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!