LBCC’s Student Support Services and Associated Student Body are partnering up to change how students spend their time in line with an app called, Q-less, which will focus on reducing the amount of time students spend waiting in line.
In the most recent financial aid back-up during the beginning of the fall semester, Dr. Mike Munoz Vice President of Student Support Services wants to change the way students wait in line.
“If you think about the current experience at Long Beach City College, when you need to go to certain places at certain times in the year, the lines can be really unbearable,’’ Munoz said.
“At the start of the school year there is going to be long lines, I think people expect that but we wanna do a better job at creating a student experience by getting students out of line,” Munoz continued.
Student Support Services has partnered with Q-less, a company that specializes in reducing the amount of time consumers spend physically waiting in line.
With no exact date, Munoz hopes to have this service be available to LBCC students for the spring semester.
During the initial stages, Admissions and Records, Financial Aid, and Cashiering will use this platform when school is in session. Counseling and the Viking Card ID services will use it when the college is on break.
Eventually, Munoz wants to incorporate other college resources such as Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) and Disabled Student Services and Programs (DSPS) during the second phase of the program.
“With the Q-less platform, students will be able to either through our website, downloading an application, or finding designated kiosks on campuses, we will have places where students can join virtual lines,” Munoz said. “Even from devices at their own home, they can join a line or join multiple lines at any given time and be told what the estimated wait time is.”
The program will not eliminate lines altogether or change the wait time. A text message alert will notify students when to return to the line to be served by staff members.
“The virtual line will change the student experience, it won’t necessarily reduce the wait times. It will not feel like you are waiting. It puts a lot more control in the students to really kinda help manage that line so it doesn’t feel like you are waiting,” Munoz said.
For LBCC, the goal of this program launch is to allow students to do more while they are waiting in line.
Alex Backer the co-founder of Q-less has partnered with other educational institutions.
“We work will hundreds of partners including well over a hundred colleges. Just in the California area alone, we work with: the University of California, West LA College, Santa Monica College, Fullerton College, and many others,” Backer said.
Students can join a virtual line by entering their cell phone number to receive text notifications of when they will be served or by entering their name. The app is available on Google Play and the App Store.
Students will be able to see wait times for both campuses and will have the option to visit either one. If students join the wrong line, staff members will have the ability to move students virtually to the correct line, so students won’t have to wait longer to be called.
This new service is costing the school $20,231 but no additional fees will be passed down to students.
Amber Florance Sollenberger, ASB Secretary, hopes that the Q-less app will change the current way students wait in line.
“It’s pretty inhumane that people have to sit outside and if you get out of line because you are hungry or thirsty you lose your spot in line,” Sollenberg said.
Sollenberg knows that community college students have other obligations and hopes that this service will allow students to relax a bit since they won’t have to stress about physically waiting in line.
Students will be informed when the service goes live with emails and social media posts.