New report in MyU: Class Enrollment Summary

The Class Enrollment Summary is intended for faculty and staff that need live class enrollment information. Class time, days, session, room number, room size, enrollment capacity and the number of students currently enrolled are included in the report, which exports directly to Excel.

To access the report, sign into MyU. Go to Key Links > Reporting Center and look under the Enrollment menu in the Student Services section. Several improvements to this report will be made in near future. If you have any feedback on this report, please contact srhelp@umn.edu.

New reports in Reporting Center

On Monday, November 21st, two new reports were added to the Reporting Center in MyU to support the Academic Standing process. In the past, Office of the Registrar staff ran queries manually and sent output to college staff during Academic Standing runs. These reports replace that process and can now be run ad hoc by staff to better suit the individual timing needs of each college.

First is the Academic Standing Mismatch Report. The purpose of this report is to show which student’s Academic Standing action does not match their Academic Standing service indicator value. Note: Previously, only records of students with GOOD academic standing that had incorrectly matched service indicators were sent out to twin cities college staff. This report now shows mismatches between any academic standing action and service indicator that does not conform to the current documentation.

Second is the Academic Standing Change Report. The purpose of this report is to notify staff of changes to Academic Standing from one run to the next for a particular term, especially for the catch-up run that is done for the prior term before we run the current term. Please reach out to srhelp@umn.edu if there are any questions or concerns regarding these reports and changes.

Study Away program is live

On October 14, the website for the Study Away program went live from University Relations (UR). The intention of the site is to provide a high-level overview of information, whereas more detail lives on One Stop, on the Study Away page. The application for Study Away is available from both sources.

ASR created a new plan and sub-plans under the "MULTU" academic program for Study Away for tracking and reporting purposes. The program started in October with registration available for spring term. Many of the designated courses within the Study Away program for each campus have prerequisites, which may require students to obtain permission numbers for registration. The intent for registration is that students will stick to a package of courses that is offered on a campus other than their home campus.

Leave of absence changes

In the fall, the Undergraduate Policy & Practices group reviewed the leave of absence practices and recommended a few changes, including updates to the Leave of Absence form. The group identified six categories of reasons for leave of absence and modified the form to reflect the categories. The reasons can now be tracked in PeopleSoft and a guide will be published soon on the ASR website and in the Advising Toolkit.

Working with University Data Self-Help Guide

One of the key recommendations from the Analytics and Data Integration fCoP was to help improve general understanding of enterprise data; what is available, where it comes from, how it is defined, how it is organized, how to use it, and where to go for help.

In response, EDMR partnered with OIT to develop an Overview to Working with University Data Self-Help Guide. This guide contains information on how to get access to data, how to use data and reports, how to improve understanding of existing data, and where to go for help. Keep in mind that this is the initial launch of the site, and that additional content will be added throughout the year based on your feedback.

You can share your feedback by using the “Give feedback” button located in the upper right corner of the Self-Help Guide. Also, for ServiceNow articles you can add your feedback directly into the page by selecting one of the options under the “Was this page helpful?” section (see this example).

Changes to ECAS and key links added to MyU

On October 23, the following changes were implemented in ECAS:

• Remove the CCE Catalog Description field for all system campuses.
• Remove 'Additional Course Information (for catalog production)' field for Morris campus.
• Remove the Student Learning Objectives, Writing Intensive, and Strategic Objectives & Consultation sections for Rochester.
• Improve functionality and text description of the Instructor Contact Hours field.
• Add functionality for the Community-Engaged Learning course attribute (all campuses except for Morris).
• Adjust which courses are routed to the Twin Cities’ Graduate School approval level.

Additionally, editors and approvers for ECAS and PCAS proposals will now see key links to log in to these systems in MyU.

ARFs moving to ServiceNow workflows

The Provisioning & Request team has been working towards converting all of our Access Request Forms (ARFs) that are PDFs into ServiceNow workflows. View the current list of forms that are or will be updated. If you would like to see an example of a converted form, the "HR PeopleSoft" form in the central part of the page has been completed.

Search for online classes by Mode of Instruction

In an effort to reduce confusion on how to search for online classes, the "Online course" course attribute has been removed from both the class and course searches. Users should now use instruction mode, "Completely Online," in the Class Search to search for online classes. In the Course Catalog Search, the text "online sections may be available" will display in the results if the course has the ONL course attribute, but "Online course" is no longer a search option.

Students can order transcripts by career

A new feature was added to the Parchment storefront on Sunday, October 23 for transcript orders. Students now have the option to order an official transcript for an individual career level. They have been able to request this in person, but now have the option to do this online. If you have any questions, email otr@umn.edu.

Change to Reporting Center: preferred name

Beginning November 17 (by 1:00 p.m.), six reports in Reporting Center will reflect a student’s preferred name instead of their primary (legal) name. If a student has not listed a preferred name, their primary (legal) name will continue to be used. The six reports that will use preferred name include:

• Student selector (report ID 314)
• Major/minor roster (report ID 233)
• Student group roster (report ID 2) 
• Dean’s list (report ID 230)
• Degree applicant (report ID 195)
• Student addresses (report ID 88) (This is a drill-through report linked to the other reports.)

APAS reports will also include a student’s preferred name. Students can enter a preferred name via MyU > My Info. This change has been implemented to give students more control over how their personal information appears to others. In the future, additional reports will begin using preferred names instead of primary (legal) names.

Degree progress tool in MyU

On October 23, the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities and Rochester campuses launched a new tool within MyU to help undergraduate students better track their degree progress and plan for timely graduation. The tool utilizes data from APAS to calculate a student's progress within their degree program. Students will receive recommendations, based on their individual progress, to help guide them toward four-year degree completion (for fall NHS admits) and timely completion (for other admit types).

Undergraduate students can find this tool in MyU under Academics > Degree Progress. Additionally, an interpretation guide for this new tool is available in the Advisor Toolkit. If you have questions, contact the Student Degree Progress team at asr-sdp@umn.edu.

CollegiateLink

Beginning fall term 2016, the Twin Cities campus will be using CollegiateLink for Student Group registration. CollegiateLink is an online organization management system offered through Campus Labs. It is used to help students connect with events and involvement opportunities at the University of Minnesota. The database records student group profiles, membership rosters, events, and provides students with the opportunity to compile records of all of the events in which they are involved.

Erik Dussault (project manager) and Janet Crittenden (business analyst) are currently demonstrating what CollegiateLink is and how it can benefit departments and college offices. They are scheduled to present at the Registrar's Advisory Committee, Council on Undergraduate Education, and the Advising Steering Committee. Erik and Janet will be reaching out to other departments and college offices over the next nine months to present what CollegiateLink can do for their students. The plan is to roll out an experience record to students at the fall 2017 student orientation.

Class time conflict workflow

The project to migrate the Class Time Conflict form from a paper process to an online process (i.e., WorkflowGen) recently concluded informal usability. Students and instructors provided feedback, and the process will be tested during the beginning of August. We anticipate the workflow will have a soft launch in August. More details about the process and the launch date will be communicated in the coming weeks.

Undergraduates see borrowing history before accepting loans

When degree-seeking undergraduate students with a loan history respond to their financial aid award, they will be presented with an estimate of their total borrowing (if their financial aid package includes loans). They will be able to review the estimate of their total loans, an estimated monthly payment, and how that compares to other University of Minnesota graduates. While the estimate does not reflect loans taken out at other institutions, certain other loans, or any repayments made, it should help students understand where they stand and inform their future borrowing decisions. Students can review this information later by going to the communication center within their Student Center (via MyU). Similar initiatives at other universities have yielded positive results.

Financial aid award notices sent

The week of July 18, Financial Aid Award Notices were sent to currently active undergraduate students; graduate and professional students received their notifications earlier in the month. The notice directs students to MyU so they can view and respond to their award offers. Students must have completed the FAFSA and turned in any additional documents that were requested prior to receiving an award. Students who have not yet completed the FAFSA should be encouraged to do so using the IRS data retrieval tool that is part of the application.

Application of Credits for Students Earning Graduate Degrees policy available for public comment

The Application of Credits for Students Earning Graduate Degrees policy (formerly Application of Graduate Credits to Degree Requirements) is now available for public comment on the University’s Policy Library.

There are two significant changes to this policy. One is allowing the use of graduate level courses completed as an undergraduate; previous policy required that all courses be completed post-baccalaureate. The second is the structure of the number of credits required for completion as a degree-seeking graduate student. The revised policy no longer outlines a specific percentage of courses that need to be completed as a University student (previous policy stipulated 60%) and a set number of credits that may be completed in common between two master’s degrees (previous policy was 8 credits). Rather the revised policy stipulates a “core” number of credits that must be completed as a degree-seeking graduate student and the remaining number of credits needed to complete University minimums can be fulfilled by transfer credits, non-degree, and credits in common.

The deadline for comments is Saturday, July 23, 2016. Please take time to review this policy as well as the frequently asked questions. Your feedback will help to provide clarity for where there is concern and assist the Graduate Education Council (GEC) Policy Subcommittee with creating additional FAQs to support this policy.

(Graduate education) New automated email communication for Graduate and Professional Students

Graduate Student Services & Progress (GSSP) and the office of the Registrar (OTR) is automating the current congratulations email sent to graduate students after they have cleared their degree requirements to align it with the Letter of Certification. With the new process, an email (titled "Your degree award") will be automatically sent to the graduate students' University email approximately 24 hours after they have cleared degree requirements in PeopleSoft. This new automated communication will provide better service to students seeking more timely notification and proof of degree completion. Automation will go live by the end of April 2016, and any old processes will be retired once the new process is live. Stay tuned for more information at the Registrar's Advisory Council meeting on Monday, April 4.

FERPA: I am a supervisor - can I assign FERPA training to my direct reports?

There is not a centralized process for assigning the FERPA training but it can be assigned by a supervisor. The supervisor can go to Ulearn (via MyU), search for the FERPA tutorial, and click the "assign" button. Then, a list of the supervisor's direct reports appears for assigning the training. It is recommended to assign FERPA training to new employees. For employees that are obtaining PeopleSoft access, the basic Student Data Inquiry training also includes FERPA information and a referral to the tutorial.

MyU & PeopleSoft Unavailable During PeopleTools Update April 23-24

MyU and PeopleSoft applications will be unavailable for system updates on Saturday and Sunday, April 23 and 24; please plan accordingly. Service is expected to be restored by approximately noon Sunday, April 24. In addition, PeopleSoft Finance will be unavailable for an extended time for normal weekend maintenance. The outage will affect all campuses.

Based on their analysis to date, the update team anticipates there will be no action or change to business processes for most end users.

Details and updates can be found on the University’s Service Status website.

New procedure for granting PeopleSoft Access to student workers

Starting April 25, student workers who need view-only or basic update access to PeopleSoft Student Administration pages will be required to complete the online training courses available through the University of Minnesota's Learning Management System. These courses may be launched and completed by the student worker at their convenience.

Those who require additional access (e.g., program/plan, registration) will be granted the access with the understanding that their supervisor will provide the needed training and be responsible for all work completed by the student worker. As always, for any access to be established, an Access Request Form (ARF) with the appropriate ARF attachment must be submitted and processed by Provisioning and Requests (PAR).