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Thursday, January 21, 2016

Twin Cities updates (January 2016)

Diploma pick-up
The Twin Cities Office of the Registrar is piloting a diploma pickup initiative for fall 2015 graduates. The goal is to provide an opportunity for graduates to receive their diploma as soon as possible and reduce (even if by just a few) the number of returns we receive. We have just over 50 students who have asked to pick-up their diploma.

Analytics and data integration FCoP wrapping up
The analytics and data integration Formal Community of Practice (FCoP) is wrapping up its work and will be presenting final recommendations to the Enterprise Data Management and Reporting (EDMR) governance group in March. The final FCoP meeting will be February 17 from 1-2:30 p.m. More details will be available on the FCoP website.

Update on Timely Graduation policy 
The 30-day review period for the revised administrative policy: Promoting Timely 
Graduation by Undergraduates was completed as of January 7. The new policy language will be published on the University Policy Library within the week. The policy outlines the University’s expectations for when a student must declare a major, and provides a schedule that takes into account transfer credits earned by New Advance Standing students and Inter-University Transfer students. To ensure students declare majors and take courses applicable to their degrees, this policy allows colleges to place a hold on a student’s record to ensure advisors and students meet prior to registration for the next term.

Financial Aid Basics and More
On Thursday, January 7, the Office of Student Finance (OSF), One Stop Student Services, and the Office of Undergraduate Education partnered to present financial aid basics (and more) to academic advising staff on the Twin Cities campus. Nearly 80 academic advisors attended the session and were very interested in learning more about how they can help students with financial aid issues (without becoming financial aid counselors). A large portion of the meeting talking about Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP), Work Study, Cost of Attendance appeals, Special Circumstances appeals and enrollment changes and the subsequent impact on financial aid. Those in attendance noted that having regular workshops that discuss financial aid in general and do a deep dive into specific topics that pertain to academic advising would be helpful and welcomed.

IT systems upgrade
ASR-IT staff are now in the midst of our next enterprise upgrade, PeopleTools, which is a
layer of PeopleSoft that contains the look and feel, colors, fonts, date routines, etc. This
upgrade will run now through mid-April and will require multiple testing rounds during that time. This will also cause other bug fix work from our backlog portfolio to be curtailed for March and April; only critical bugs fixes will be addressed.

1098-T forms available through MyU
In the coming week, students with a completed eAgreement will be able to access their 2015 IRS 1098-T form via MyU (only tax years for which they are eligible to receive a 1098-T are available to view). Students who have a 2015 1098-T available online will receive an email notice letting them know it is ready; a notification will also be added to MyU. Parents/guests with student account access also have access to the 1098-T through MyU. This is a significant gain in efficiency and will greatly reduce the number of forms needing to be mailed.

New Aid Year 
FA-IT staff have started pulling in records 2016-2017 (ISIR) nightly (M-F), to process for the next Aid Year (fall 2016). This allows One Stop staff to access the information to respond to student inquiries on the receipt of their application for next year.

Destiny One Registration System (DORS) Update
Colleges/units who have non-credit registration needs should review the Events Calendar, Tickets and DORS Matrix to evaluate if Destiny is the appropriate tool to support your non-credit registration needs. Benefits include:
  • Provides a single, effective system to support non-credit registration processes.
  • Creates efficiencies by eliminating the need for duplicate shadow systems.
  • Integrates with existing University enterprise systems (Shib, Moodle, EFS, and soon Salesforce).
  • Provides a secure, consistent, and compliant way to accept credit card payments.
If you are interested to see the offerings that are currently live and open for enrollment, please visit learning.umn.edu.

Program and Curriculum Approval System (PCAS) modifications/fixes
A number of modifications and fixes will be implemented for the PCAS application and anticipate 19+ being completed this month; a sampling is listed below. This is a focused effort with dedicated resources, and we are excited to be able to make these improvements.

  • Electronic Course Authorization System (ECAS) course to display in the Executive Summary & the draft catalog display
  • Add text to differentiate between sub-plans and honors sub-plans
  • Approval notification emails with text to include graduate or undergraduate level
  • Program website displayed on General Info Section in Executive Summary page
  • Add "Update Additional Terms" button for PhD programs
  • Fix to embedded text under General Requirements for Undergraduate Certificates

Stay tuned for additional details and updates!

Comings and goings  

  • Marietta Upsher retired on December 11 from the Office of Student Finance, Financial Aid Loan unit; Jody Stadler interviewed for and was offered a BA position; Jody’s former position will be posted soon. 
  • Two new Business Analyst 2’s started in Student Records IT on January 19: Carli Baker-Pacheco and Marc Keaveny.
  • Bernie Miller, SR-IT BA3, has left the University effective January 19.
  • Fritz Skinner, IT Reporting Team, has left the University effective January 15.
  • Megan Kamrath, assistant director in One Stop Student Services, will be leaving the University February 5 to pursue her passion for textile art on a full-time basis. One of Megan’s pieces is now showing at The Textile Center.

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