Classes on election day, Nov. 4, 2014

All day and evening classes will be held on this date as scheduled. University policy does not consider voting as a legitimate absence. Students should make arrangements to vote before or after class or via an absentee ballot.

Information about voting can be found at here.

After the Upgrade: When do I register for classes?

When The Upgrade goes live in spring semester, one of the first process changes students will notice is how they find out their registration time (a.k.a. registration queue time). Currently, students go to the One Stop website and use an interactive tool that provides personal enrollment timing information based on their student record. After Go Live, it will simply be part of the Academics tab in MyU!

How students will view their registration time in the new MyU (click to enlarge). 

Student Degree Progress update

ASR continues to reach out to colleges in its final push to find students eligible to graduate in our efforts to help the institution reach its 4-, 5-, and 6-year graduation rate goals. The snap of the graduation rates will happen Thursday, October 30.

Registration queue time emails

Spring 2015 registration queue time emails will be sent to students the week of October 27. The spring 2015 registration time table can be found on the One Stop website.

As a reminder, spring 2015 registration begins Tuesday, November 11 for students admitted to degree and certificate programs. Open registration begins Friday, December 5.

Note: Due to the PeopleSoft upgrade, starting with fall 2015 registration, students will receive this information differently. More information can be found on The Upgrade blog.

What rights do students have under FERPA?

Currently enrolled or formerly enrolled students have the following rights under FERPA:

• the right to inspect and review information about them maintained by the institution (there are two exceptions to this: parents financial records and letters of recommendation the student has waived the rights to see);


• the right to request an amendment to the record that the student believes is inaccurate or misleading (this does not provide them the right to request an amendment to a grade or an institutional judgement that they disagree with);


• the right to file a complaint with the Family Policy Compliance office within the Department of Education if they believe that the institution has provided information to third parties without consent or denied them access to their own information.

Office of Classroom Management receives recognition from Disability Resources

The Disability Resource Center will be honoring OCM with a 2014 Access Achievement Award. The award celebrates OCM staff who go above and beyond to make the University accessible to students, faculty and staff.

Upgrade Training Preview Sessions wrap up

The Training Team's Upgrade Training Preview Sessions, held at all five campuses, will wrap up at the end of October. The sessions were well attended and we appreciate the great turnout, questions, and feedback. In November we will post an online Upgrade Training Preview Session recap for those who were unable to attend in person. We are compiling the questions that came out of the sessions and will post frequently asked questions, with answers, as well. Details on where to find the recap and the FAQs will be communicated once posted.

ImageNow upgrade

On November 7-9, Collaboration & Web Content Services will upgrade ImageNow to version 6.7. While changes to the user experience will be minimal, it is necessary to upgrade in order to maintain technical support from the vendor. In addition, based on vendor recommendations, the ImageNow infrastructure will be enhanced to conform more closely with industry standards.

The upgrade activities will require down time for the tool. To minimize disruption to University business, the majority of the work will occur over the weekend of Nov 7-9:

Status updates will be provided during the upgrade via IT Service Status. Additional details about the upgrade will be sent to ImageNow users in the near future.

If you have questions about the upgrade or ImageNow, send a message to imagenow-support@umn.edu.

Employee Engagement survey

The University of Minnesota is conducting its second annual E2 Employee Engagement Survey. You should have received an email Thursday, October 9 from Mary Stein in Bob McMaster's office with the subject line "IMPORTANT: Employee Engagement Survey." That email contains important information about how to define certain terms used in the survey.

Benefits-eligible faculty and staff will receive an email on October 13 from the Hay Group, an external vendor that is administering the survey. Take 10 minutes to share your thoughts about your work and your workplace. All answers are confidential. Your answers will help the University fulfill its teaching and research mission.

If you have any issues with the survey link you receive, contact the Hay Group directly to request a new link at UofMNsurvey.US@haygroup.com. Each survey link is customized and can only be used one time.

More information on engagement is available from the Office of Human Resources.

Updated Education Abroad policy

The updated Student Travel and Education Abroad: Health & Safety University policy is now live on the UWide Policy Library.

The policy governs all University-purpose travel outside the U.S. by all students. It includes student requirements as well as the requirements of units supporting, promoting or organizing student international travel. Specifically, the updated policy:

• Clarifies requirements and definitions:

--Unit requirements including program planning requirements

--Student requirements reflecting new online process for registering independent student travel

--Definition of university-purpose travel and student populations

--Includes an FAQ that reflects questions actually asked

• Includes a new requirement that all undergraduate education abroad opportunities organized or promoted by units must work through an education abroad office

• Revises the composition of the University International Travel Risk Advisory and Assessment Committee (ITRAAC) regarding travel approval to U.S. Department of State travel warning countries or locations that pose a specific health, safety, or security concern:

--Adds the Associate Dean of Graduate Education as a new member of ITRAAC (tenured faculty member & administrator in the graduate school)

--Adds the role of the Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost as a tiebreaker when necessary

--Adds the involvement of the collegiate Dean(s) in any situation where ITRAAC is considering a rejection (or request to delay travel) of an application submitted by a graduate student.


Please contact Stacey Tsantir, Director, International Health, Safety and Compliance or the education abroad office on your campus with any questions.

You are invited to the 8th annual Student Veterans Appreciation Day

Come one, come all to the 8th annual Student Veterans Appreciation Event on Thursday, November 6, 2014 from 1-3 p.m. in the Great Hall at Coffman Memorial Union. Say "thank you" to student veterans, grab a slice of pizza, and participate in some carnival games.

The event is free and open to the public; no RSVP is required. Can't make it? Stop by our booth to write a thank-you message to our veterans. Dates and locations are available on the One Stop website.

Community Fund Drive - donate now!

Last year the U's annual charitable giving campaign raised $1.3 million and we had the highest participation level in a decade. This year we need your help to give even more--$1.45 million to help our community before October 31.

A Reason to Give
The 2014 Community Fund Drive begins on October 1 and runs through October 31. The theme is A Reason to Give, which reflects the University's long tradition of giving back to the community. The Community Fund Drive has six federation partners that work with nearly 500 agencies/charities. You can also make a pledge to your own favorite charity as long as it's a 501(c)3 organization. Select the federation or charity you want to support and give online at www.umn.edu/cfd today.

Giving Made Easy
The Community Fund Drive is unique because you can give a small gift from each paycheck or a one-time gift. Donate online through the University, or use the forms that were recently sent to you in intercampus mail. Printable forms are also available here.

Prize drawings
When you donate, you're entered to win a prize in a weekly drawing. (There is also an option on the pledge form to enter the drawing if you are not making a pledge this year. Look for the box next to "I can't give financially but want to be entered into the prize drawing.")

More details available online at www.umn.edu/cfd.

Limited One Stop Service on Oct. 29

The West Bank and St. Paul One Stop Student Services locations will be closed from 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Wednesday, October 29 for a staff event. The Science Teaching and Student Services location will be open with full service.

Update on milestone conversion project

New and amended milestone numbers that will be implemented in fall 2014. They are:

Amended

• 0804 - completion of the Graduate Degree Plan (GDP)

This is the current milestone number for the GDP. We are revising this milestone so that it is capturing only completion of the GDP rather than the current process which has this milestone capturing both the GDP and committee completion.


• 0800 - time to degree for graduate students

This milestone was previously used to capture time extensions for GRD students and is now being used to capture time to degree (time limits) for both "old" (i.e., 5-year and 7-year) and "new" (i.e., 5-year and 8-year) sets of graduate education policy

New

• 0827 - doctoral prelim oral committee


• 0828 - master's and doctoral final committee


• 0829 - mater's plan c and doctoral w/no committee associated

All milestones will appear in the MyU Portal as well as student self-service in PeopleSoft after go-live in Spring 2015.

Some benefits of having the 0800 milestone populated are:

• Transparency for students regarding their time to degree


• Easier tracking for graduate programs to determine how much time a student has left to complete


• Opportunities for reporting

Currently, all milestones are added to the GRD record. Those DMS programs that are interested in exploring the addition of the 0800 milestone may contact Amber directly at knap0071@umn.edu.

Clarification - Employee Engagement Survey Definitions

Sent to all ASR staff on Monday, October 13

Dear ASR Staff,

I wanted to send a reminder to all of you before you take the University-wide Employee Engagement (E2) Survey.

Several questions on the survey use terms like "department" or "college/workgroup." In an effort to ensure that all employees are defining those terms the same way, the following definitions have been provided by the Office of Undergraduate Education:

College/unit = Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Education

Department = Academic Support Resources (ASR)

Immediate Work Group = Your department within ASR (either ASR-IT, Continuity and Compliance, the Office of Classroom Management, the Office of the Registrar, the Office of Student Finance, or One Stop)

Thank you for keeping that in mind as you complete the survey. If you have any questions, please contact Olga Kavun-Wozniak at 5-2468 or speak with your supervisor.

Sue

Sue Van Voorhis
ASR Director and University Registrar
Academic Support Resources
University of Minnesota