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Friday, July 26, 2013

Third Party Billing now located in Fraser Hall

Third Party Billing has moved to 169 Fraser Hall. The office's contact information remains the same, but the mailing address for third party authorization sponsors has changed to the following:

Third Party Billing, Office of Student Finance
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
169 Fraser Hall
106 Pleasant Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Third Party Billing can also be reached at tpbill@umn.edu or 612-625-8559.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Continued changes to Williamson Hall Service Center

The Williamson Hall Service Center (room 160) will continue to serve graduate and professional students and provide general reception and assistance for all guests to Academic Support Resources and Williamson. The area will be fully staffed by student workers, who will be trained to support the GSSP team. As always, GSSP team members will still be available for assistance upon request.

You will also notice the reception area of 160 Williamson has been remodeled to create a space designed to receive and assist visitors. We hope these changes help in continuing to provide the best possible service to our students, staff, faculty, and visitors.

Graduate Degree Plan tutorials

Tutorials on reviewing the Graduate Degree Plan to meet policy compliance are now available on the Graduate School website under Info for Faculty and Staff.


Mike Brown, Graduate Student Services and Progress Coordinator, will still be available to assist with the process and answer any questions you may have. Appointments are available between 8 a.m.-12 p.m., M-F. To have Mike come to your office, please email him at mlbrown@umn.edu to schedule an appointment. If you are unable to meet during this time, Mike is available most afternoons on a walk-in basis at the service center desk in Williamson 160. You can also reach him by email or by phone at 5-5833.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

FERPA Q&A: Amending an educational record

Question: Can a student request to have information removed from or amended in his or her educational record?

Answer: Yes, under FERPA, students may request that inaccurate or misleading information be removed from or amended in their educational record. The amendment procedure, however, may only be used to challenge facts that are inaccurately recorded, not to challenge a grade, an opinion, or a substantive decision made by an institution about a student. University policy requires the student to identify the record in question and provide a written statement explaining why the amendment should be made.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Temporary solution for room schedule displays

The Office of Classroom Management's (OCM) new system-wide classroom and event scheduling system, Astra Schedule, went live in May. It replaced the former classroom schedule viewers and request process.

The transition requires a replacement of the content on the room schedule displays for Cooke, Folwell, Nicholson, and STSS classrooms. To access the new room inventory page, a QR code is available on the room displays for mobile-device users. You may also view the content with a computer or laptop using the provided URL located on the room displays.

STSS display QRC.png

In the meantime, OCM is working with its room scheduling display vendor to write a new interface in the coming year. When complete, OCM will transition back to posting the daily room schedules on the currently installed room schedule displays. There are no plans to add more displays outside of the new classrooms.

New mass email template

University Relations recently released a new mass email template. The template is compatible with multiple screen sizes, from mobile to desktop. Guidelines for using the template are also available.

Thursday, July 11, 2013

GSSP closed on July 19

The Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) office will be closed on Friday, July 19 for a staff retreat. Walk-in, phone, and email services will not be available during this time. Full service will resume at 8 a.m. Monday, July 22.

GSSP contact information reminder

Just a reminder that all emails to GSSP must be sent to gssp@umn.edu. Please update your materials to reflect this change. Once an email has been sent to gssp@umn.edu, you will receive an email saying a ServiceNow ticket has been opened. A GSSP team member will contact you within one business day of your request. No further action is required until a team member gets in touch with you.

When your request is completed, you will receive an automated response saying "we believe the issue has been resolved." If you ever feel this is in error, please reply to the email from ServiceNow, and the ticket will be reopened.

Graduate student workflow process improvements

Effective immediately, the Graduate Degree Plan (GDP) milestone must be on the student's record before they can access the committee workflows. This means the GDP must be approved by the college and/or program, in addition to central data entry completed by Graduate Student Services & Progress (GSSP) and the Office of the Registrar (OTR). Also, a student is allowed only one committee request per degree objective (i.e., master's, PhD) in the workflow at the same time.

If a student requests a committee before their GDP is approved and processed, they will receive a message explaining why their new request cannot be processed; additionally, if a student requests a committee while already having a committee in queue, they will receive a similar message.

If you have questions about this notice, please contact GSSP at gssp@umn.edu.