Twin Cities updates (December 2014)

Destiny One: non-credit system
The contract is signed and work has begun on implementation of early adopters. A full one week boot camp was conducted in November by the vendor in preparation for implementation.

In ASR-IT it’s Upgrade! Upgrade! Upgrade! 
System testing near complete and the team continues assisting with UAT and performing end-to-end testing. Other than a PeopleSoft bundle being installed in December for financial aid, everyone is fully engaged in The Upgrade!

Transitioning of responsibilities

The transition of two key responsibilities were recently finalized between One Stop and the Office of the Registrar (OTR). These include the transition of the transcript hotline from OTR to One Stop and the transition of the graduate non-degree registration process from One Stop to OTR.

Important Dates

• Fall Term ends 12/18/2014
• Holiday schedule is; 12/25 Holiday, 12/26 Floating Holiday, 1/1/2015 Holiday,  1/2 Floating Holiday
• Spring Term begins 1/20/2015

Comings & goings 

Long-time staff members, Margo Mueller and Gary Andersen will retire from the U of M on Monday, January 5, 2015. We wish them the best of luck as they embark on their new adventures!

Wrap up of Higher One Financial Literacy Grant (TC)

Live Like a Student (LLAS) concluded programming sponsored by Academic Support Resources and a Higher One grant on December 15. In addition to the yearly Welcome Week presentation to all incoming first year students, LLAS was afforded the opportunity to sponsor a budgeting competition and complete interviews with 23 students in financial literacy topics.  Information collected in these interviews will be used in future promotional materials, as well as in designing new and improved outreach opportunities to connect with students.

Update on new One Stop staff model (TC)

It has been six months since the implementation of One Stop's new service model featuring Customer Relations Representatives (CRR’s). One Stop currently deploys 15 student workers as CRR’s to answer general customer questions on the phone and in-person at our St. Paul location. We are pleased to say that customer feedback regarding service provided by CRR’s has been overwhelmingly positive. CRR's will be a vital asset in One Stop's preparations for The Upgrade transition period.

Student Experience Preview sessions (TC)

One Stop has been sharing how The Upgrade will impact students by presenting Student Experience Preview sessions to staff that work with students, including advisers and other student services/support staff. One Stop has completed eight sessions with approximately 250 total attendees thus far. Additional dates in December and January were added based on feedback that November and early December are very busy times for advisers. In addition to these sessions, a handful of other sessions at collegiate staff meetings have been completed. Feedback has been very positive including: "Extremely thorough and informative."; "Great overview of what new system will look like."; and "One of the best ESUP sessions yet!"

Rochester updates (December 2014)

Updates  

• One Stop completed two Student Experience Preview sessions with approximately 40 staff members in attendance. Feedback was very positive from staff stating that the new MyU Portal “...is visually appealing and will streamline how students access information across systems”. 
• Jeremy Todd and John Vollum visited UMR on Tuesday, December 9 to introduce instructors to the new MyU Portal and the Faculty Center in PeopleSoft.

One Stop to implement Salesforce
One Stop will be onboarding to Salesforce early January. The new functionality will allow One Stop a case management/logging process to better serve our students.

Important Dates

• Fall Term ends 12/18/2015
• Holiday schedule is; 12/25 Holiday, 12/26 Floating Holiday, 1/1/2015 Holiday,  1/2 Floating Holiday
• Spring Term begins1/20/2015

Kudos 
Parry Telander, Interim Director of Student Development, has been selected to receive a scholarship to support his participation in the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Assessment Institute in February 2015.

Morris updates (December 2014)

APLUS update
Morris has entered into the business process review and design status phase for the potential implementation of APLUS. This involves examination of  the current use of Pharos and re-imagining how its current  functionality could be accomplished and even enhanced in APLUS.   Morris staff have taken a very diligent and considerate approach in examining what additional information and awareness APLUS may bring to the campus community. The APLUS project managers from the Twin Cities campus have mentioned that some functionality that the Morris campus has requested would benefit  many current APLUS subscribers and is excited about these possibilities.

Media Collaboration Table 
UMM is in the process of setting up a new Media Collaboration Table as a common learning space. The Media Collaboration Table is a table with an attached digital display where students can connect their laptops or other devices to it. This will help students collaborate on group projects and will enhance the digital learning spaces in the library.

Important Dates 

• Fall Term ends 12/18
• Holiday schedule is; 12/25 Holiday, 12/26 Floating Holiday, 1/1/2015 Holiday,  1/2 Floating Holiday
• Spring Term begins 1/12/2015

Duluth updates (December 2014)

Implementation of Salesforce
UMD One Stop went live with Salesforce on October 27. To date, service has been provided to over 2,000 student walk-ins. Financial Aid has been the bulk of the visits with Forms, Submissions, and Student Records coming in second.

Upgrade update
UMD is wrapping up the four Student Experience Preview sessions with approximately 140 staff attendees with two more sessions scheduled for January and February. We’ve received great feedback and our staff appreciate the ability to see the student view. Next up—in-person CCS training and scheduling Learning Labs for our users. Also, we are participating with User Acceptance Testing.

Important Dates 

• Fall Term ends 12/19/2014
• Holiday schedule is; 12/24, 12/25, 12/26, 1/1, 1/2
• Spring classes begin on 1/20/2015

Kudos
Sarah Hatfield, UMD's Curriculum and Transfer Specialist, has been invited to join the CollegeSource Client Advisory Board for 2015-16. Way to go, Sarah!

Comings & goings

• Sharon Witherspoon from UMD One Stop Student Services is retiring after 24 years of service. Her last day 12/31/2014. Please wish her well.
• Temporary change in reporting lines for Business Services, Facilities Management, Department of Human Resources and Equal Opportunity, and the Police to support UMD Vice Chancellor for Finance & Operations, Mike Seymour's leave of absence.

Crookston updates (December 2014)

MyU Sneak Peek  
On December 3, the Sneak Peek on the student portal was presented to faculty and staff. It was well received and individuals appeared impressed with what students will now have available.

ESUP preview 
On January 15, 2015, an Upgrade Preview Session will be hosted in the Bede Ballroom. Each of the key areas (Financial Aid, HR, etc.) will have a booth to present at and answer questions. This will be scheduled during the Campus Commons time so that no classes are scheduled. The preview session is open to the campus.

Maxient is live
On December 3, Maxient went live for tracking academic dishonesty and faculty can now complete and submit an electronic form. Because it went live during the last few days of the semester, it was only 15 minutes before the first submission took place.

Positive feedback for ASTRA
ASTRA was used for the first time to place spring 2015 classes. On November 24, we had a meeting with all academic department heads to receive feedback (the schedule had been posted for 3 weeks by then), and feedback was positive. There were naturally a few bottlenecks that needed to be resolved and a very small number of classes will need to have the preferences adjusted. The academic departments were pleased with the end results and are now evaluating the many reports that ASTRA can provide.

Update on APLUS  
APLUS has now been live for one full semester. We have received several positive comments on how excellent it pulls information and presents it. Faculty and staff are now starting to actively post notes as they begin to feel more comfortable with the many options.

Important Dates

• Fall Term ends 12/18/2014
• Holiday schedule is; 12/25 Holiday, 12/26 Floating Holiday, 
• 1/1/2015 Holiday, 1/2 Floating Holiday
• Spring Term starts 1/12/2015

Kudos 
A special thanks to Nate Meath (Office of Classroom Management) for the great assistance in the implementation of ASTRA. Well done!

UMACRAO Conference

This November, several staff from the Twin Cities and the Rochester campuses attended the annual Upper Midwest Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (UMACRAO) conference held at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis. Rachel McKessock, Tina Falkner, Amber Cellotti, and Ingrid Nuttall from the Twin Cities campus all presented at the conference and Laura Walker from the Rochester campus facilitated a small public institution registrar roundtable discussion. Sessions included: FERPA, developing a strategic plan, course relationship management systems, PeopleSoft, Parchment, and improv techniques to use in our personal and professional lives. The conference provided a valuable experience for all who attended.

Student Degree Progress (SDP) Update

As the cost of higher education rises, it is important that the University is clear and transparent to students and families about the cost of a University of Minnesota education. Further, the University wants its students to graduate and move on to make a difference in their community and state. Graduation rates show our commitment to access and our efforts to improve the student experience.

To assist the Twin Cities in reaching its 4-, 5-, and 6-year graduation goals, ASR is reviewing the record of every UMNTC student that has not graduated. These individuals scour APAS reports, transcripts, and APLUS advising notes documenting impediments to student retention and graduation, while also “looking for graduates” (i.e., students who appear to have met degree requirements but haven't yet had their degree posted). When potential graduates are identified, the information is sent to the colleges for further investigation. Often these students have neglected to apply to graduate, missed the application deadline so they have applied to graduate for a future term, or have had an incomplete or pending grade post that now makes them eligible to graduate.

In the past two years, this ASR/college partnership has had a significant impact on UMNTC graduation rates. The four-year graduation rate for incoming freshmen (NHS) students has grown from 58.0% in 2012 to 59.1% in 2013 and 60.9% in 2014. As we continue to strive for higher graduation rates, the hope is that ASR can use the information obtained by this thorough review of student records to assist the colleges with early intervention and guide students who are off track for timely degree progress.

December User Acceptance Testing

Student began User Acceptance Testing (UAT)  on December 1, with over 240 testers participating across all five campuses, and in all seven student modules (SF, SR, FA, CC, SEVIS, AA & AD). Testers have  found issues with security roles but all were solvable and the early identification of these bumps will help us fix issues now. Testers were able to complete most tasks successfully, and they expressed a lot of excitement at what they saw. Several UAT participants have commented that this participation has bolstered their confidence and assuaged anxieties about the expected PeopleSoft 9.0 changes.

Policy update: Leave of Absence and Readmission for Undergraduates

On Wednesday, December 3, the Senate Committee on Educational Policy (SCEP) passed the proposed changes to the Leave of Absence (LOA) and Readmission for Undergraduates policy. The registrar contacts at each of the campuses covered by the policy provided input before it went to SCEP.

Some of the changes reflected in the revision include:

• Changing the title to reflect that students don’t actually re-apply to the University, but do indicate that they are planning on returning from the leave
• Moved several portions of the policy language to the FAQ section since those portions pertained more to what happens if a student doesn’t enroll and doesn’t have a LOA
• Strengthened the language about colleges and departments having the ability to hold students to new degree requirements if they return from a leave beyond the time specified on the leave
• Added some more illustrative FAQs and cleaned up some definitions

The updated policy still needs to be presented to the Senate, the Policy Advisory Committee, and the President’s Policy Committee. If you want to see the current draft of the policy, please contact Tina Falkner.

SUE’S UPDATE (December 2014)

University’s Goals: U exceeds Legislatures performance measures
You will see that we, the University, met the performance measures set by the Legislature. Our units had impacts on three of the measures and I want to thank all of you for hitting the goals. The three areas include: improve graduation rates for low-income students (Twin Cities mandate), increase the total number of undergraduate STEM degrees (Twin Cities mandate), improve overall graduation rates by one percent, decrease administrative costs. Please take a look at the article for detailed information. Learn more >

Upgrade Final Approach
As The Upgrade is headed into its final approach, we may need to make requests of you and/or your staff to assist in final preparations. I want to thank you ahead of time for being so committed. The Student workstream is looking very good for meeting all the deadlines for go-live.

ELEANOR’S UPDATE (December 2014)

Fall term is nearly over for all of us, and we are looking ahead to a few days off, before getting back to it all. As of the date of this newsletter, we will be on the 55th day until launch of The Upgrade. Can you believe it? That's less than 2 months!

Here’s a quick look back: The results of November 3-4 ESUP Student All Campus meeting held on the Twin Cities St. Paul campus are in and were overwhelmingly positive. A big thank you goes out to all the meeting evaluation respondents. What a diverse group we are, some wanted more module time, others wanted more cross functional time, but the commonality we take away is we all wanted more time together. Teams commented again on the value of having this time to work together. Confidence levels were good, and comments acknowledged we know that there will be bumps in the road but we are prepared to manage them. We all recognize there's still plenty to do before the go live - but we're up for it!

Right now we are in the midst of all kinds of testing, System, End-to-End (E2E), Batch Schedule, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT)—all scheduled to wrap up this month. We have had a great response from all of you to help us out by participating in UAT, and you are finding some of those bumps in the road we expected. We have our best people on it - getting resolutions and fine tuning in place. Thank you for all of your feedback.

Until next year!

Comings & goings (Twin Cities, September)

Jennifer Selander re-joins the training team on Monday, September 22. She is not a new employee at the University of Minnesota nor the ASR Training Team. Jenn spent the last two years as a Business Analyst in Student Records. She is looking forward to picking up where she left off and helping out wherever training is needed. Welcome back, Jenn!

Justin Pouliot has accepted the position of Web Team Manager starting on Monday, October 6. Justin started with the University in 2006 and he has been a business analyst in FA-IT since 2011. The leadership he exhibited as a business analyst and his recently completed MS degree in Management and Technology makes this a great move for ASR-IT as well as aligning with Justin's long term career goals.

Kudos (Twin Cities)

Big congratulations to the Fall 2014 Outstanding Service Award Winners, Aileen Lively (ASR-IT), and Toni Pangborn (OCM). They were among the 12 recipients of this award conferred by OIT. They will be celebrated for their contributions at a banquet next month.

Save the date: Veterans Appreciation Event

Join fellow University of Minnesota students and staff at the 8th annual Student Veterans Appreciation Day on Thursday, November 6, 2014 from 1-3 p.m. at Coffman Memorial Union. This event is free and open to the public.

Office of Student Finance

Twin Cities first day financial aid disbursement total for fall 2014 was $147,691,758, compared to fall 2013 at $145,319,630. The University is capturing the tuition revenue earlier and changing the bill due date to an earlier time seems to have gone relatively smoothly, based on the overall number of complaints and comments received.

Changes to Graduate Student Services & Progress customer service model

Graduate Student Services & Progress (GSSP) is undergoing some changes to their staffing and customer service model. These changes will allow GSSP staff to continue to provide exceptional, timely customer service while streamlining points of contact (e.g., walk-in, phone, email).

Effective September 8, GSSP began their new phone answering system, utilizing Auto Call Distribution (ACD) functionality. This allows up to five people to call the main number (612-625-3490) at the same time. If that line is busy, they will will be able to hold to speak to someone on that same line (it won't go to voicemail). Calls will be answered in the order they are received.

Additionally, GSSP will be transitioning out of ServiceNow and into Salesforce. With the transition to Salesforce, there will no longer be "tickets" (incidents) when sending an email to gssp@umn.edu. Additionally, all interactions will now be logged on the student or staff members record for historical reference. Inquiries for GSSP should still be sent to gssp@umn.edu.

One Stop and the first week of the semester (Twin Cities)

One Stop and the first week of the semester
The first week of the semester proved to be extremely busy for the One Stop staff. In just the first week alone (Sept. 2-5):
2,381 calls were answered (average wait time was 3:46 minutes)
2,310 emails sent
Walk-ins

• 3,077 (STSS One Stop; HelpingU desk; Veterans Services)


• 193 (St. Paul)


• 414 (West Bank)

The top 5 CRM categories were:

• Student account (billing/payment): 698


• Financial aid (loans): 594


• Financial aid (packaging): 351


• Student Accounts (refunds): 192


• Financial Aid (Disbursement): 115

Rochester Updates (September)

Our youngest campus continues to plan for the future. The University Board of Regents discussed the first-ever master plan charting the future growth and development of the Rochester campus. The plan would transform part of downtown Rochester into a 10-acre, pedestrian-only campus and weaves the campus into the fabric of downtown Rochester, while creating and maintaining a distinct identity that allows the campus to leverage intellectual and economic resources in Rochester and southeastern Minnesota.

Comings & goings (Morris, September)

Here is some very exciting news for our campuses: starting September 29, Clare Dingley will be joining the Twin Cities campus as a Business Analyst 1 working on the Academic Advisement implementation. This means Clare will be ending her time at Morris and her role on the FSC as the Morris representative. Additional details about who will take her place at Morris are not available yet. In the weeks ahead there will undoubtedly be more thank you notes and recognition of all Clare contributions, and also many welcomes and introductions. Thank you, Clare, for all your work, and for all the work yet to come!

Kudos (Morris)

UMM has again been recognized by Washington Monthly for both affordability and social engagement. Of the 386 schools included on the magazine's annual "Best-Bang-for-the-Buck" list, UMM was ranked 1st in Minnesota, 3rd among liberal arts colleges, and 36th overall. In the public-good listings, the campus was ranked 121 out of 246 notable liberal arts colleges.

Morris Updates (September)

On Monday, September 22, staff from the Twin Cities campus visited Morris to explore the adoption of APLUS for the campus. Tina Falkner, Kurt Lietzau, and Eleanor Pijut met with Jennifer Herrmann, Retention Coordinator & Morris Academic Alert system Administrator; Brenda Boever, Executive Student Personnel Worker, Office of Academic Success; Dr. Bart D. Finzel, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Dean, along with Morris Master Adviser. Additionally, Tina presented a FERPA workshop for the campus.

Duluth Updates (September)

Duluth will present an all-campus ESUP update on Wednesday, September 24. The event is very comprehensive and will provide information from an ESUP Overview, to breakout sessions for Student, HR, Finance, and Reporting, and Portal Session.

Comings & goings (Duluth, September)

A recent staffing change within the Office of the Registrar will have an impact on our services and ESUP involvement. Ginger Johnson has accepted a One Stop Counselor position at UMD and will transition to her new role at the end of the month. We are forming transition plans but as you are well aware, Veteran's Services is complicated and Ginger has served this population for many years. Congratulations to Ginger!

After years of dedicated service in the Business office at UMD, JoAnn Morley will retire on October 31. Interviews are in progress for her replacement and the hope is to hire soon, but it will be hard to replace JoAnn. Congratulations, JoAnn!

Kudos (Crookston)

For the second year in a row, the University of Minnesota Crookston ranks number one in the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings in the category Midwest Top Public Regional Colleges. The ranking is the 17th consecutive year the Crookston campus has appeared in the top four.

Crookston Updates (September)

• ASTRA Classroom Scheduling is ready for implementation this spring 2015. The system will go live and produce a first, true run on October 7. We would say fingers crossed, but we are confident that all will go smoothly.


• Key ESUP leaders will visit UMC on October 30 and 31 to demonstrate major features of the upgraded student systems, give detail on the availability and type of training resources available, addresses security and more!


• During the first week of classes, UMC OTR staff served over 366 phone calls.

In-state tuition and the Post-9/11 GI Bill

Legislation was recently passed that grants in-state tuition for spouses and dependents of veterans that are using the Post-9/11 GI Bill. This change will go into effect July 2015. Currently, veterans are eligible for in-state tuition waivers based on their time of active duty service. The provision to expand the benefits for spouses and dependents is part of The Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act of 2014.

Department of Defense Memorandum of Understanding signed

The Department of Defense Memorandum of Understanding (DoD MOU) was signed for all University of Minnesota system campuses on September 5. Institutions that allow students to use Federal Tuition Assistance (FTA) were required to sign the DoD MOU to continue accepting these funds. By signing the agreement, institutions agree to provide information to students regarding the financial cost to attend, as well as provide academic and student support services to the service members and their families that are using FTA.

Additional One Stop updates (Twin Cities)

One Stop Student Services is excited to announce the hiring of 12 student workers to fill the new position of Customer Relations Representative (CRR). CRR's will be an integral part of the a tiered service model at One Stop. The CRR role will assist One Stop customers with general student account, registration, and financial aid questions. The CRR's have begun a three-week training program and should be ready to assist customers by early August. In additional to the CRR hiring, One Stop will also welcome five new counselors on Wednesday, July 23. We are excited to have lots of new faces around the office!

Following the Presidential initiative on Retaining all Our Students (RaOS), the One Stop Live Like a Student (LLAS) team is creating targeted emails for Pell-eligible students to help identify financial resources on campus and provide ways to connect with the LLAS campaign. The team will be taking a course to become Certified Personal Financial Managers in order to assist broader and in-depth student financial issues.

One Stop recognition (Twin Cities)

Richard Campo was promoted to Assistant Director, One Stop Student Services, in mid-June. He replaces Jennifer Love, who took a position at Columbia University in New York City. Richard has been with One Stop since 2008 and has held the role of One Stop Counselor and Senior One Stop Counselor.

John Sill, One Stop Counselor in St. Paul, was recognized by the Board of Regents for his above and beyond service in One Stop. After assisting an alumni with auditing a course, the alumni contacted President Kaler and said he would be increasing his annual donation in honor of John and his outstanding service.

A big congratulations to Nate Peterson for his recently published article entitled "Living the Dream on a Dime: Wants vs. Needs" in Inceptia's Great Advice for Grads publication. Check it out on page 14.

One Stop Student Services' "Text D for Danger" video was recently selected by members of the University of Minnesota community as one of the winning submissions in University Services' transportation safety video contest. The One Stop team received a $250 gift card to the University Bookstore and their video will featured as part of the SafeU campaign in the future.

One Stop's financial literacy campaign, Live Like a Student (LLAS), recently won two awards at the annual University of Minnesota Communicators Forum awards ceremony on May 28. The awards were for the LLAS digital signage campaign, as well as their Welcome Week presentation. Kudos to the LLAS committee!

Classroom Technical Services wins AMX Innovation Award (Twin Cities)

Classroom Technical Services (CTS), a unit within Academic Support Resources, has received a $25,000 AMX Innovation Award for innovative collaboration practices in higher education for its design of the College of Pharmacy's Active Learning and Interactive Video Environment (A.L.I.V.E.).

The new classroom represents a significant pedagogical change for the Doctorate of Pharmacy program in the College of Pharmacy. Rather than traditional "sage on the stage" instruction, A.L.I.V.E promotes student created knowledge, with instructors able to direct, coach, and expand student learning while providing a bridge between the Duluth and Twin Cities campuses. Learn more about the project (PDF).

The AMX Innovation Awards is an exclusive awards program designed to recognize innovative higher education institutions for their use of technology in improving the campus experience. The awards were established by AMX and the University Business Leadership Institute to recognize members of the AMX Education Alliance for transforming education through innovative accomplishments and practices

Interim Director of IT accepts position on the TC campus (Rochester)

Linda Dick, Interim Director of IT, has accepted a position as IT Manager for the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the Twin Cities campus. Her last day was July 11. Discussions have started about interim strategies and plans.

Office of Student Finance updates (Twin Cities)

The Office of Student Finance Financial Aid has been busy packaging the 2015 student financial aid awards for students on all campuses and for all careers. For the Twin Cities alone, more than $45M in direct loans was packaged.

The Student Job Family Review has kicked off and must be complete August 6. The Finance Job Family Review is also under way.

The Student Finance functional steering committee has begun working on changes to the late and installment fees for 9.0. These changes will go into effect this fall.

Updates (Rochester)

One Stop is nearing the completion of training two new One Stop Counselors. The One Stop Student Service Center is now fully staffed. Team members are Andrea Berger, Paula Jewell, Kayla Piper, and manager Laura Walker.

Student/parent orientation for fall 2014 admits is complete as of July 17.

One Stop continues to work on reviewing process and procedures and posting them to the Student Resource Google Site.

New Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Development (Rochester)

The University of Minnesota Rochester is happy to announce that Lori J. Carrell, Ph.D. has been selected as the new Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Development.

Dr. Carrell previously worked at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh where she played a key leadership role directing both the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, a research-based faculty development endeavor, and the University Studies Program, where she facilitated and implemented a large-scale, nationally-acclaimed, curricular reform.

"Dr. Carrell is exactly the right person with the right skills and the right background for UMR at this point in our development," says Chancellor Lehmkuhle. "I am firmly convinced that we have found the right person to lead our institution as the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Development."

Updates (Morris)

Together with staff in the Office of Classroom Management (OCM), Morris' first optimization run resulted in less than 10% of classes without rooms. Astra Scheduling has made academic room scheduling more streamlined for changes and cancelled classes. Thanks OCM!

Comings & goings (Duluth)

AVC Gerald (Jerry) Pepper is now supervising the Office of the Registrar and Students in Transition Office. OIR and SEM Director Mary Keenan is supervising the Office of Admissions and Office of Financial Aid.

The Office of the Registrar is wrapping up hiring of a staff member to coordinate visiting/non-degree student services and will be hiring soon for a support staff member to continue to support the transfer credit services; this includes the recovery of the UMD Course Catalog and Transfer Evaluations project.

Electronic Course Substitution form (Crookston)

Crookston staff are working on the development of an Electronic Course Substitution form. The process will allow for the academic adviser to submit the request, be reviewed for approval by the academic department, send the approved form to the Office of the Registrar (OTR), and log the event in a spreadsheet. This will allow OTR and the Academic Standards and Policy Committee to easily sort and analyze data. The goal is to have this fully functional by October 1.

Astra Classroom Scheduling (Crookston)

This month the Office of the Registrar (OTR) is receiving the first test run with Astra Classroom Scheduling. After completing the evaluation of the results and making minor adjustments in the parameters, the team hopes to reach a level of under 5% of courses being unplaced.

Student Veterans Tuition refund and waiver changes

Effective August 1, tuition refunds for students with dependent children will be granted for those that are impacted by their spouse's military deployment and required to withdraw from courses.

Also effective August 1, in-state tuition waivers will be extended to veterans in graduate and professional programs.

ESUP Student and All Campus Meeting evaluation results

Thank you all for providing some great feedback on the June 16-17 meeting! The survey results supported our observations that the meeting was a success. And yes....the meeting rooms were cold!

Overall, confidence was expressed in the success of the ESUP project. The top three sessions that rated as highly effective were: Workstream Intersections with Sue Van Voorhis, Mike Volna, Lori Lamb; Module Intersections Panel on Student PS Experience; and Training Approaches and Updates with Heather Micek, Jennifer Love, Nancy Killian.

While the feedback showed the group was very focused toward the hard data sessions and the live demonstration, many were delighted that President Kaler and Robert McMaster were able to make time in their schedules to recognize the important work of the ESUP Student team.

The All Campus Module Team report-out information regarding the teams challenges has been gathered by the Communications and Change Management team (CCT). This information will be shared with Sue Van Voorhis and the Project Leadership team and work will continue as to alleviate these challenges whenever possible. The output from the Addressing Difficult Changes with Stakeholders session with Kate Sophia, John Vollum, Lea Bittner-Eddy, Scott Bernard, Patty Bales, Jen Mein, and Matt Tveter is being shared with the CCT group for use in future planning.

Many of you expressed the need for more module time. The survey revealed the face-to-face meeting format is irreplaceable and the module time was extremely effective in getting work done. We will work to incorporate more module time in future events.

Additionally, many of you provided feedback and suggestions regarding the social component of the meeting (did someone say scavenger hunt, or was that happy hour?). The majority liked the idea of a baseball outing (despite the weather not cooperating). The "kudos" was a little under the radar, so in the future we will work to better highlight this type of recognition.

The feedback on the facilities and food were positive. The buffets were a hit but the breaks were a bit short (and Starbucks did a nice bit of business on our coffee demands!).

Finally, thank you to those of you who took time to complete the survey. We will act on the feedback as we begin planning the next event for early November to be held in the Twin Cities.

One Stop Student Services public safety video (Twin Cities)

One Stop Student Services is excited to share its transportation safety video with our ASR colleagues system campus wide. The video was produced last winter as part of Parking and Transportation Services' video competition to promote transportation safety on campus. One Stop's video was selected as one of seven finalist out of a field of 80 submissions - final voting took place last week.

Fun fact about the video, it was so cold during filming that we needed to used 3 different iPhones (they keep freezing)

Cast includes: Julie Selander (producer), Rachel Ulrich, Nora Jones, Nate Peterson, and Richard Campo.

Twin Cities - Staff updates (May 2014)

Stacia Madsen has left GSSP and moved into the lead business analyst position with the Academic Advisement (AA) group.

Jennifer Lee has started her position as a business analyst in SF and will be working on parent-guest access. You may remember Jennifer from her former developer position in OIT. Welcome back Jenn.

Assistant Director of One Stop Services Jennifer Love has accepted the Associate Director of Student Services and ID centers position in the Office of the Registrar at Columbia University in New York City. Jennifer's last day will be June 20.

Billing dates for students (Twin Cities)

TC students have received a message alerting them that billing dates will change beginning fall 2014 and will be approximately two weeks earlier. Graduate assistants were informed that, if they receive their first paycheck after the first billing due date, they will not be assessed a late fee.

SAP date moved back (Twin Cities)

The Twin Cities probation/suspension schedule has been modified to give staff more time to enter P3 holds on student records. P3 suspension holds are now due by 4:30 p.m. on Friday, May 30. The spring Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) run will take place that evening. Probation/suspension reports will be available beginning Saturday, May 24. Additional dates are posted on the One Stop website.

E-payment survey (Twin Cities)

A survey was recently sent to Twin Cities students who did not pay tuition and fees electronically during the most recent pay period. The survey asked students to indicate their comfort level paying for things online, how often they did so, why they decided not to pay tuition and fees online, and more. The survey was sent to approximately 3,800 students on April 16; approximately 580 students completed the survey before it closed on April 30. One insight from the survey is that many students do not realize that paying by eCheck is free. If you are interested in seeing the results of the survey, please contact Matt Tveter.

Survey to veterans (Twin Cities)

University Veterans Services office sent out a satisfaction survey on April 9, 2014 to all students who were using federal GI Bill benefits during the spring semester. The survey is done periodically to gauge our support of Student Veterans. The survey had a 41% response rate and respondents varied in demographics with undergraduates making up 66%, graduate students 30% and the remaining 4% were professional students. Furthermore, the majority of those that completed the survey were veterans, but spouses and dependents made up 18%. Further information on the results to follow in an upcoming newsletter.

Rochester updates (May 2014)

UMR's second graduating class commenced on Saturday, May 17, 2014, with 56 health science students, 24 health profession students, and 2 graduate students from the BICB program graduating.

The week of May 19 there will be three candidates for the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Development position on campus. All UMR staff have been invited to participate in an open forum where the candidate will give a presentation on leadership in a highly collaborative interdisciplinary environment and describe their vision for academic affairs and student development working together in an integrative fashion without sacrificing the individual missions of these two different areas.

Congratulations to Brett Schieve, Cultural Engagement and Study Away Program Manager, who received his master's degree this spring semester.

Rochester - Staff updates (May 2014)

Parry Telander will continue as interim director of student development for the next year.

Coach Emily Buehler will be leaving UMR to pursue advanced coursework in political science and international relations and exploring options for Ph.D. programs.

Currently there are 2 coach positions open (one to replace Emily and one to replace Parry).

Starting June 16, Laura Walker will be the One Stop Student Service Center manager. One Stop recently hired Andrea Berger and will have an additional counselor starting on June 18 to replace Laura.

Morris - Staff updates (May 2014)

The Student One Stop has an opening for a One Stop counselor who will also help coordinate the American Indian waiver programs.

Congratulations are in order for Information Technology Manager Jim Hall of UMM Computing Services, who completed his master's degree this spring semester.

Morris updates (May 2014)

On May 6, the UMM ESUP Leadership Team met with Santiago Fernandez and Tricia Conway to discuss change management and communications. There was a suggestion about creating a one page timeline with information that is targeted toward faculty.

The financial aid staff attended the Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Administrators conference in Brainerd on May 7-9.

Duluth - Staff updates (May 2014)

On May 15, a retirement party was held to honor Director of Information Technology Systems and Associate Professor of Computer Science Linda Deneen, for her more than 29 years of service to UMD.

Duluth updates (May 2014)

On Saturday, May 17, 2014, UMD's bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree commencement programs ceremonies were held in the AMSOIL Arena at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center.

A total of 2353 students graduated from UMD this year. UMD will confer 2043 bachelor's degrees and 300 master's degrees. Of the 10 doctoral degrees conferred, four of them come from UMD's Integrated Biosciences program.

APLUS training underway (Crookston)

During the week of May 12, Kurt Lietzau visited UMC and provided two training sessions on APLUS to approximately 40 faculty and staff members. Plans are for APLUS to go live this summer.

During the fall 2014 term, team members will work on the development of templates. Academic advisers have expressed great interest in APLUS. After the training session, advisers commented on how valuable this program will be in helping them better serve the students. So much interest was expressed that Faculty on 12 month appointments have decided to go live with APLUS now.

Eleanor Pijut also visited UMC the same week and met with College in the High School (CHIS) staff gathering information on the current processes used within the program. The goal is to map out the processes used at each campus, identify pain points in the process, and develop best practices for the U system.

Progress: Moving withdrawal date to week 10

The OTR Educational Policy group developed a proposal to change the withdrawal deadline from week 8 to week 10. The additional two weeks will allow students more time to receive feedback from instructors and make more informed decisions about dropping a class.

Pending one more approval step from the President's Policy Committee (PPC), students on the Morris, Rochester, and Twin Cities campus will have through the 10th week of the term to drop a class without college approval. The Duluth campus has also approved this change, and the Crookston campus has chosen to remain with the current 8th week drop deadline. So far, this is on track for a fall 2014 implementation.

Eleanor's update (May 2014)

Hello,

What a busy month May has been! We are in the midst of posting final grades, preparing for commencement, summer session is right around the corner, orientation is underway, the budgeting cycle is in full swing, tuition and fees are being set up for next year, and let's not forget performance appraisals, and....need I go on?

On top of all of that, the ESUP project continues to move forward, with everyone working heads down to meet several target dates this spring. All this work is contributing positively to keep the project moving forward and on schedule.

On June 16 and 17, we will all come together in Minneapolis at the June Student ESUP and All Campus Event to share our progress and continue our collaborative initiatives to get the job done.

Until then, take a look at the improved Systems Campus Newsletter format, allowing you quick access to check out what's been happening across our campuses.

E-payment survey

A survey was recently sent to Twin Cities students who did not pay tuition and fees electronically during the most recent pay period. The survey asked students to indicate their comfort level paying for things online, how often they did so, why they decided not to pay tuition and fees online, and more. The survey was sent to approximately 3,800 students on April 16; approximately 580 students completed the survey before it closed on April 30. One insight from the survey is that many students do not realize that paying by eCheck is free. If you are interested in seeing the results of the survey, please contact Matt Tveter at tvet0004@umn.edu.