The System Campus Update (SCU) newsletter has run every other month for the last five years. It has helped us to share information across campuses and stay informed of projects and staff comings and goings.
However, things have changed. In a recent survey we sent to newsletter recipients, we found that the newsletter was no longer a critical component to cross-campus communication. Readers most valued project updates and system council news, but indicated that they get these kinds of information in other, more timely ways such as through project communications, meetings, and regular contact with their peers.
After careful consideration, we have decided to discontinue the System Campus Update newsletter. The SCU blog will remain available as an archive. We will also maintain the All Campus Google Group. Eleanor will continue to keep a pulse on system campus matters and has the ability to reach this audience on short notice. You may contact her directly with any needs.
We encourage you to continue sharing information in meaningful ways with those who need to hear it. This includes communicating with stakeholders in your projects, making sure to deliver critical information from system council meetings to your staff, and building relationships with colleagues across units. As always, system project statuses are available.
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Eleanor's update (January 2019)
The holidays are over, the new year has begun, and we continue our projects and work. At the December BOR meeting, the draft of the 2018 University Performance and Accountability Report was shared. It was very interesting to see in a consolidated way what the system has been working on over the past year. There were some impressive accomplishments to which we have all contributed.
Sue's update (January 2019)
Spring term is off and running even though it still feels like winter. Thanks to all of you that have continued to finish fall term and prepare for the start of term activities. The government shutdown hasn’t impacted the University as much as other external areas, however, students have more hoops to climb through and some guardians and students may experience difficulty in paying their tuition bill. Hopefully, it will end soon.
Spring term is a time of preparing for administrative transitions. Also, Provost Hanson has taken leave until April and Vice Provost McMaster is filling her role. (Interestingly, Provost Hanson has been in the office every other day.) Jennifer Reckner and I are filling the vice provost role until Provost Hanson returns.
The University’s Strategic Enrollment Management group continues to meet monthly. They are looking at issues that impact all of us across the state.
The Twin Cities campus has a Liberal Education Redesign committee revisiting the requirements and developing one or more possible designs/models for a revised curriculum. An update was presented at the December BOR meeting.
I hope all of you are doing well and excited about all the change ahead of us.
December Board of Regents meeting
The December Board of Regents meeting was packed with several items of interest. They presented a near-final draft of the annual 2018 University Performance and Accountability Report (pg 178). The final will be presented in February’s meeting. The report is a reference guide to the University’s progress toward strategic goals. It is very comprehensive and includes all campus’ vision/mission, strategic planning, and Maroon & Gold progress.
As part of the Finance docket, nonresident/nonreciprocity UMTC tuition was presented. The resolution recommended nonresident/nonreciprocity UMTC tuition for 2020. While the full proposed budget will not be presented to the Board for review and action until June, over the last three years the University has increased the Twin Cities nonresident tuition rates at an annual average rate of 11.7%. For FY19, that rate ranks 12 out of 14 schools in the Big Ten.
The President recommends a 10% increase in the Twin Cities’ NRNR undergraduate tuition rate for FY 2020. This rate would apply to incoming students only. This is based on an analysis of comparative rates in the Big Ten, the quality experience offered to students, the potential impact different rate increases would have on recruitment and the effectiveness of corresponding discounting strategies. This recommendation includes a commitment to continue the practice of the last several years for continuing nonresident nonreciprocity students: holding their tuition rate increase to no more than 5.5%.
As part of the Finance docket, nonresident/nonreciprocity UMTC tuition was presented. The resolution recommended nonresident/nonreciprocity UMTC tuition for 2020. While the full proposed budget will not be presented to the Board for review and action until June, over the last three years the University has increased the Twin Cities nonresident tuition rates at an annual average rate of 11.7%. For FY19, that rate ranks 12 out of 14 schools in the Big Ten.
The President recommends a 10% increase in the Twin Cities’ NRNR undergraduate tuition rate for FY 2020. This rate would apply to incoming students only. This is based on an analysis of comparative rates in the Big Ten, the quality experience offered to students, the potential impact different rate increases would have on recruitment and the effectiveness of corresponding discounting strategies. This recommendation includes a commitment to continue the practice of the last several years for continuing nonresident nonreciprocity students: holding their tuition rate increase to no more than 5.5%.
Department of Education Negotiated Rulemaking
Tina Falkner has been selected to serve as an alternate negotiator representing four-year public institutions for the current round of Negotiated Rulemaking with the federal Department of Education (ED). As an alternate, she will sit in on all the negotiations and confer with the primary negotiator about the proposed regulatory changes to the Higher Education Act (HEA) drafted and circulated by ED.
The ultimate goal of this kind of rulemaking is that all parties involved reach consensus on the proposed regulatory changes. This round of rulemaking covers a wide variety of topics ranging from eliminating the definition of the credit hour to expanding the types of institutions that are eligible to participate in federal Title IV financial aid programs.
You can read the proposed redlines of the portions of HEA that are being negotiated. Since this will take months, Tina will provide updates as the process unfolds. Please feel free to reach out to her with questions, concerns, or ideas for the negotiated rulemaking.
The ultimate goal of this kind of rulemaking is that all parties involved reach consensus on the proposed regulatory changes. This round of rulemaking covers a wide variety of topics ranging from eliminating the definition of the credit hour to expanding the types of institutions that are eligible to participate in federal Title IV financial aid programs.
You can read the proposed redlines of the portions of HEA that are being negotiated. Since this will take months, Tina will provide updates as the process unfolds. Please feel free to reach out to her with questions, concerns, or ideas for the negotiated rulemaking.
System Registrar Council (SRC) updates (January 2019)
Several Academic Policies are under review. The Academic Calendars policy, Class Scheduling policy, Holds on Records policy, and Using Email as Official Communication policy have each been reviewed and will be sent to the faculty committee for comprehensive policy review.
The updated Grading and Transcripts policy is now published. The policy was reorganized for clarity and we changed the deadline for resolving incomplete grades for undergraduates. The Policy Library includes a note that the new deadline for incompletes becomes effective for grades assigned in spring 2019 or later. There is a small group of staff working on changing the lapsing processes to reflect the new incompletes deadline for campuses other than Duluth.
Finally, the SRC will be reviewing a business case document about whether we should do any technical work to reflect the policy language for X and K grades.
The updated Grading and Transcripts policy is now published. The policy was reorganized for clarity and we changed the deadline for resolving incomplete grades for undergraduates. The Policy Library includes a note that the new deadline for incompletes becomes effective for grades assigned in spring 2019 or later. There is a small group of staff working on changing the lapsing processes to reflect the new incompletes deadline for campuses other than Duluth.
Finally, the SRC will be reviewing a business case document about whether we should do any technical work to reflect the policy language for X and K grades.
System Student Finance Council (SSFC) updates (January 2019)
In December Nelnet gave the University permission to work with Wells Fargo to set up new Merchant Identification Numbers (MIDs) to facilitate credit card processing using the Nelnet payment gateway. Once the MIDs are assigned, ASR-IT Student Finance will work with the Nelnet Account Manager who will migrate the new MIDs to production. Once a MID is in production, ASR-IT will monitor to ensure that payments are processed under that number for each campus. The update takes just a few minutes and will not result in downtime. Billing and payment cycles will be kept in mind when scheduling the change.
Staff on each campus who use the reporting in UMPay to do reconciliation will have access to the totals processed under the new numbers. Until the new MIDs are in place, we will keep the current workaround we’ve had for the past several terms.
System Financial Aid Council (SFAC) updates (January 2019)
The Department of Education (ED) is fully funded for the 2019 fiscal year (award year 2019-20). The partial government shutdown is causing issues for the processing of FAFSAs for award years 2018-19 and 2019-20 that require the Selective Service database match and has caused multiple institutions to experience a spike of comment code 390 on processed Institutional Student Information Records (ISIR). ED is aware of the issue. At the first opportunity after the shutdown ends, ED plans to reprocess all affected ISIRs. More info is available from NASFAA: Government Shutdown May Impact Some FAFSA Database Matches.
Additionally, the IRS “Get Transcript Online” and “Get Transcript By Mail” services are unavailable. ED is working to release verification guidance on alternative forms of documentation.
Additionally, the IRS “Get Transcript Online” and “Get Transcript By Mail” services are unavailable. ED is working to release verification guidance on alternative forms of documentation.
Information Technology updates (January 2019)
PeopleTools 8.56
Business analysts who support Campus Solutions are currently testing for the PeopleTools 8.56 project that will go live in spring 2019. The date is yet to be finalized.
DORS v5.7
The latest version of Destiny One Registration System software v5.7 was delivered to the production instance on 12/2/2018, after successful validation of fixes and new functionality. New functionality in this release related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) includes the ability to forget an individual and new consent features.
TADA and student athletes
The Custom Solutions team began testing the integration between TADA and student degree progress applications. Work continues on the new version of the student athlete certification tool for UMNTC student athletes. They successfully integrated the Student Degree Progress and Student Athlete Certification applications with TADA.
Program/plan and class enrollment data
Students' program and plan data by term, as well as their class enrollment status by term, are being designed to be built into UM Analytics for all system campuses. This will allow users to easily count and look at trends of students and their associated program/plans by term.
Retention risk
Retention risk code and models are being tested against additional system campus data. Data workflows are being updated to get closer to being able to run this analysis in one term, predicting if students will return for the next term.
U of M Day of Data recap
The U of M Day of Data 2019 was held on Friday, January 11. The event was all about learning and sharing new data skills and connecting with data enthusiasts across the University. The event was attended by 47 students, 83 instructors and staff, and 30 online participants. The schedule featured 15 different sessions, on topics ranging from Tableau and Qualtrics tips, acting out an artificial neural network, making online maps with geographic data, and exploring data management and decision-making in various contexts around the University community. The event was made possible by the efforts of over 30 volunteer session leaders and facilitators. Special thanks go out to several colleagues from Rochester and Duluth who presented sessions at the Day of Data. For more information, visit z.umn.edu/dayofdata.
Business analysts who support Campus Solutions are currently testing for the PeopleTools 8.56 project that will go live in spring 2019. The date is yet to be finalized.
Address Cleaner
The Campus Community/Shared Data team is working with HR to move an upgraded version of the Address Cleaner to production at the end of January. The parent/guest access team is also working with OIT to identify users who will need to be notified of the new password rules that staff and students received starting in November. No date has been set for the notices but we are asking that this notice waits until first three spring due dates are passed for each campus.
1098-T
Student Financials are working on 1098-T processing for the 2018 tax year. For most students and their parent/guest, the electronic form will be available after all of the steps for processing are completed (estimated to be around 1/25/19 but must be done by 1/31/19). The paper forms are scheduled for printing late in the week of 1/21/19 so they will be received the week of 1/28/19.
The Campus Community/Shared Data team is working with HR to move an upgraded version of the Address Cleaner to production at the end of January. The parent/guest access team is also working with OIT to identify users who will need to be notified of the new password rules that staff and students received starting in November. No date has been set for the notices but we are asking that this notice waits until first three spring due dates are passed for each campus.
1098-T
Student Financials are working on 1098-T processing for the 2018 tax year. For most students and their parent/guest, the electronic form will be available after all of the steps for processing are completed (estimated to be around 1/25/19 but must be done by 1/31/19). The paper forms are scheduled for printing late in the week of 1/21/19 so they will be received the week of 1/28/19.
DORS v5.7
The latest version of Destiny One Registration System software v5.7 was delivered to the production instance on 12/2/2018, after successful validation of fixes and new functionality. New functionality in this release related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) includes the ability to forget an individual and new consent features.
TADA and student athletes
The Custom Solutions team began testing the integration between TADA and student degree progress applications. Work continues on the new version of the student athlete certification tool for UMNTC student athletes. They successfully integrated the Student Degree Progress and Student Athlete Certification applications with TADA.
Program/plan and class enrollment data
Students' program and plan data by term, as well as their class enrollment status by term, are being designed to be built into UM Analytics for all system campuses. This will allow users to easily count and look at trends of students and their associated program/plans by term.
Retention risk
Retention risk code and models are being tested against additional system campus data. Data workflows are being updated to get closer to being able to run this analysis in one term, predicting if students will return for the next term.
U of M Day of Data recap
The U of M Day of Data 2019 was held on Friday, January 11. The event was all about learning and sharing new data skills and connecting with data enthusiasts across the University. The event was attended by 47 students, 83 instructors and staff, and 30 online participants. The schedule featured 15 different sessions, on topics ranging from Tableau and Qualtrics tips, acting out an artificial neural network, making online maps with geographic data, and exploring data management and decision-making in various contexts around the University community. The event was made possible by the efforts of over 30 volunteer session leaders and facilitators. Special thanks go out to several colleagues from Rochester and Duluth who presented sessions at the Day of Data. For more information, visit z.umn.edu/dayofdata.
Crookston updates (January 2019)
National recognition for Crookston
Staff Updates
Cynthia Prom, director of Financial Aid, has taken a new position outside the University and will be leaving January 25. We wish her well.
Donna Hartel with OTR has been temporarily reassigned to two other departments that are in need of her skills. Effective February 8, she will be 1/3 time to Alumni Affairs and 2/3 time to Admissions. In July we will reevaluate her assignments.
- One of the Top 100 Baccalaureate Colleges in the US by Washington Monthly in its 2018 College Guide. #85 (its highest ranking to date) in its category, Baccalaureate Colleges. The ONLY Minnesota college in the top 100 on that list.
- Money magazine named the campus to the Best Colleges for 2018-19. The campus ranked at number 190 on the list of the 727 best colleges in America.
- In the U.S. News and World Report category Midwest Top Public Regional Colleges for 2019, the UMN Crookston ranked in the number two spot; the campus has ranked in the top four consecutively for 22 years.
- The University of Minnesota Crookston has been ranked in the top 10 percent in the country in the category Best for the Money by College Factual, an online educational resource.
Staff Updates
Cynthia Prom, director of Financial Aid, has taken a new position outside the University and will be leaving January 25. We wish her well.
Donna Hartel with OTR has been temporarily reassigned to two other departments that are in need of her skills. Effective February 8, she will be 1/3 time to Alumni Affairs and 2/3 time to Admissions. In July we will reevaluate her assignments.
Duluth updates (January 2019)
Associate vice chancellor for HR
Mark Yuran joined UMD as its first associate vice chancellor for Human Resources. We look forward to collaborating with him. He most recently served as the system associate vice chancellor/CHRO for the Lone Star College System, a public, multi-campus system serving more than 90,000 students.
Registrar hiring BA II
Registrar’s office has been approved to post a full-time business analyst II position to work on curriculum and uAchieve deliverables, College in the Schools support, job support, and reporting.
Baden-Wurttemberg program participation
In fall 2018, Joanna McCord, assistant registrar at UMD, participated in the 2018 Baden-Wurttemberg program, hosted by the University of Konstanz in Germany. This program helps to build international understanding between educational systems to support international education, study abroad exchange programs, and transfer of academic credit between institutions in Germany, the United States, and Canada. The team gathered first-hand knowledge about the academic programs and connected with professionals at the University of Konstanz and Thurgau University of Teacher Education (PHTG) in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, including their collaborative Studying Without Borders program. The program included opportunities to get to know a variety of institutions, including research universities, a university of applied sciences, two universities of education, a university that focused on cooperative education, a Gymnasium (academically-focused high school), and a Chamber of Handicrafts (vocational training center). The team also had the opportunity to participate in a program with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts.
Mark Yuran joined UMD as its first associate vice chancellor for Human Resources. We look forward to collaborating with him. He most recently served as the system associate vice chancellor/CHRO for the Lone Star College System, a public, multi-campus system serving more than 90,000 students.
Registrar hiring BA II
Registrar’s office has been approved to post a full-time business analyst II position to work on curriculum and uAchieve deliverables, College in the Schools support, job support, and reporting.
Baden-Wurttemberg program participation
In fall 2018, Joanna McCord, assistant registrar at UMD, participated in the 2018 Baden-Wurttemberg program, hosted by the University of Konstanz in Germany. This program helps to build international understanding between educational systems to support international education, study abroad exchange programs, and transfer of academic credit between institutions in Germany, the United States, and Canada. The team gathered first-hand knowledge about the academic programs and connected with professionals at the University of Konstanz and Thurgau University of Teacher Education (PHTG) in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, including their collaborative Studying Without Borders program. The program included opportunities to get to know a variety of institutions, including research universities, a university of applied sciences, two universities of education, a university that focused on cooperative education, a Gymnasium (academically-focused high school), and a Chamber of Handicrafts (vocational training center). The team also had the opportunity to participate in a program with the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts.
Morris updates (January 2019)
On December 21, Bryan Herrmann was named to permanently fill the position of vice chancellor for Finance and Facilities at the University of Minnesota Morris. Herrmann had served in an interim role since 2015. Herrmann was selected after a national search in which two other finalists visited campus.The vice chancellor for finance and facilities supervises the following departments: Business Office, Facilities Management including design and construction, Instructional Technology and the University police. Herrmann is a graduate of UMM and the University of Minnesota Duluth.
Rochester updates (January 2019)
Alison Bosco joined the One Stop team as our new One Stop counselor 3, replacing Whitney Cook. Ali began on 12/17/18.
Twin Cities updates (January 2019)
One Stop Student Services - 2018 Survey Results
Every year One Stop Student Services sends out a satisfaction survey to students served during the fall. We ask for feedback on our service standards (knowledge, efficiency, empathy, welcoming) so we can continue to improve our services to students. In 2018 we increased our satisfaction percentages in all areas. This equates to an overall 6% increase in customer service satisfaction over last year. View the One Stop 2018 satisfaction survey results infographic.
New hires
Retirements
Every year One Stop Student Services sends out a satisfaction survey to students served during the fall. We ask for feedback on our service standards (knowledge, efficiency, empathy, welcoming) so we can continue to improve our services to students. In 2018 we increased our satisfaction percentages in all areas. This equates to an overall 6% increase in customer service satisfaction over last year. View the One Stop 2018 satisfaction survey results infographic.
New hires
- Matt Duggan started full time with OTR as an executive office and admin specialist on Monday, December 31. He is located in 200 Fraser Hall. Matt will work with duplicate diplomas, duplicate ID resolution, and collegiate work. He was previously a student worker in OTR at both Twin Cities and Duluth.
- Gelane Firisa began work as a finance professional 2 in Classroom Technical Services (CTS) on Monday, December 10. She reports to David Crane. Prior to joining CTS, Gelane worked as a finance professional at the St. Paul extension office, and previously in finance roles for CLA.
- Daniel (Dan) Sagisser, has been hired by ASR-IT as a business/systems analyst 3 for the TADA project, effective January 14. He reports to Santiago Fernandez-Gimenez. Previously, Dan worked as a developer for CEHD.
- Liz Johnson transferred from her role as program/project specialist in OTR to the position of business/systems analyst 2 in the OCM on Monday, December 10. Liz reports to Sarah Kussow.
- Kendall Spase, ASR-IT, has moved from a business/systems analyst 2 role to a business/systems analyst 3 role with the TADA project, effective January 7. She reports to Santiago Fernandez-Gimenez.
Retirements
- Holly Johnson, Business/Systems Analyst 3 in ASR-IT, has been employed with the University since January 1997.
- Michael Leech, Plan/Engr/Software Professional 4 in CTS, has been employed with the University since June 2004.
- Raymond Troyer, Plan/Engr/Software Manager 2 in CTS, has been employed with the University since January 1999.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Duo Security requirement began November 1
Over the next 12 months, as it becomes time for you to reset your password, you will also enroll in Duo Security for UMN sign-in. Technology Help is available at z.umn.edu/dotheduo.
People Tools 8.56 upgrade - Fluid navigation approach
The PeopleTools 8.56 upgrade has begun. The target date for go-live is April 7, 2019, with testing scheduled for January through March. In July of 2019, Oracle will discontinue support of our current version which prompted the timing of this upgrade.
One of the intents of this project is to move from Classic navigation to Fluid navigation for administrative users. In doing so, the header and navigation will look different, but the functionality of pages will remain unchanged. The project team continues to work on the configuration of the fluid navigation and you can expect more details in December.
One of the intents of this project is to move from Classic navigation to Fluid navigation for administrative users. In doing so, the header and navigation will look different, but the functionality of pages will remain unchanged. The project team continues to work on the configuration of the fluid navigation and you can expect more details in December.
Transfer Articulation and Degree Audit (TADA) project update
We have started outreach for establishing best practices. Representatives for the Twin Cities were identified by the Advising Steering Committee and there is a group established in Duluth. A few other updates:
- The project team began testing and the core processing is performing well so far.
- The analysis of progress to degree encoding for majors with required minors has started.
- The team completed a rapid prototyping usability study on the audit report. This was done with students on the Duluth campus.
- The design for how to display “in-progress” and “future term” registration with grade basis in APAS has been completed.
Fall conference updates
Fall—in-particular, October—is a heavy time of year for conferences. Here are some updates from some of the larger conferences staff attended.
Big Ten Academic Alliance Military & Veterans - 10/8-11
Jabra Kawas, the assistant director of One Stop & University Veterans Services, attended the Big Ten Academic Alliance Military and Veterans annual meeting hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Representatives from veterans services offices from all Big Ten schools were in attendance. Workshops included a review of the Center for Wounded Veterans and Illinois Model, school updates, working with advancement and corporate relations, and an update from the Military Family Research Institute. Jabra provided a review of the University Veterans Services annual report and led a discussion on navigating politics in higher education. Next year’s conference will be held at Indiana University. The University of Minnesota is scheduled to host in 2024.
Big Ten Bursars Conference - 10/14-16
Tom Schmidt, from Student Account Assistance in the Office of Student Finance at Twin Cities, attended the annual Big Ten Bursars meeting hosted by Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A full day and a half were dedicated to discussing pressing issues submitted by each of the member institutions. Discussions covered billing, cashiering, customer service, collections, financial aid disbursement, credit balance refunds, student loans, student retention, tax issues, and more. During the meeting, Rutgers did a session on what things they do around media. They talked about how they analyzed their website to determine what they needed to concentrate on and how they analyzed the changes to see how usage improved. Their bursar’s office also talked about how they started a YouTube channel where their staff has created short videos around the work they do or items that students need to know about.
Big Ten Financial Aid Associate Directors conference - 10/17-19
The Twin Cities hosted 30 guests for the 1.5-day conference. Participants submit questions ahead of time, with answers provided in writing, and followed by an in-person discussion of topics including administration, policy, customer service, and processing. Tina Falkner provided the warmest welcome with our own Honeycrisp apples and the story behind them. These meetings are a great chance to measure ourselves against our peers in a non-competitive way, to share best practices and solicit advice on common challenges like summer sessions and the use of student employees. Interestingly, the University of Wisconsin-Madison accepts SNAP benefits through their convenience store food stores on campus, but not the cafeteria/dining centers. There seemed to be an even split between schools providing PJ (professional judgment) forms online versus after a pre-screen contact. Also of interest is that almost all of the schools plan to award new freshman between December and mid-February, with continuing students awarded from January to June. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities intends to send our awards out mid-to-late February and July respectively.
Dreamforce 2018 - 9/25-28
Jenni Peterson attended Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual conference, in San Francisco from September 25-28. Dreamforce has 170,000 attendees from a variety of industries. The number of sessions focused on higher ed continues to increase every year. Highlights included learning more about Marketing Cloud communications around student retention, advisor link product, reporting tips and tricks, as well as new products coming for 2019.
Jenni Peterson attended Dreamforce, Salesforce’s annual conference, in San Francisco from September 25-28. Dreamforce has 170,000 attendees from a variety of industries. The number of sessions focused on higher ed continues to increase every year. Highlights included learning more about Marketing Cloud communications around student retention, advisor link product, reporting tips and tricks, as well as new products coming for 2019.
2018 Transfer Specialist & DARS User conference - 10/1-4
Stephanie Sutton, Julie Klecker, Kathryn Kvam, and Laura Butchko from ASR Continuity & Compliance Degree Audit team attended the MN State Transfer Specialist & DARS User conference held at the beginning of October in Breezy Point, MN. We all use the same software (DARS/uAchieve) from CollegeSource for our transfer articulation and degree audit systems. Stephanie and Laura presented on UMNTC’s new Transfer Evaluation Process (TES), outlining the cross-departmental collaboration that happened to ensure the new process was efficient and transparent for students, staff, and anyone looking for course equivalencies at UMNTC.
Stephanie Sutton, Julie Klecker, Kathryn Kvam, and Laura Butchko from ASR Continuity & Compliance Degree Audit team attended the MN State Transfer Specialist & DARS User conference held at the beginning of October in Breezy Point, MN. We all use the same software (DARS/uAchieve) from CollegeSource for our transfer articulation and degree audit systems. Stephanie and Laura presented on UMNTC’s new Transfer Evaluation Process (TES), outlining the cross-departmental collaboration that happened to ensure the new process was efficient and transparent for students, staff, and anyone looking for course equivalencies at UMNTC.
Midwest Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (MASFAA) - 10/14-17
A high number of MAFAA attendees contributed to a fantastic turnout as described by conference chairs. Justin Draeger, NASFAA CEO, provided an update on the upcoming midterm elections. A recap of elements of the Tax Cuts and Job Act that was signed into law in December included an endowment excise tax and amounts discharged under death and total disability as non-taxable. The last HEA passed in 2008 and technically expired in 2013. It’s unclear what reauthorization will look like if both parties control a chamber. In addition, conference attendees raised over $2,000 for Believe—training service dogs for vets.
A high number of MAFAA attendees contributed to a fantastic turnout as described by conference chairs. Justin Draeger, NASFAA CEO, provided an update on the upcoming midterm elections. A recap of elements of the Tax Cuts and Job Act that was signed into law in December included an endowment excise tax and amounts discharged under death and total disability as non-taxable. The last HEA passed in 2008 and technically expired in 2013. It’s unclear what reauthorization will look like if both parties control a chamber. In addition, conference attendees raised over $2,000 for Believe—training service dogs for vets.
Tableau conference - 10/22-25
Chris Johnson of ASR-IT was one of 17,000 attendees at the annual Tableau conference in New Orleans in October with over 439 sessions offered. Tableau is a business intelligence software that helps people transform data into actionable insights. Tableau’s mission is to help people see and understand their data by gaining powerful insights through visualizations. Chris is one of several ASR-IT staff who use Tableau and he is able to share his learning and experience with those individuals in order to improve the data service(s) we provide to faculty, staff, and students.
Chris Johnson of ASR-IT was one of 17,000 attendees at the annual Tableau conference in New Orleans in October with over 439 sessions offered. Tableau is a business intelligence software that helps people transform data into actionable insights. Tableau’s mission is to help people see and understand their data by gaining powerful insights through visualizations. Chris is one of several ASR-IT staff who use Tableau and he is able to share his learning and experience with those individuals in order to improve the data service(s) we provide to faculty, staff, and students.
Midwest Higher Education User Group (MidHEUG) Alliance 2018 - 10/11-12
UMN was well represented and our presentations well-attended. This was a great opportunity for staff to learn and network. Sarah Hoegger presented on the new payment plan process; Max Herman, Julie Selander, and Stacey Tidball presented on the gender identity and personal pronouns project; Lana Rosario presented on navigating veterans benefits implementation; Dan Delaney on tracking diploma status; Jack Kimmes on the escheatment process; Lindsey Konerza, Stephanie Kearley, and Ken Kiehm presented on automating single term packaging; and David Norman presented a deep dive into Google Data Studio Visualization.
Big Ten Registrar’s conference - 10/14-16
Hosted by ASR at Twin Cities, a full day and a half were dedicated to discussing pressing issues submitted by each of the member institutions at the Big Ten Registrar’s conference. Topics ranged from diplomas to policy to getting our institutions ready for the cloud. New this year was an opportunity for institutions to give lightning presentations of an interesting product or initiative. Carin Anderson shared our Study Space Finder. Other examples included the academic reporting toolkit from the University of Michigan and innovative data visualizations created at the University of Wisconsin. This was a great opportunity to share, learn, and connect with our peers. Next year’s meeting will be at the University of Nebraska.
UMN was well represented and our presentations well-attended. This was a great opportunity for staff to learn and network. Sarah Hoegger presented on the new payment plan process; Max Herman, Julie Selander, and Stacey Tidball presented on the gender identity and personal pronouns project; Lana Rosario presented on navigating veterans benefits implementation; Dan Delaney on tracking diploma status; Jack Kimmes on the escheatment process; Lindsey Konerza, Stephanie Kearley, and Ken Kiehm presented on automating single term packaging; and David Norman presented a deep dive into Google Data Studio Visualization.
Big Ten Registrar’s conference - 10/14-16
Hosted by ASR at Twin Cities, a full day and a half were dedicated to discussing pressing issues submitted by each of the member institutions at the Big Ten Registrar’s conference. Topics ranged from diplomas to policy to getting our institutions ready for the cloud. New this year was an opportunity for institutions to give lightning presentations of an interesting product or initiative. Carin Anderson shared our Study Space Finder. Other examples included the academic reporting toolkit from the University of Michigan and innovative data visualizations created at the University of Wisconsin. This was a great opportunity to share, learn, and connect with our peers. Next year’s meeting will be at the University of Nebraska.
Big Ten Academic Alliance Military & Veterans - 10/8-11
Jabra Kawas, the assistant director of One Stop & University Veterans Services, attended the Big Ten Academic Alliance Military and Veterans annual meeting hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Representatives from veterans services offices from all Big Ten schools were in attendance. Workshops included a review of the Center for Wounded Veterans and Illinois Model, school updates, working with advancement and corporate relations, and an update from the Military Family Research Institute. Jabra provided a review of the University Veterans Services annual report and led a discussion on navigating politics in higher education. Next year’s conference will be held at Indiana University. The University of Minnesota is scheduled to host in 2024.
Big Ten Bursars Conference - 10/14-16
Tom Schmidt, from Student Account Assistance in the Office of Student Finance at Twin Cities, attended the annual Big Ten Bursars meeting hosted by Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A full day and a half were dedicated to discussing pressing issues submitted by each of the member institutions. Discussions covered billing, cashiering, customer service, collections, financial aid disbursement, credit balance refunds, student loans, student retention, tax issues, and more. During the meeting, Rutgers did a session on what things they do around media. They talked about how they analyzed their website to determine what they needed to concentrate on and how they analyzed the changes to see how usage improved. Their bursar’s office also talked about how they started a YouTube channel where their staff has created short videos around the work they do or items that students need to know about.
Big Ten Financial Aid Associate Directors conference - 10/17-19
The Twin Cities hosted 30 guests for the 1.5-day conference. Participants submit questions ahead of time, with answers provided in writing, and followed by an in-person discussion of topics including administration, policy, customer service, and processing. Tina Falkner provided the warmest welcome with our own Honeycrisp apples and the story behind them. These meetings are a great chance to measure ourselves against our peers in a non-competitive way, to share best practices and solicit advice on common challenges like summer sessions and the use of student employees. Interestingly, the University of Wisconsin-Madison accepts SNAP benefits through their convenience store food stores on campus, but not the cafeteria/dining centers. There seemed to be an even split between schools providing PJ (professional judgment) forms online versus after a pre-screen contact. Also of interest is that almost all of the schools plan to award new freshman between December and mid-February, with continuing students awarded from January to June. The University of Minnesota Twin Cities intends to send our awards out mid-to-late February and July respectively.
Astra Aspire - 10/14-17
Christine Mounts and Bob Quinney from Office of Classroom Management had an opportunity to attend the Astra Aspire users' conference. Bob presented on system administration and Christine presented on users and security roles.
With the University's upgrade to Astra Schedule's newest version still pending in the testing phases, the conference provided an excellent opportunity to network with other Ad Astra client schools, get a heads up from developers on product roadmaps, and hear directly about improvements being made to Astra Schedule v.8. There was also ample room to provide feedback and input on potential enhancements for future releases as well as on current product functionality and performance.
Christine Mounts and Bob Quinney from Office of Classroom Management had an opportunity to attend the Astra Aspire users' conference. Bob presented on system administration and Christine presented on users and security roles.
With the University's upgrade to Astra Schedule's newest version still pending in the testing phases, the conference provided an excellent opportunity to network with other Ad Astra client schools, get a heads up from developers on product roadmaps, and hear directly about improvements being made to Astra Schedule v.8. There was also ample room to provide feedback and input on potential enhancements for future releases as well as on current product functionality and performance.
Institute for Student Services Professionals (ISSP)
At this year’s ISSP conference, six One Stop representatives attended valuable learning sessions, had a tour through the Buckeye Link at The Ohio State University (similar to our One Stop), and presented information to more than 220 colleagues from other institutions of higher education. Tom Taff and Julie Selander presented information to help other institutions better demonstrate the value and impact of their student services work. They showed how One Stop Student Services uses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and student records for new approaches in data analysis and visualization to “tell the story” of student services and student success. Ian Macomber, Trinity Muller, Maia Noll, and Julie Selander presented concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion and how One Stop Student Services has been empowering staff to lead this important work to create a more inclusive workplace and welcoming experiences for students.
At this year’s ISSP conference, six One Stop representatives attended valuable learning sessions, had a tour through the Buckeye Link at The Ohio State University (similar to our One Stop), and presented information to more than 220 colleagues from other institutions of higher education. Tom Taff and Julie Selander presented information to help other institutions better demonstrate the value and impact of their student services work. They showed how One Stop Student Services uses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and student records for new approaches in data analysis and visualization to “tell the story” of student services and student success. Ian Macomber, Trinity Muller, Maia Noll, and Julie Selander presented concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion and how One Stop Student Services has been empowering staff to lead this important work to create a more inclusive workplace and welcoming experiences for students.
UMACRAO Conference - 11/7-9
Registrars and admissions staff from North Dakota, South Dakota, Manitoba, Minnesota, and Iowa met on various topics: GDPR, commencement practices, social media, and FERPA roundtables. Other sessions on social justice and inclusion, customer service improvements, serving veterans, prior learning assessment, withdrawal policy implementation, and several other pertinent sessions.
Registrars and admissions staff from North Dakota, South Dakota, Manitoba, Minnesota, and Iowa met on various topics: GDPR, commencement practices, social media, and FERPA roundtables. Other sessions on social justice and inclusion, customer service improvements, serving veterans, prior learning assessment, withdrawal policy implementation, and several other pertinent sessions.
New Error & Incident form
ASR maintains an Error & Incident reporting form, used to report and track system or service problems that may impact faculty, staff, and/or students. This week, a refreshed Error & Incident (E&I) reporting form was made available: https://asrprojects.umn.edu/error-and-incident-report. A new E&I process guide is also available. This document outlines how to complete the form, communication outcomes, and follow up steps that might be needed. There are also instructions about ServiceNow access and data archiving plans.
Please update your bookmarks and anywhere you may have the form linked for others to access. The form is also linked from the ASR Intranet, the ASR Projects site, and will be updated on other staff resources by individual units.
The Error & Incident form received a facelift to make the process smoother, more user-friendly, and flexible for varied situations. Built in Drupal Lite, it addresses many pain points of the old form. Improvements include:
Please update your bookmarks and anywhere you may have the form linked for others to access. The form is also linked from the ASR Intranet, the ASR Projects site, and will be updated on other staff resources by individual units.
The Error & Incident form received a facelift to make the process smoother, more user-friendly, and flexible for varied situations. Built in Drupal Lite, it addresses many pain points of the old form. Improvements include:
- Allows for dynamic questions based on the status of an incident
- Connects ServiceNow ticket information
- Generates a ServiceNow ticket at the same time as submitting and E&I notice
- Allows for easy communication between the E&I communication group members, including the person who submitted the E&I notice
- Creates communications with unique subject lines to avoid Gmail truncating different reports into a single conversation
- Provides the ability for a submitter to attach screenshots, images, documents, or links to shared files to either illustrate the incident, or aid in the solution
New GPAS exceptions system is live
A new, online exceptions system for Graduate Planning and Audit System (GPAS) became available October 29, 2018. The new system was built to better support timely degree progress and graduation for graduate students enrolled in GPAS-implemented programs/colleges. With this launch, exceptions are processed within PeopleSoft rather than via a paper process, allowing for automated communications and more efficient processing.
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