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Thursday, September 20, 2018

Eleanor's update (September 2018)

We’ve recently learned of an initiative that University Relations has been collaboratively working on to develop shared principles and values for a communication strategy and identity/style guide applicable across the University. The key component of this new guidance emphasizes a single University with 5 campuses.

This is a significant change, as over the past few years university language has focused on “system” and "systemwide".  And while this new shift in our terminology is moving forward  there are several ongoing systemwide initiatives and groups that will continue their work, so that systemwide language is still viable.  Given this recent shift in language I would like your ideas to rename this  “System Campus Update” newsletter.  Send them my way.

As the struggle and experimentation with language continues, I challenge all of us to be aware of the power our language has in our relationships, and keep in mind our goal of inclusiveness. At a recent meeting in Duluth, the SRC council spent some time talking about how language can influence and impact our working relationships. The SRC council settled on the usage of “we” in our discussions related to the university as a whole. It’s a work in progress, and as with all change, it will take some time for us to shift our language, but it's a start.

Sue's update (September 2018)

Fall term is upon us and we forge ahead thinking of student success. Our campus visits have been fantastic and we have enjoyed the terrific conversations with everyone. I believe we, student services staff, across the institution have good working relationships. When I ask my counterparts in HR and finance, I am surprised that they do not meet and discuss tough issues as we do. I really do appreciate that we have continued to meet as a group on a regular basis. There are many times we discover on the Twin Cities campus that initiatives, implementations, and projects occur without our involvement. This is fine with me as we shouldn’t be involved with every initiative. We pass this information on to you as we hear of decisions and projects, however, keep in mind that we will not be involved in many of these. Please share initiatives that are occurring on your campus as well so we can work together to avoid duplication where possible.

Presidential Search Advisory Committee

This week, the University of Minnesota Board of Regents ratified the membership and charge of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee. The committee, made up of 23 individuals from across the University community, is charged with recommending 3–4 lead candidates for University president for the Board’s consideration.

Your input is invited as the Presidential Search Advisory Committee will be traveling throughout the system to hear from students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members on the important qualities in our next president. The committee will hold listening sessions on all five campuses for the following dates:
  • Monday, September 17 – U of M Crookston (completed)
  • Tuesday, September 18 – U of M Morris (completed)
  • Wednesday, September 19 – U of M Twin Cities (completed) 
  • Thursday, September 20 – U of M Duluth
  • Monday, September 24 – U of M Twin Cities 
  • Wednesday, September 26 – U of M Rochester

Whether or not you’re able to attend one of the listening sessions you may provide input to the Presidential Search Advisory Committee at any time at president-search.umn.edu/community-input. Your input will help the committee narrow the field of presidential candidates to a group of lead candidates for Board of Regents consideration. Find more search updates at president-search.umn.edu.

NameCoach software

NameCoach is a student-recorded name pronunciation software that is under consideration for purchase for the University. While there is not an official implementation plan, attaching it to Canvas would be the first goal. Learn more about NameCoach.

Attention: System updates this weekend

PeopleSoft and MyU applications will be upgraded on Saturday, September 22 beginning at noon through midnight. During the 12-hour upgrade window, the PeopleSoft and MyU applications will be unavailable and the associated database will be offline.

This activity is limited to a database version upgrade. There is no change in the application versions. (Note: next weekend, Campus Solutions will have Image 10 going in during the normal down time on Sunday, September 30. )
  • Saturday, September 22, 12:00 p.m.: MyU and all PeopleSoft environments, including Financial UM Reports, will become unavailable.
  • Sunday, September 23, 6:00 a.m.: PeopleSoft core applications (CS, HR, FS) will be unavailable according to the normal maintenance schedule.
  • Sunday, September 23, 12:00 p.m.: PeopleSoft core applications will be back online according to the normal maintenance schedule. MyU and all PeopleSoft environments, including Financial UM Reports, will be back online and available at 2 pm according to the normal maintenance schedule.
For any systems you support which integrate with PeopleSoft and/or MyU, please plan accordingly and notify your user communities as appropriate. Updates are available at umnprd.service-now.com/sysstatus.

OIT prepares for transition from Transform to Perceptive Content tool

Perceptive Content Portal by Jadu is the name of the newly selected product to replace TransForms. The contract is currently under review by the Office of General Counsel (OGC). Assuming the contract is approved, OIT expects to move forward beginning with set up, discovery, and training development in October.

OIT is planning a phased roll out of Jadu. Those units currently using TransForm will be part of the first phase including three Twin Cities TransForms. This work is anticipated to begin in January 2019.

Academic policy updates

Two policies are currently posted for 30-day review prior to changes becoming effective: Credit and Grade Point Requirements for an Undergraduate Degree and Grading and Transcripts. The Credit and Grade Point Requirements policy has been revised, changing the limit for S/N credits permitted within the degree (UMTC only). The Grading and Transcripts policy has been revised to improve readability and to shorten the timeline for students to resolve incompletes. For more information or to submit your comments, visit the Policy Library.

Updated multi-institutional (multi-i) enrollment webpage

After months of collaboration, review, and refinement, the multi-institutional working group has signed off on the new multi-institutional content on the One Stop website. This working group included staff from financial aid, One Stop, student finance, and student records on all campuses, and they worked to provide more clarity for students considering multi-institutional enrollment. The group will continue its work by next moving on to documenting processes and will eventually work on improving the related form.

The new content went live on September 14, available on each campus’ domain at:

Conference news

Fall—in-particular, October—is a heavy time of year for conferences. Here are some of the larger conferences staff are participating/attending:
  • Student Loans & Receivables Collection conference - 9/23-26
  • Dreamforce 2018 - (Salesforce CRM annual conference) - 9/25-28
  • 2018 Transfer Specialist & DARS User conference - 10/1-4
  • Midwest Higher Education User Group (MidHEUG) Alliance 2018 - 10/11-12
  • Ad Astra conference - 10/13-17
  • Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA)conference - 10/14-17
  • Institute for Student Services Professionals (ISSP) - 10/21-23
  • Tableau conference - 10/22-24
Midwest Higher Education User Group (MidHEUG) Alliance conference presenters
Numerous University staff are not only attending, but will be presenting at Midwest Higher Education User Group (MidHEUG) Alliance conference in October:
  • Deep Dive into Google Data Studio Visualization: David Norman
  • Gender Identity and Personal Pronouns: Stakeholders, Systems, and Implementation: Max Herman, Stacey Tidball, and Julie Selander 
  • Veterans Benefits Implementation: Lana Rosario 
  • Automating Single-Term Packaging: Ken Kiehm, Lindsey Konerza, and Stephanie Kearley 
  • Oh Escheat! Please cash that check: Jack Kimmes 
  • Ditching Delivered and Customizing the Student Financials Payment Plan: Sarah Hoegger
  • Student Debt Letter Project: Lessons Learned: Ken Kiehm

Twin Cities will host Big Ten Registrar’s conference in October
Preparations are underway for the Big Ten Registrar’s conference, hosted this year by the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Registrars and records professionals from 14 schools meet annually to discuss an agenda made up of topics submitted by the membership. The goal of the meeting is to exchange ideas and best practices and tackle some of the hot topics currently facing registrars across the country. Previous topics have included graduation and retention initiatives, data governance, gender identity/preferred name/personal pronouns, and academic forgiveness, to name a few. Have a burning question for our Big Ten peers? Please send to Adrienne Bricker (abricker@umn.edu) by Monday, September 24.

Twin Cities will host the Big Ten Financial Aid Associate Director conference in October
Right after the Big 10 Registrars depart the Twin Cities, the Big 10 Financial Aid Associate Directors will be arriving on campus for their annual meeting. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss with other Big 10 colleagues approaches to implementing federal regulations, new initiatives on campus, ways to support staff development, partnerships across campuses, best practices, and challenges we all face. Like noted above, if you have questions you would like posed to this group please send them to Michelle Curtis (mcurtis@umn.edu) by Wednesday, September 26.

System Registrar Council (SRC) updates (September 2018)

The SRC met for an in-person meeting at the Duluth campus on September 17 and 18. Duluth graciously hosted this event, showing that great northern Minnesota hospitality. The council worked through a packed agenda over the course of the day and a half meeting, including beginning work to update the group’s charter.

System Student Finance Council (SSFC) updates (September 2018)

Nelnet upgrade
Nelnet release 2018.1 is delayed. This release continues to be reviewed and no new date has been scheduled for its deployment.

Encouraging direct deposit
In order to encourage students to sign up for direct deposit for their credit balance refunds, the campuses sent an email to students who received a check since January 1, did not enroll in direct deposit yet and had fall registration. Morris is exploring sending a follow up message to those students who received checks this fall.

Payments and Nelnet
We continue to work with Nelnet on the terms and conditions for accepting credit cards for tuition and fees. A response to the redline draft UMN sent them, was received from the FNBO (First National Bank of Omaha, the acquiring bank for Nelnet) attorney, with some information on the items they don’t agree with and why, or questions to help them understand the changes the UMN made. We are awaiting responses to this information from OGC, OIB, and the Controller’s Office. More to come. For the time being, the “stop gap” measure that Nelnet put in place in the spring is still working and students and families can still pay using a credit card.

One Stop website content review
The SSFC has completed reviewing their content pages on the One Stop website, updating information and some How-to guides. These pages included topics such as refunds, how to pay, payment plan, direct deposit and third party billing.

System Financial Aid Council (SFAC) updates (September 2018)

NASFAA annual webinar schedule
For those of you planning ahead, NASFAA has published its full year schedule for webinar training. Take a look at nasfaa.org/2018-19_webinars.

FAFSA going mobile
An article from the Washington Post announced that the government launched the first official mobile app to guide families through a task of filing the FAFSA the week of August 20. The app, called myStudentAid, can be downloaded to Apple and Android cell phones and can be used now, with a few caveats. Read the full Washington Post article.

One Term Automated Packaging (OTAP)
This semester, UMN rolled out the functionality created as the result of the One Term Automated Packaging CS PS 9.2 Upgrade project. For the first time, fall undergraduate student awarding was done in an automated batch packaging process. This automation allows students graduating fall term to receive their financial aid package at the same time as students attending fall and spring. In addition it saves staff time, reduces manual errors, and allows better funds management.

Constitution Day 2018
Constitution Day 2018 has come and gone but all campuses met the requirement. The campuses coordinated efforts to ensure that all met the Constitution Day requirement to commemorate the September 17 signing of the Constitution. This is required in order to meet Federal Student Aid Consumer Information disclosure requirements.

FA communications aid year planning
The financial aid communications aid year planning spreadsheet used by Twin Cities has been expanded to include all campuses. It includes financial aid communications from PeopleSoft and is a helpful tool as we start planning for the upcoming year.

Information Technology updates (September 2018)

Destiny One Registration System
The latest version of Destiny One software, v5.6, was delivered on July 29, 2018. New functionality includes:

  • Conference letter of accreditation - If professional credits are awarded for a conference there is now the ability to configure a report in Conference Manager to display what was earned and additional text if needed.
  • The conference registration confirmation email now includes session information.
  • Functional testing of the Destiny One-Salesforce integration is scheduled to begin mid-September.

Custom Solutions
The Custom Solutions development team continues their work to support the TADA project (uAchieve implementation) and will be testing progress toward degree data in uAchieve starting in October. The benefits of PTD encoding include:

  • Ability to provide more targeted service to students in their final year.
  • Ability to identify and anticipate program bottlenecks.
  • Foundational work for more innovative data analytics over time.

Student Data and Analytics
The advising leadership working group has been granted access to two dashboards in a production like environment. Feedback they provided has been incorporated into the first release of a dashboard that delivers Progress Towards Degree data. This includes the ability to identify the count of students who are on track/off track, information on admission to the college as well as entry college information, enhanced details around degree applicable and excess elective splits, as well as a direct link to the students APLUS page.

Program and Plan data has been added to retention risk modeling related to a students career. The team is analyzing how the timing of when students add, drop, or carry multiple plans and relates to retention. The team has reviewed the current results based on the static training data with other data analyst around the institution.

Crookston updates (September 2018)

BOR approves Crookston vice chancellor
John Hoffman’s appointment as vice chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs at Crookston was approved by the Board of Regents in it’s September meeting.

New dual admissions agreement
University of Minnesota Crookston and Red Lake Nation College (RLNC) have announced a new comprehensive dual admissions agreement. The agreement establishes a cooperative academic relationship between the two institutions. RLNC president Dan King and U of M Crookston chancellor Mary Holz-Clause signed the new memorandum of agreement on Aug. 7.

Crookston Homecoming
Homecoming 2018 takes place September 28 and 29. The theme for this year’s activities is “There’s No Place Like Homecoming.” For more information view homecoming activities, visit www.crk.umn.edu/homecoming.

Duluth updates (September 2018)

MidHEUG Alliance conference presenter
David Norman, Duluth OTR Business and Information Analyst, will be presenting a pre-workshop session called “Deep Dive into Google Data Studio Visualization” at the MidHEUG conference in October.

Morris updates (September 2018)

Sustainability efforts at Morris
Our green campus continues to collect recognition for its sustainability efforts:

  • The National Association of College and University Business Officers recognized Morris with a 2018 Excellence in Sustainability Award.
  • Sierra chose Morris as one of 40 "Cool Schools" for 2018.
  • Morris earned a STARS Gold rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Staff updates
Nick Skulan joined One Stop Student Services on September 4, serving as our newest One Stop counselor. Welcome, Nick!

Rochester updates (September 2018)

BOR approves Rochester vice chancellor
Jeffrey Ratliff-Crain’s appointment as vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and Innovation at Rochester was approved by the Board of Regents in it’s September meeting.

Staff updates
Rochester campus has had a flurry of staffing activity. The following people have joined:

  • Cassie Zell, Admissions
  • Ramiro Alvarez, Health CORE and Access Student Services Coordinator
  • Jeff Baier, Disability Resources Coordinator 

Also two new Success Coaches have been hired and will begin October 1.

Twin Cities updates (September 2018)

ASR-IT leadership changes
Jaime Wascalus has accepted the ASR -IT leadership role of Chief Information Officer. Her technical background, strategic vision and collaborative team focus will allow ASR to continue to be successful. Jaime has degrees in Mathematics and German and a Master’s in Management of Technology from the University of Minnesota.

Kristy Davis will assume the title of Director, ASR-IT. project management skills and experience working with ASR units.

Grant Clavelle, former ASR-IT director, retired from the University on September 4. Grant has been an instrumental part of student success, employee development and system oversight in ASR. We thank him for his years of service in enhancing the student experience across the system.

Other Staff Changes

  • Brittany Greaner began work on Wednesday, September 12. She is a Developer 2 on the Custom Solutions team. 
  • Chris Lynch has joined the Student Data & Analytics team on September 4, 2018.
  • Kristin Hummel was recently promoted to the role of One Stop Counselor 4.


Open positions

  • Business/Systems Analyst 1, ASR Central, job id: 326479
  • Executive Office and Administrative Specialist, OTR, job id: 326434
  • Campus Ops/Protection Manager 1, CTS, job id: 325842