Crookston (November 2016 updates)

Chancellor Fred Wood to leave the University

The Chancellor search at UMC has begun. Serving as chancellor at the University of Minnesota Crookston since July 2012, Chancellor Fred E. Wood announced in September that he plans to retire from the University of Minnesota system. He shared that he needs to care for his extended family in northern California as the reason he is leaving his leadership position in Crookston. Chancellor Wood has accepted a new position in California that will begin on January 1, 2017.

Last week President Kaler was on campus and had an open forum relating to the Chancellor search. A Search Firm was also on campus last week and met with several faculty and staff. A specific timeline is not available but updates will be provided as more information becomes available.

The Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships moving

The Office will be moving to the basement of Hill Hall over the next few days to make way for the International and Diversity Center on Campus. This move will result in Financial Aid and the Registrar’s office being right across from one another.

Training on APAS:

Amanda Grimm, Twin Cities’ ASR Continuity and Compliance degree audits team member,  visited Crookston and worked with staff in the registrar’s office over a two-day span to make required coding changes to support APAS refinements, update its appearance, and meet new policy changes. In addition, Crookston is considering pursuing changes to APAS to allow them to have access to the new MyU SDP. The goal is to complete this project by summer 2017.

Out and About

• Barb Phaiah, Principle Office and Admin Specialist, represented UMC OTR at the November UMACRAO conference at Arrowwood in Alexandria, MN.
• Kayla Pahlen and Crystal Hanson from the Office of Financial Aid & Scholarships attended the Minnesota Association of Financial Aid Administrator’s Fall Training.
• Melissa Dingmann was a scholarship reader for the Gilman Scholarship Program in Houston, TX earlier this month.
• Melissa Dingmann and Ken Myers attended the Higher Learning Commission’s Academy of Persistence and Completion Round Table discussions in Chicago last week.

Comings and goings:

• Welcome to Jessica Benson who will begin as a Student Finance Counselor 2 on November 21. She is coming from St. Cloud State University where she has worked in the Financial Aid Department there for the past three years.