Responses from students indicate that many of the services and resources on campus are underutilized. Given that more than 20 percent of students faced very low levels of food security, but only 7.8 percent report utilizing Paw’s Pantry, many students are facing challenges on a regular basis but not accessing the very service that could improve their situation.
Despite these unmet needs, IUPUI has demonstrated efforts and resources that could help students in difficult situations. Therefore, before endeavoring to create new or additional services and resources for students, university officials would be well served to invest in efforts to increase utilization of existing services.
Approximately 40 percent of students indicated they heard about the services or resources that helped them from their peers while about half heard about these services from university-based professionals, such as faculty or staff. Therefore, university efforts to increase resource utilization on campus should aim to expand and improve the effectiveness of the communication of available resources.
Given that advisors, faculty, and staff are both the most common source of help and the most common source of information about services, these professionals are especially well-positioned to connect students to existing services.
