uAchieve Cloud update

After a successful functional walkthrough with the vendor, the uAchieve Cloud Migration project has moved forward into user acceptance testing. Project go-live is targeted for mid-June, selected to align with a pre-planned pause in orientation. More detailed information about go-live activities and timing will be shared at the May RAC meeting.

May RAC meeting

The Registrar’s Advisory Committee (RAC) will meet virtually over Zoom on Monday, May 11 at 9:30 a.m. The agenda will be sent to the RAC google group in advance of the meeting.

Automating access removal in MyU

The process for removing access to the My Advisees and Teaching tabs in MyU has been streamlined and automated. Starting Thursday, April 23, 2026, employment data will be used to identify those who are no longer in an advising and/or instructional role, and will automatically remove access to these self-service functions. In most cases, individuals will not notice this change because they have left the University and their access to University systems has already been limited. 

When individuals are no longer in an advising or instructional role, they no longer have a legitimate educational purpose for accessing private student data accessed through those tabs. Automating this process both aligns with existing practices in Human Resources and helps further ensure data security for student records. 

Fill out The Record Questionnaire

The ASR UX team is gathering feedback from readers about their experience with our newsletters. If you would like to participate and give feedback on the Record, fill out The Record Questionnaire. The questionnaire should take around 5-10 minutes to complete.  

Fall 2026 registration for Twin Cities

Fall 2026 registration for the Twin Cities campus begins on Thursday, April 9. On Monday, March 23, all Twin Cities undergraduate students received a MyU notification letting them know that their registration appointment time is available in MyU. Students can also find their appointment time by logging into MyU, selecting the "Academics" tab, and then selecting the "Registration" sub-tab.

NameCoach decommissioning

Due to budget constraints, the University’s contract with NameCoach will not be renewed, and integrations with Canvas and APLUS will be decommissioned in May 2026. This means that access to recorded name pronunciations will no longer be available in these systems. NameCoach’s Personal Namebadge remains a complimentary service to individuals.

We are looking at ways to make name pronunciations available within the University’s existing systems. We have been in contact with commencement coordinators on their options for name pronunciation at commencement ceremonies.

Planned PeopleSoft Maintenance April 18-19

MyU and related online services, such as APAS, will be unavailable while the University performs a system upgrade the weekend of April 18 and 19. Service is expected to be restored on Sunday afternoon, April 19. As a result of this upgrade, there will be minor changes to the PeopleSoft interface. You can still access Canvas courses through canvas.umn.edu and University email at mail.umn.edu. Questions? Contact Technology Help.

Academic Change Freeze Calendar

Each year, the University releases an Academic Processes Freeze Calendar, which highlights times in the academic year when systems must be up and running to avoid disrupting critical academic processes. A “freeze” is instituted to prohibit or limit system updates that may adversely affect a business community. By defining a freeze schedule, the University mitigates the risk of a systems outage or other issues during important business cycles (e.g., student class registration). The Academic Processes - Freeze Calendar for 2026-2027 is now available.

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.