CollegeSource Users Conference award

At the end of June, 11 University of Minnesota staff attended the 2022 CollegeSource Users Conference in San Diego, CA. CollegeSource is the company that maintains the uAchieve platform that runs APAS. While at the conference, the University of Minnesota System was selected for “Innovation in Advancing System-Wide Positive Student Outcomes” and presented with an award!

This best practice award recognizes the staff who work with uAchieve and the system-wide effort it took to make the Transfer Articulation and Degree Audit (TADA) project (completed in 2020) so successful. It highlights the work they put into the degree audit and transfer articulation best practices implementation during the TADA project, the continued work they do to maintain those best practices, and all the work they have done to make the transfer evaluation processes better for everyone. This was a large, system-wide effort from staff at all of our campuses, and it was a huge success due to everyone’s hard work and dedication to getting it done.

Juneteenth

Juneteenth has officially been approved as a systemwide No Classes Day effective this summer, which will be celebrated on Monday, June 20, 2022. There will be no classes on this day, but it is not currently designated as a University Holiday for faculty and staff. HR continues to work on these plans and more communications will be forthcoming.

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.

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.

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.

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

Student Degree Progress

As the cost of higher education rises, it is important that the University is clear and transparent to students and families about the cost of a U of M education. Further, the University wants its students to graduate and move on to make a difference in their community and state. Graduation rates show our commitment to access and our efforts to improve the student experience.

To assist the University reach it's 4-, 5-, and 6-year graduation goals, ASR has two staff dedicated to "looking for graduates." What this means is that these two individuals scour student's APAS reports and transcripts in search of students who appear to have met degree requirements but haven't yet been cleared to graduate or haven't had their degree posted. Once these students are identified, the information is sent to the colleges for them to investigate further. Often these students have neglected to apply to graduate, have had an incomplete or pending grade post or completed an extended term distance education course that now makes them eligible to graduate. In the past two years, this ASR/College partnership has had a significant impact on graduation rates. Going forward, it is hoped that ASR can help the colleges identify where students might be getting themselves off track to graduate with enough time for the colleges to reach out to the students to have them adjust their registrations.

If you have suggestions about ways to improve student degree progress or graduation rates, please contact Rachel McKessock (rmckess@umn.edu) or Tracy Fischer (fisch074@umn.edu).

Administrative Degree Clearance Procedure

The final touches are being added to the Administrative Degree Clearance Procedure. This document will give colleges step-by-step instructions on what they can do to clear a student for his/her degree without the student formally applying for the degree. This procedure will streamline processes for the college advising units while covering all necessary compliance related issues that go along with clearing students for degrees.

Mid-Term alerts available through November 3

The mid-term alert period has been extended to November 3 on account of the drop date extension from the 8th week of classes to the 10th week. Instructors can provide a mid-term alert for students who, on the basis of performance in the course by the time the alert was submitted, appear to be in danger of earning a grade of D, F, or N. For students experiencing academic difficulty, a timely warning about performance can result in appropriate corrective action. Mid-term alerts also help advisers and advisees work together to develop strategies for academic success.

Changes to Graduate Student Services & Progress customer service model

Graduate Student Services & Progress (GSSP) is undergoing some changes to their staffing and customer service model. These changes will allow GSSP staff to continue to provide exceptional, timely customer service while streamlining points of contact (e.g., walk-in, phone, email).

Effective September 8, GSSP began their new phone answering system, utilizing Auto Call Distribution (ACD) functionality. This allows up to five people to call the main number (612-625-3490) at the same time. If that line is busy, they will will be able to hold to speak to someone on that same line (it won't go to voicemail). Calls will be answered in the order they are received.

Additionally, GSSP will be transitioning out of ServiceNow and into Salesforce. With the transition to Salesforce, there will no longer be "tickets" (incidents) when sending an email to gssp@umn.edu. Additionally, all interactions will now be logged on the student or staff members record for historical reference. Inquiries for GSSP should still be sent to gssp@umn.edu.

Orientation for Directors of Graduate Studies

Directors of Graduate Studies are invited to attend a DGS Orientation on Wednesday, September 17, from 10-11:30 a.m. in 101 Walter Library.

All Directors of Graduate Stuides are welcome to attend, but new Directors are particularly encouraged to take this opportunity to learn more about the role of the Graduate School, meet members of the Graduate School staff as well as the Academic Support Resources graduate student services staff, and hear about how we can assist you with your DGS responsibilities.

Click here to RSVP.

Changes to tuition billing and due dates

Beginning fall 2014, tuition billing and due dates will occur approximately two weeks earlier than in years past. This will affect most students holding a Graduate Assistantship or Fellowship, as they will receive their first paycheck after the first bill for tuition and fees is due. In order to ensure that those students are not adversely affected by the change, late and installment fees will be waived for the first bill of each fall and spring semester.

The Office of Student Finance sent an email to incoming graduate students with job codes that are eligible for the late and installment fee waiver on Tuesday, August 26. The Office of Student Finance is planning on identifying students that will receive the waiver on approximately Thursday, September 4. Only students who have those job codes entered on their student record will receive the waiver.