After consulting with numerous UMN governance bodies and implementing a formal 30-day comment period to retire the policy, the University will end the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for students and employees effective July 1, 2023.
As part of ending the student COVID-19 vaccination requirement, Academic Support Resources (ASR) will be retiring system messaging and the AG2 holds. This includes removing prior and current AG2 holds from student records. Existing holds will be removed via a batch process on Friday, June 30. For more information about the University’s response to COVID-19, visit Safe Campus.
Friday, June 30, 2023
13-Credit Exemption reminder
Starting with fall 2023, students who enroll in fewer than 13 credits will no longer need to submit a “13-credit exemption.” They will automatically be charged the per-credit tuition rate. Students who enroll in 13 or more credits will continue to receive the benefits of the tuition cap.
Please note that the retirement of the 13-credit exemption process means the exemption itself will no longer be entered into PeopleSoft. If you have relied on that data in the past (e.g., awarding scholarships), then a change in policies and/or practices may be needed. Resources are being worked on this summer, including a guide for advisors and APLUS updates. More details will be available closer to the start of fall term.
Please note that the retirement of the 13-credit exemption process means the exemption itself will no longer be entered into PeopleSoft. If you have relied on that data in the past (e.g., awarding scholarships), then a change in policies and/or practices may be needed. Resources are being worked on this summer, including a guide for advisors and APLUS updates. More details will be available closer to the start of fall term.
FERPA Q&A
Q: Some of our students are eligible to apply for scholarships funded by a private donor. In the past, the college has provided basic information to the donor, such as the name of the recipient, their college, and major. The donor is now asking for additional information on the recipient. What information are we allowed to share?
A: Students applying for scholarships agree that basic information about them, such as their name, college, and major can be shared. You would need to get consent from the student to share any private data, such as pronouns, anticipated grad date, or scholarship amount. If you want to share private data about them to the donor, you can add it into the consent process and inform students what data will be shared, so they are aware beforehand and agree to it.
A: Students applying for scholarships agree that basic information about them, such as their name, college, and major can be shared. You would need to get consent from the student to share any private data, such as pronouns, anticipated grad date, or scholarship amount. If you want to share private data about them to the donor, you can add it into the consent process and inform students what data will be shared, so they are aware beforehand and agree to it.
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Coursedog update
The Coursedog project is moving towards our August 21, 2023 launch date. Thank you to all of our fabulous project team members and stakeholders who have provided their time & expertise throughout the project. Without campus support, this transition from ECAS & PCAS to Coursedog would not be possible.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
This month, 18.5% of current ECAS & PCAS users in the University community participated in UAT testing to validate that the Coursedog system fulfills business requirements. These participants represented almost every TC college and each campus. A post-test survey found that Coursedog scored better or about the same as ECAS & PCAS in all of the following: look & feel, intuitiveness, accuracy, time/number of steps required to complete a task, and help functions.
Upcoming milestones
User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
This month, 18.5% of current ECAS & PCAS users in the University community participated in UAT testing to validate that the Coursedog system fulfills business requirements. These participants represented almost every TC college and each campus. A post-test survey found that Coursedog scored better or about the same as ECAS & PCAS in all of the following: look & feel, intuitiveness, accuracy, time/number of steps required to complete a task, and help functions.
Upcoming milestones
- Coursedog "freeze": June 2, 2023
- The project team will be locked out of the Coursedog system as they work to copy over our Coursedog testing environment configurations and settings to a new production environment.
- ECAS & PCAS “freeze”: July 8, 2023
- The data transfer between current systems and Coursedog begins. Extensive data validation is completed, and ECAS and PCAS users of all levels will no longer be able to make any changes in current systems.
- Coursedog Training Modules available: July 2023
- Coursedog training modules will become available in Training Hub starting the end of July 2023. Current ECAS & PCAS users will receive an email invite as soon as they are ready.
- Coursedog go-live: August 21, 2023
- Coursedog will become available to previous users of ECAS and PCAS at equivalent access roles.
Course Section Modality Dashboard
The Course Section Modality Dashboard is now available. The dashboard shows visual representations of modality (e.g., online, blended, in-person) at the course section level to demonstrate the educational offerings within a specific term.
- Access: Available to anyone with UM Reporting Center access, UMN systemwide
- Audience: Deans, department chairs, departmental administrators, and others responsible for creating strategies around class offerings
- Data refresh: Daily
FERPA Q&A
Q: What if a parent comes with a student to orientation? How does FERPA apply to students admitted to the University, but haven’t started classes?
A: It is not unusual for a parent to attend the orientation and registration sessions for an incoming student. From a FERPA perspective, you should obtain written permission from the student prior to allowing the parent to attend either of these activities. In practice, however, often the most practical thing to do is to take the student away from their parent, and ask if they want the parent to be present during these sessions, while explaining to the student that it truly is their choice. If the student agrees to the parent being present, they should agree to this in writing. If the student does not want to have the parent present, politely explain to the parent that orientation and registration activities are only for the student.
A: It is not unusual for a parent to attend the orientation and registration sessions for an incoming student. From a FERPA perspective, you should obtain written permission from the student prior to allowing the parent to attend either of these activities. In practice, however, often the most practical thing to do is to take the student away from their parent, and ask if they want the parent to be present during these sessions, while explaining to the student that it truly is their choice. If the student agrees to the parent being present, they should agree to this in writing. If the student does not want to have the parent present, politely explain to the parent that orientation and registration activities are only for the student.
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