Entering final grades for fall 2018

Grades for fall 2018 full semester classes are due on December 27 by 11:59 p.m. (See a full list of grade due dates.) Instructors and proxies who have grading responsibilities will receive a message from ASR in early December with instructions and how-to guides about entering grades.

Please note that grades downloaded from Canvas can be uploaded to PeopleSoft (see instructions). More grading resources and due dates are available on the ASR website.

Compliance with Dept. of Ed. on federal aid

Starting in fall 2019, undergraduate students who have completed all their degree requirements but have not had the degree awarded will not be able to receive any further federal student aid (FSA) funds for that program. This has been long-standing federal stipulation but we have not had the ability to enforce it until now. This process will be limited to undergraduate students at the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses. Based on historical data, it will impact fewer than 100 students per year. An appeal process will be available for students with extenuating circumstances.

We anticipate sending further communications about this change prior to its initiation in fall 2019. State and institutional aid will continue to follow regulations.

*Correction: This story previously stated students would not be able to receive any further flexible spending arrangement (FSA) funds, but that was incorrect. It should have been federal student aid (FSA).

NameCoach implementation

ASR recently purchased name pronunciation software from NameCoach. This software will allow students and staff to record their name so others may know the correct pronunciation, fostering inclusion in the classroom and beyond. It will help strengthen relationships between students and faculty, advisors, and other student services staff, and provide accurate pronunciations for events like commencement. Julie Selander, One Stop Student Services director, will serve as project manager on this system-wide initiative. We will share more as the project kicks off.

Directed Study

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), OUE, and ASR are collaborating on a structured, University-wide student experience for requesting Directed Research, Study, & Readings. The project will require input from across the University community. It will also include a user-friendly intake mechanism to request Directed Research, Study, & Readings for students and faculty mentors to review and approve proposals. The project will result in the ability to analyze data for purposes of strategic decision-making, policy review, and curricular recommendations.

Upcoming adjustments to One Stop hours

Some One Stop Student Services locations will have adjusted hours during the month of December:

• Thursday, December 13: St. Paul, West Bank, and University Veterans Services offices open from 8:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
• Wednesday, December 26: St. Paul and West Bank locations closed all day
• Monday, December 31: St. Paul and West Bank locations closed all day

Service will continue to be provided at the East Bank One Stop location (333 Bruininks Hall). Service will also be available by email (onestop@umn.edu) and phone (612-624-1111). Graduate Student Services and Progress will remain open.

FERPA Q&A

Q: Is it ok for a staff member to provide a list of student names and University email addresses to a group of students seeking to promote a social or professional development opportunity to their peers?

A: It depends! A list of students’ directory information can be provided to anyone, but you must remove all students with suppression from the list and the list can’t be sorted or limited based on non-directory information. For example, majors are directory information so it is allowable to share a list of students by major (excluding students with suppression, of course). Gender is not directory information, so a list that provides gender information, or is limited by gender, can only be given to a school official with a legitimate educational interest. The Office of Institutional Research can help fulfill requests for lists of students’ directory information. Also, students are encouraged to use other means of promoting events such as relevant e-newsletters.

Midterm alerts project

The midterm alerts project has kicked off with these objectives:

• Increase the number of mid-term grades that are reported by UMN faculty at the 1000-level
• Improve communications, how-to guides, and related processes
• Consider and make recommendations related to the use of Canvas data for mid-term alerts, or other ways to alert students and advisors of academic challenges

Feedback on midterm alerts has been collected at SCEP and the Strategic Enrollment Management Committee and will be requested at the November RAC meeting. 

The project team will next focus on exploring alternate ways to collect academic alerts and will work on helping faculty to see the benefit to students when advisors are empowered with this information. If you have questions or feedback on this effort, please contact Adrienne Bricker (abricker@umn.edu).

TADA project updates

Since last month’s update:

• Outreach for establishing best practices as started. Representatives for the Twin Cities were identified by the Advising Steering Committee
• 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.
• Progress has been made on “rapid prototyping” usability study with students in Duluth, designing the display of the grading basis for in-progress and registered future courses, and continuing to prioritize and update PeopleSoft data on the degree audit.

For more updates, see the project status on TADA website or review October RAC minutes.

New GPAS exceptions system live

An online Graduate Planning and Audit System (GPAS) exceptions system 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. The following benefits showcase why we have transitioned from the solely paper-based exception form to online:

• All within PeopleSoft
• Flexible setup and system access for programs/colleges
• Automated communication notifications 
• Quicker turnaround time
• Ability to reassign or delegate exceptions

If you have questions, please contact Stacia Madsen at mads0066@umn.edu.

Veterans appreciation events

University Veterans Services is hosting two events for campus veterans, military members, and their families in November. The events are free and open to the public.

1. Thanking Student Veterans boothNovember 7, 2018 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
   Washington Avenue Bridge (east)
   
2. 12th Annual Student Veterans Appreciation Day event
   November 14, 2018 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
   Great Hall in Coffman Memorial Union

FERPA Q&A

Q: Should we periodically examine our practices, policies, procedures and forms to ensure they are FERPA compliant?

A: Absolutely! Conducting a periodic review of how you work with student education records, including who can access what information under what circumstances is always a good idea. It’s important to pay particular attention to how various forms of student data is stored and whether or not your area is following the University’s retention and destruction policies.


Ask a FERPA question | View previous FERPA Q&As