Upcoming Policy change for Twin Cities S/N grades

The Senate Committee on Educational Policy has approved a change to the Credit Requirements policy to change the limit on S/N credits from 25% to a 20 credit total. The credit limit will make our policy more consistent with peer institutions and also be easier for students and staff to calculate. The policy change will be reviewed by PAC and PPC before being posted for 30-day review and comment.

Complete drop initiative

Starting in fall 2018, Twin Cities and Rochester degree-seeking students who attempt to drop below 6 credits will get an error message preventing the drop and prompting them to meet with their advisor. The minimum credit threshold of 6 credits will be applied the day after the 100% refund date and remain indefinitely. (Athletes and international students will be excluded.) After an advisor or other staff has contact with student, the minimum threshold can be reduced or removed so the student can complete the drop.

This project is still in progress; a communications plan will roll out when the work is completed. For questions, contact Nate Peterson (pete2787@umn.edu) or Cathy Schuster (heuer001@umn.edu).

Faculty Center class roster related content

The related content on the class roster page in faculty center has been adjusted so that the related content will be moved to the bottom of the page (from the upper right) and will default to collapsed. The areas have been renamed to Photos, FERPA, Assoc. Classes, and Emails to display more clearly. These changes make the descriptions of the pages more visible and work better on smaller screens. Updated how-to guides will be available on the ASR website early next week.

System campus courses in TES

System campus courses can now be submitted for Twin Cities course equivalency review through the TES process (Transfer Evaluation System). On the Office of Admissions’ Transfer Credit Evaluation page, use the Current Students tab under the "Submitting a Course for Review" section. As this process begins, the courses will not be searchable in Transferology, but we expect them to be available within the year.

Note: “Submitting a Course for Review” is not the correct process for Liberal Education Requirement petitions or international coursework reviews. Refer to the instructions and links available in the "How courses are evaluated" section near the top of that page.

Transferology and Transferology Lab trainings will continue to be offered through the spring 2018 semester. You can find more information about the sessions and instructions on how to sign-up here. Upcoming sessions will be held on April 23 and May 7.

Direct deposit message now runs hourly

The frequency of the direct deposit email message to alert students when there are changes to their account has been increased. Previously this communication ran nightly on the batch schedule. The process now runs hourly.

FERPA Q&A

Q: I am excited to recruit a student to our program and the parents are very involved. Can I speak to the parents about available scholarships and what the student will receive?

A: While you can talk generally about the scholarships available to students, but you cannot tell the parents specifically what scholarships the student has been awarded. The award to the student is private student information under FERPA and should only be shared with the student. The student can choose to share the information with their parents.