Board of Regents budget updates

The Board of Regents reviewed President Eric Kaler's recommended fiscal year 2018 budget at its June 8 meeting. After receiving feedback from the University community and public, Regents approved a budget during a special meeting on June 20.

During the June 8 meeting, the board also:

• Approved the FY18 annual capital improvement budget, with projects totaling $275.5 million to begin design or construction in FY18,
• Approved a system-wide strategic plan framework, and
• Reviewed new sexual misconduct policies.

In addition to the Board of Regents updates, more information is available about the University’s budget at twin-cities.umn.edu/our-budget.

Spring 2017 diplomas mailed

Staff from the Office of the Registrar have been busy processing diplomas for spring 2017. All diplomas will be mailed out by the end of day Friday, June 30.

Transcript notation change

Students who dropped all of their classes prior to the start date of the term used to receive a “Cancelled” notation on their transcript. Based on feedback from students, this notation will no longer appear. The transcript logic was changed so that this applies to fall 1999 and forward for all students.

Tuition and fees for 2017-18

Now that tuition and fees have been approved by the Board of Regents, staff in Academic Support Resources are busy setting up these items in PeopleSoft so actual financial aid can be packaged and tuition can be calculated.

As happens every summer between mid-June and mid- to late-July, estimated financial aid packages have been removed so actual packages can be created and presented to students. Students should begin seeing actual financial aid packages around the third week in July. 

Tuition calculation for Twin Cities students will occur around the second week in August.

FERPA Q&A

Q: Does FERPA classify some student educational data as more private than other types of data?

A: No. Under FERPA, data is classified as either directory (public) or non-directory (private). Directory information may be released to any third party upon request, unless the student has limited the release of that information. Non-directory information may not be released to a third party without written permission of the student, unless the third party has a legitimate educational interest in the data to perform his or her assigned job duties.

In addition to FERPA, Minnesota state law and other requirements regulate public and private data. For more information, consult the data classification information and University policy regarding information privacy.

Pending Regents approval, tuition and fees setup

With the passing of the higher education bill, our Budget Office is preparing the University budget along with final tuition rates for 2017-18 for Board of Regents approval. Once the rates are approved, the Office of Student Finance (OSF) and ASR-IT will be working on tuition setup and packaging. We expect that packaging, tuition calculation, awarding, and disbursement will be able to be completed on schedule for the fall term as long as the rates are approved by the Regents by the end of June.

Classroom renovations and technology upgrades

Since June 2015, Tate Lab of Physics has been offline for a full interior renovation. It is scheduled to be completed August 2017. All existing spaces were removed and reconfigured, and new space will be added along the Church Street side of the building. To see photos of the ongoing renovation, visit the OCM Classroom Projects page.

While visiting the classroom projects page, also learn about several partnering projects on campus to streamline scheduling and updates to furnishings and technology. Over 70 rooms will receive furnishings or technology updates.