EGTs added for students admitted for fall 2018

On September 18, 2018, we entered an Expected Graduation Term (EGT) into the Student Program/Plan for all new Twin Cities undergraduate admits. Both New High School (NHS) and New Advanced Standing (NAS) students now have an EGT applied to their records.

On November 12, 2018, we will add the degree checkout status of “applied” to the Student Program/Plan for any Twin Cities undergraduate who has achieved 75% progress toward their degree.

• Several reports were updated to add the degree checkout status data:
• Major/minor roster
• Student group roster
• Student roster detail list
• My advisees with confirmed education abroad programs
• Education abroad confirmed students by college

We are developing a query to help identify students who have a missing EGT. It is currently in the testing phase and in the future will be available in Reporting Center.

TADA project updates

The Transfer Articulation and Degree Audit (TADA) project is still in the technical phase, but there is progress to report:

• The integration of PeopleSoft to Dars has been updated
• The plan for legacy data has been vetted by the vendor
• An APAS report has been run in uAchieve! (an internal milestone, but exciting nonetheless)

For more updates, visit the TADA project site or review September RAC minutes.

2018 election - campaign activities

The University encourages students, faculty, and staff to engage and vote. However, be reminded that federal and state laws prohibit the use of University resources to support specific candidates, ballot initiatives, or referenda. University of Minnesota political engagement policies reflect these legal regulations. More information is available via the 2018 guidelines for political campaign related activities.

FERPA Q&A

Q: Can one graduate program share a list of denied applicants with another program at the University that may want to recruit the students?

A: No, the applicant information should not be shared. Application information is private educational information under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act and is later protected by FERPA for anyone that attends the institution. An alternative method would be for the graduate program to forward information on behalf of other programs, or request the applicants’ permission to share their contact or application information.

Communications for the start of fall term

The start of term is a busy time for everyone, including for our systems and websites. Targeted communications have been sent out to help reduce online traffic (such as to MyU) and provide back up plans should issues arise. Students have been encouraged to print or take a screenshot of their class schedule. Instructors and departments have been asked to minimize changes to classes and to send an email to affected students when a change is necessary. Please keep these things in mind as we move into the first week of classes.

Complete drop initiative

Starting fall 2018, undergraduate students will be prevented from dropping all of their classes without speaking to an advisor. This will be achieved by applying a six-credit minimum threshold to their records (the day after the 100% refund deadline, fall and spring semesters only). If they attempt to drop below this threshold, they will receive an error message directing them to contact their advisor or college office. Each college/academic area can have their own business process for how they handle it.

This process does not apply to international students and athletes as there are different processes that apply to them. For more information about this initiative, review the August RAC minutes.

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 from the company.