Academic policy revisions available for review

The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost is asking for feedback on the Syllabus Requirements: Crookston, Morris, Rochester, Twin Cities policy. Please submit any feedback you may have in the comment form of the policy page by Tuesday, March 10, 2026.

For more information about policy revisions, see the academic policy comprehensive review process page. If you have any trouble accessing these policy materials or have general questions about the review process, email barne062@umn.edu. If you have questions about a particular policy undergoing review, please email the listed policy contact.

One Big Beautiful Bill Act updates

The Office of Student Finance continues to monitor updates from the U.S. Department of Education regarding H.R. 1 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act). As we still wait for official guidance, the University has prepared an H.R. 1 website to keep students, staff, and faculty updated. Once we receive official guidance, our office will communicate any changes. If you have students with questions about financial aid, please refer them to One Stop Student Services.

uAchieve Cloud project update

The uAchieve project team continues to work on the upgrade to the newest version of the software and the move from being hosted on campus to cloud-hosted. The next steps are an additional functional walkthrough with the vendor followed by validation and user acceptance testing. The timeline for go-live has shifted. More time was needed to ensure the highest level of confidence in the cloud-hosted system. In order to avoid disrupting fall 2026 registration and spring degree clearances, go-live windows in summer are being identified. 

We continue to work with CollegeSource on the contract (final bid, statement of work, etc.) for uAchieve Planner, so the timeline for when that work will begin remains unknown. The University’s Graduation Planner was retired at noon on January 30, 2026. Individual users of Graduation Planner have received multiple targeted messages leading up to the retirement. 

Project updates and copies of student communications can be found on the project page on the Academic Support Resources website. 

February APAS User Group meeting

The next APAS User Group meeting will be Tuesday, February 10 at 2 p.m. via Zoom.
All UMN APAS and TES users are welcome to attend these meetings. Please email apasle@umn.edu to be added to the calendar invite. If you have a question you would like the APAS or TES Team to address during the meeting, please email us ahead of time.

Launch timeline changes for uAchieve Cloud project

The effort to upgrade and move uAchieve (e.g., APAS) software from on-premises servers to the vendor’s cloud version is still underway and making progress. There has been a change in the previously communicated timeline. The go-live of uAchieve Cloud will no longer happen in mid-February. The project team is currently analyzing timing for go-live with a focus on minimizing disruptions to critical processes such as registration and degree clearance. More information will be shared when a new timeline is finalized. If you have questions about this project, please contact the project manager, Chelsea Harms at charms11@umn.edu. 

Graduation Planner retirement

As a reminder, Graduation Planner will be retiring January 30, 2026. A banner message was added to the application in October, alerting users to the retirement and directing them to a One Stop website page with more information. This page provides students with options for saving plans currently in Graduation Planner as well as alternatives for long-term course planning. 

There is no way to extract plans within Graduation Planner, and plans will not be available to view after the January 30, 2026, retirement date. Targeted messaging will be sent to students leading up to the retirement date to help them prepare. 

Policy reminders

We wanted to share a few policy reminders as we near the start of the term.

Mandatory attendance

The Mandatory Attendance policy requires students to attend the first class meetings for all classes in which they are enrolled unless they have prior absence approval from their instructor. The policy FAQ can be consulted for more details on how this policy applies to online classes or when students register after the first day of classes. 

Excused absences and makeup work

Reasonable accommodations must be made for students who miss class due to excused circumstances, including:

• Illness, especially for in-person or blended classes
• Religious holiday observance
• Pre-approved first-day absence
• Late registration

Refer to the Excused Absences and Makeup Work policy and the Makeup Work FAQ for more information.

Scheduled class times

Instructors are expected to observe scheduled class times as stated in the Teaching and Learning policy. 

Student conduct

We recommend reviewing the Student Conduct Code. The University has established expectations for students that seek to protect the learning environment and build student success.