New advisor role in PeopleSoft

We have a request to add a new advisor role in Student Advisor page within PeopleSoft at the undergraduate level for a director of undergraduate studies. This will give departments more flexibility in selecting advisor roles assigned to students. We will move forward with this request unless there are significant concerns with this role. Send any comments and/or questions to Emily Holt (eholt@umn.edu).

Earlier summer registration

Last year we moved the start of the summer registration queue from mid-April to early March. This gave students more time to plan and helped to spread out appointment times for advisors. After this change was implemented, the general consensus from collegiate and advising staff was that it was helpful for students and it assisted departments in their staffing and resource planning. Therefore, we will continue with the earlier summer registration schedule. This year, summer registration opens March 7 for students admitted to degree or certificate programs and March 14 for non-degree and visiting students.

Department of Education Negotiated Rulemaking

Tina Falkner has been selected to serve as an alternate negotiator representing four-year public institutions for the current round of Negotiated Rulemaking with the federal Department of Education (ED). She will sit in on all the negotiations and confer with the primary negotiator about the proposed regulatory changes to the Higher Education Act (HEA) drafted and circulated by ED.

The ultimate goal of this kind of rulemaking is that all parties involved reach consensus on the proposed regulatory changes. This covers a wide variety of topics ranging from eliminating the definition of the credit hour to expanding the types of institutions that are eligible to participate in federal Title IV financial aid programs. You can read the proposed redlines of the portions of HEA that are being negotiated.

FERPA Q&A

Q: I work in Student Services and an instructor is asking me to give them a student’s transcript. Can I share this with the instructor?

A: The instructor can only have the transcript if they have the student’s permission or a “legitimate educational interest” in the full transcript. Typically an instructor would not need a full transcript. Instead, they would need to know whether a student has completed a prerequisite course or meets other minimum requirements.