Although OneStop, the student help center, has been in operation since August, it celebrated a grand opening ceremony and ribbon cutting on Thursday.      

Besides the simple benefit of having a place for students to go with questions, Student Government Association President Matthew Conklin said it holds other, harder-to-see benefits.

“I think from the big picture, OneStop will help increase retention at Wichita State,” he said. “[It’s] a minor detail having a significant impact.”

WSU freshman Alec Landreth said he used OneStop to figure out his parking situation.

“I haven’t used it for anything it could actually be useful for,” he said with a laugh.

Conklin said that the freshman class will benefit the from OneStop.

“OneStop directly addresses issues of students feeling overwhelmed,” he said. “New students are very fortunate to have this.”

OneStop specialist Lisa Hansen said students can get all questions answered at OneStop.

“From there, we can either hopefully answer that question based on the knowledge we’ve built, or we can have them go to the specific department,” she said.

Hansen said OneStop will actually send a student’s contact information to a department, which will then connect with the student.

“Instead of running around to a bunch of different offices, it allows students to have one centralized location to start, at least,” Hansen said.

OneStop claims to be able to answer about 80 percent of student questions online, on the phone or in person through their office. The other 20 percent is where the other departments come in.

For students not on campus, OneStop also offers 24-hour online live chat and phone services.

“[OneStop is] streamlining the educational experience,” Conklin said.

OneStop can be found online at www.wichita.edu/onestop, on the phone at (855) 978-1787 or in person in Jabara Hall, room 122. Their hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.