And what is the students' perspective? Perciasepe complained that Church Street "is all the way down past Timothy Dwight...Once you get past TD, what's the point?" Huff, however, insisted that SFAS tries "to eliminate students going anywhere unnecessary." He explained that SFAS's next goal would be to try to recognize the fact that "students keep different hours." They have been developing web sites that allow students to handle their business at any hour of the day, "at two in the afternoon or three in the morning."

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