Student Programs & Activities (SP&A) successfully transitioned back to pre-COVID level operations with in-person events hosted by both Courtyard Café and the Illini Union Board, despite being understaffed in both professional and student staffing. The Courtyard Café hosted 205 events, nearly 47% increase from the previous full academic year. The Courtyard Café re-introduced the RSO Partnership Program, which resulted in seven programs. The co-sponsors included International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS), School of Music, Student Ambassador of UIPD, Hive Society, Phoenix Improv, Spicy Clamato, Bruce Nesbitt African American Cultural Center (BNAACC), Student Affairs, the Bank Sawyer, UIUC Jazz Combo, Hip-Hop Collective, Adam Graboski, Odd Request, Asian American Association, The Girls Next Door, Student band DIS.Cover, Leclerc Andre, Women of Colar and Les Cleviers.

The IU Board hosted 151 fully in-person events with 46,080 students attending during the 2022-2023 academic year which is a 15% increase from the previous full operating academic year. The IU Board’s Enriching Committee also successfully brought in-person lectures back on campus. Two high profile names that were invited to campus were John Quinones (journalist and host of What Would You Do) and lawyer and activist Erin Brockovich. The attendance was 378 for John Quinones. Attendance for Erin Brockovich was just 44, and she spent over four hours speaking with each individual that wanted to interact with her, ask her questions, and take pictures and sign autographs.

The Rec Room was successfully realigned from Student Programs and Activities to Retail Operations and consolidated under one manager overseeing both the Quad Shop and Rec Room. This realignment will result in efficiencies in staffing, inventory, and increased sales. Additionally, the Operations, Retail, and Programming staff worked closely together to develop updated standard operating procedures that guide the day-to-day work of the Rec Room and provide much needed continuity in the event of a vacancy.

The Illini Union Retail Operations served over 686,700 customers at our retail locations by providing required course materials, food and beverage operations, apparel, supplies, and souvenirs in the bookstore, and campus vending operations throughout campus. Overall top line revenue was over $15.1 million dollars at all retail locations.

Illini Union Tech Zone remained the only Apple authorized sales and repair location on campus and offers various IBM compatible computers and accessories. The Tech Zone served 17,815 in store customers with a volume of $2.9 million dollars.

Through a variety of online and virtual stores, the Illini Union offers everything from a latte to textbooks to logo’d items, including special order services, printing production, mailing and shipping services, and more.

The Bookstore hosted a variety of special book signings and offsite sales. Examples include Graduation sales at Memorial Stadium, Qualitative Congress conference in the Illini Union, and David Eggers at State Farm Center.

The Illini Union Parent and Family Programs Office (PFPO) communicated with and provided Illinois parents and families with the tools necessary to develop a productive and supportive relationship throughout the college experience. The PFPO’s goal is to help families develop productive parent and family – university partnerships through our various communication channels, including over 7,500 contacts in the Facebook group and 30,602 households receiving the biweekly E-Updates.

Document Services produced nearly 4 million black impressions, more than 1.3 million color impressions, 21,447 sq. ft. of wide format printing, 2,333 offset printing orders and processed over 735,662 addresses. 

Campus Mail metered 674,715 envelopes and flats for mailing through the USPS, sold nearly 10,000 stamps and shipped nearly 22,000 packages. The return of delivering library books after a 16-month hiatus has seen an increase to pre-pandemic levels, delivering nearly 15,000 pounds of books to campus customers.

Accomplishment #1 - Programming

• Approximately 95% of all contracted talent through Student Programs and Activities (SP&A) were members of an underrepresented population. This more than exceeds the goal of a 50% increase as stated in the 2021-2022 goals.
• The Illini Union Board successfully launched a TikTok account.  A total of 37 posts averaged over 250 likes each, with one post going viral with over 94 thousand likes.
• The Illini Union Welcome Week Committee implemented several changes, including changing the name of the annual Welcome Week to Showcase Week, and intentionally creating a schedule that was designed to drive traffic into the Illini Union throughout the year.

Accomplishment #2 Operations

• Operations Initiated the redesign and refurbishment of the Illini Rooms A/V systems, due to complete 8/16/23. This project is critical to the future success of the Illini Union and its clients. Additionally, a concerted effort was made to replace old, obsolete, and damaged mobile gear, which enhanced our delivery of A/V services in general.
• The Facilities Department initiated and received formal design approval from the Board of Trustees in March 2023 for the $15.2M Illini Union Roof Replacement project.
• Operations continued to support an upswell in demand for in-person events at the Illini Union, Anniversary Plaza, and the historic Quad.
• Operations completed their work supporting the campus SHIELD program as the lone remaining COVID testing site in February 2023.

Accomplishment #3 Retail

• Retail Operations successfully refilled two food court vacancies with popular local restaurants, opening summer/fall 23; Maize and Thai Fusion.
• Implementation began on Day1Access, an inclusive access program, providing course materials to all students in Day1Access courses, on or before the first day of class. Day1Access will lower the cost of course materials to students, increase student success and make it easier for students and faculty as they can hit the ground running on the first day of classes without having to search for books or wait until students make their purchases.
• The Retail Operations staff finalized the Request for Proposal (RFP) for inventory and POS system for Bookstore, Quad Shop, and Tech Zone.  This will allow the retail locations to better procure products, sell more efficiently on the web, and analyze data to make decisions quickly with improved data flow.
• Campus Mail upgraded its mail meters, business software and shipping module. The added capabilities allow us to maintain carrier discounts that have now been lost due to state contracts not being renewed as well as streamlining billing.  Additionally, this can be expanded to assist the rest of the retail units within the Union.
• Campus Mail shipped nearly 22,000 packages for campus departments.   The bulk of FY23 shipping has been acceptance, welcome and congratulations packages. While the expectation was for this to drop off due to more in-person activities, departments have steadily continued sending out swag and other items. February 2023 had the highest number of packages at 4,608.
• Campus Mail continues intracampus mail and metering operations and picks up from all campus locations possible. The ever-changing occupancy on campus continues to be challenging, but the five mail carriers have adapted to the campus’ needs as much as possible.

Accomplishment #4 Human Resources

Staff recruitment and training

• Hired five key staff, including an Event Services program manager, a hotel manager with boutique hotel experience, a hotel front desk deep night attendant, a multimedia technician, an assistant director for facilities, and several key building service worker (BSW) positions
• Hired seven different managers/lead staff for Retail Operations, including Bookstore director; senior assistant director course materials; assistant director vending and contracts; retail manager – general merchandise; retail services manager Quad Shop & Rec Room; retail services supervisor rec room; retail services supervisor Tech Zone.

Accomplishment #5 Website Development

• Developed and launched new websites for the Illini Union, Illini Union Intranet, Illini Union Hotel, and Document Services. These moved to a Drupal CMS and are now part of the Student Affairs and university web templates.

The five main challenges the Illini Union faced in 2022-2023 were continued staggering backlog of deferred maintenance and aging infrastructure of the facility, staff shortages and lack of qualified candidate pools, navigating procurement process and rules and lingering supply-chain delays, and a variety of trends and shifts in retail business landscape coupled with the hybrid/flexible remote work arrangements.

1. The Illini Union’s staggering deferred maintenance backlog remains the greatest threat and challenge to the organization’s success. Current projections indicate no less than $100 million dollars in expenses to simply bring the facility up to modern standards and codes. Despite making manageable improvements of the most critical systems and structures in the short-term, the nearly 85-year-old facility continues to operate with some original systems that are far past their life expectancy. Without the support of a major renovation to address these outdated systems and structures, the Illini Union continues to chip away at the most urgent and critical projects to keep the building operational; however, this is not a sustainable practice for long-term success. 
    
2. Acute staffing shortages and difficulty in recruiting qualified candidates made hiring in many areas a continued challenge. Operating smoothly during extreme staffing shortages was difficult and resulted in several missteps, lower client satisfaction, and created many learning opportunities.  In addition to staff taking on additional responsibilities, working longer than normal hours, and helping where possible, the Illini Union was fortunate to have had excellent support from several extra help staff members who contributed to our success throughout the year. 
    
3. Several Retail departments within the organization experienced major challenges working through additional requirements for software and new purchasing contracts with the average time of nine months to one year to complete the process.  The supply chain continued to improve slightly; however, remained sporadically unreliable, causing over-ordering to protect against disappointing customers. 
    
4. The flexible/hybrid work arrangement resulted in fewer faculty and staff on campus and decreased traffic in some of our retail and food partner locations, as well as for Event Services and Multimedia. This resulted in decreased sales volume for some retail stores, while others experienced increases due to the reduced options available in the Union. Additionally, the decreased traffic meant fewer space and multimedia reservations, and lower revenue numbers.
    
5. Re-filling vacant Food Court spaces was a major challenge as food vendors remained apprehensive, lacked capital and staff to successfully open new locations. Despite exhaustive efforts, the team was able to confirm two new food vendors but remain challenged with backfilling the anchor location and a second smaller storefront.

The Illini Union conducted several formal and informal assessments over this reporting time.

An informal on-going building usage assessment was used to look at daily entry counts, and area building usage. These assessments helped the staff understand how spaces were being utilized and guide decisions to add additional study spaces and justify offering free individual and group study spaces. Below are more formal assessments we undertook:

Illini Union Student Employee Learning Outcomes Assessment (ongoing)

The purpose of the study is to understand the student employees’ working and learning experiences through their employment with the Illini Union. The Illini Union has drafted eight domains of Learning Outcomes to help student employees gain purposeful employment and prepare them for future professional workforce. The eight domains of learning outcomes are communication, customer service, collaboration/teamwork, leadership, work ethic/integrity, team management/organization skills, appreciation of diversity, and personal/professional development. Particularly, we are examining the learning outcomes that student employees gain and improve from their employment.

The data show student employees were confident overall in their competencies (>=4.3) The data showed students felt less comfortable (means below 3.8, ranging from 1 to 5) in maintaining a healthy work/life balance (m=3.8) and manage crisis situations, mediate conflicts and be open to difficult and challenging conversations (m=3.8).

Illini Union Board Learning Outcomes Assessment (ongoing)

This self-reflection assessment is designed for the IU Board members, committee members and committee directors to reflect on the outcomes because of participating in student volunteer organizations. The self-reflection questionnaire includes ten categories of learning outcomes: communication, teamwork, influencing others, research and data collection, critical thinking and presentation, social awareness and cultural understanding, global perspective, integrity, work ethic/time management, and career development and readiness. The data is reviewed by the IU Board advisors regularly to understand the experience of serving in leadership positions and help future student leaders perform their roles successfully.

Summary of results:

The learning outcomes plan was developed in the Fall of 2019 and the data was first collected in January 2020. The surveys were sent out to the Illini Union Board leaders in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023. The data showed student leaders were confident overall in their competencies. (mean>=4.3) The data showed students felt less comfortable (means below 3.6, ranging from 1 to 5) in make a global impact (m=3.6).

Welcome Week Showcase Survey

The Illini Union Board conducted a survey during the welcome week, asking about participants’ experiences. Attendees reported that they found out about the event from signs on the Quad (40%), from friends (25%) and from Instagram (15%). More than 94.5% of the participants stated that they had a good experience and 89% would recommend it to their friends.

Dads Weekend (Fall 2022)

The survey aims to review Dads Weekend satisfaction level and seeks to make improvement for future events. The survey questions include registration process, experience attending events, and overall experience.

• 77.9% of participants stated that they felt connected to the campus after Dads Weekend.
• 89.0% of participants reported positive experience about Dads Weekend. 
• 85.1% of the participants stated that they would recommend Dads Weekend to a friend.

Illini Union Attendee Survey

The Illini Union Board conducted a survey to ask students while attending the Illini Union Board events. Attendees reported that they found out about the event from Instagram (30.2.8%), from friends (27.9.2%) and from Illini Union Board/Illini Union Website (16.2.1%). 65.1% of the participants reported they felt connected with the campus and 68.3% stated the event was impactful. 83.3% of the attendees stated that they had a good experience and more than 90% recommended it to their friends.

Moms Weekend (Spring 2023)

The survey aims to review Moms Weekend satisfaction level and seeks to make improvement for future events. The survey questions include registration process, experience attending events, and overall experience.

• 45.9% of the parents heard about the Moms Weekend event via Parent and Family Programs Office E-Update newsletter; 34.9% from Moms Association Facebook page.
• 67.9% of participants stated that they felt connected to the campus after Dads Weekend.
• 81.2% of participants reported positive experiences about Moms Weekend. 
• 82.3% of the participants stated that they would recommend Moms Weekend to a friend.

Spring Jam Survey (pre-survey)

The purpose of the survey is to collect information about students’ opinions and thought for future Spring Jam. Questions included preferred genre, day/time of spring Jam, food, etc. The top three preferred food are Mexican, fries and smoothies. The top three activities participants would purchase are tattoos, photo booth and Herma.

Spring Jam Survey (post-event survey)

The purpose post-event Spring Jam survey is to understand participants’ experience for attending the 2023 Spring Jam. 49.4% of the participants said that they enjoyed the Spring Jam performance; 48.6% of participants were satisfied with the event and 53.5% would recommend it to a friend.

As the department replaces several vacancies, we continue to be aware of our need to fill positions with qualified management which better reflects the diverse student body and campus community. To help with this, Illini Union HR implemented an interview evaluation matrix to address subjective hiring practices.

Incorporating equity, inclusion, and justice in our Retail Operations is paramount as we continue to develop a diverse variety of offerings through our vendors, especially in ownership.

The Bookstore is working with a local minority vendor to purchase apparel for the upcoming year. This effort has been in process for some time and will launch in FY2024. The apparel will hit a specific customer base and bring new athletic based apparel to campus. 

Retail Operations new hires in FY2023 included over 50% female, and 30% of new hires identify as a member of an underrepresented population. 

The Illini Union continues to follow rigorous diversity, equity and inclusion principles in our hiring practices, new staff training and onboarding, and targeted training regarding specific situations we encounter in daily operations.

The Operations team have used effective de-escalation strategies to address incidents in the past year involving non-affiliated guests in the building, resulting in more favorable outcomes and appropriate resources and information being shared with affected individuals.

IU Board successfully co-sponsored with 14 separate units and student organizations this past year, including La Casa Cultural Latina, Student Alumni Ambassadors, Homecoming Committee, Facilities & Services, Native American House, Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center, The Career Center, Gender & Sexual Identify Resource Center, Star Course, State Farm Center, Illini Union Welcome Week Committee, as well several Registered Student Organizations.  Co-sponsorships/partnerships made up 8% of the total of all IU Board events through the month of May. 

The Bookstore collaborated with various departments (Provost Office, Registrar, Financial Aid, Bursar, Athletics, Illinois Promise, faculty, student government, AITS, Technology Services, Purchasing, and various student affairs team members on campus to bring a new program called Day1Access.  Day1Access is a new distribution model for course materials which should increase student success, reduce costs, streamline distribution, allow faculty to teach day one of the classes as all students will have the required material. See link below for the website.

The Event Services team collaborated closely with the SODA (Student Engagement) office to manage daily RSO reservation requests; the Facilities team likewise collaborated and advised SODA on maintenance and facility upgrades.

The senior associate director led Illini Union’s Green Team on several Sustainability initiatives such as co-sponsoring Green Quad Day in conjunction with campus partners (Institute for Sustainability, Energy & Environment [ISEE] and the Student Sustainability Committee). This staff member continued to participate in the I-CAP Engagement committee as well as advise the Student Sustainability Committee.

The Multimedia team continued to develop a collaborative student multimedia tech training program with the Krannert Performing Art Center/School of Music Theatre Tech program. This supplies us with a steady flow of 1st and 2nd year students early hands-on experience with a wide variety of multimedia technology while providing the Illini Union with a ready source of student multimedia talent.

Document Services and Campus Mail are now more aligned with the rest of retail services within the Illini Union. This continues to be a good fit because all areas deal with many similar issues and processes.

• EF-3 Exhaust Fan Renovation & Remediation
• Rooms 103 [fka Colonial Room) & Room 104 Finish Renovation
• Design of the Illini Union Roof project

Working in conjunction with on-campus partners, a bi-weekly student development training program will be designed that focuses on various student development skill sets and Illini Union learning outcomes. At the conclusion of each weekly Program Council meeting, a short event planning presentation will be presented by members of the Student Programs & Activities professional staff. Illini Union Board Executives, Directors, and general members will receive credit via the Illini Union Board. A fully scheduled training calendar will be prepared and finalized by the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year.

Create a white box for the previously used Amazon locker space with the assistance of F & S and internal team members. We should have our funding by the end of FY22 so we can plan the project with a Spring 24 construction timeline.

Staff working with F&S, developing color scheme, needed table set ups, etc. Timeline for implementation is by the end of the 2024 academic year.