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.

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. 

Spring 2026 registration

Spring 2026 class registration begins Tuesday, November 11. Registration appointment times were posted for students in MyU on Monday, October 27. Students can find their appointment time by logging into MyU and selecting the "Academics" tab, then selecting the "Registration" sub-tab. Registration times and information on how to register for classes are available on One Stop.

If a student needs their appointment time adjusted because of a system error, contact One Stop Student Services. Include the student's internet ID, student ID, and name. 

2025-26 FAFSA available

The Department of Education launched the 2025-2026 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form in early December. Students can now complete the form to apply for financial aid for the 2025-26 academic year. See the One Stop website for more details on the financial aid timeline. 

FAFSA simplification update

The Department of Education will not begin processing Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) submissions and providing data to schools until Mid-March due to inflation adjustments in the Student Aid Index (SAI). They are anticipating that this delay will not impact the 2024-25 financial aid offer students receive this summer. Students can still complete the FAFSA form and expect an email from Federal Student Aid in mid-March acknowledging that their FAFSA has been processed.

One Stop Student Services will not be able to confirm the arrival of FAFSA information until April because of this delay. This is contingent upon software updates, implementation, and testing. Once One Stop receives this information, they will begin sending out estimated financial aid offers to new students in April. The Financial Aid timeline on the One Stop website will be updated as more information becomes available.

eAgreement

On February 21, all students started receiving a pop-up message in MyU for the annual renewal of the Student Financial Obligations and Responsibility eAgreement. Students are notified in MyU so they have the opportunity to review the updated text on the One Stop website prior to accepting the agreement. Students must accept eAgreement terms by March 6, 2024.

2024-25 FAFSA available

The Department of Education launched the newly streamlined Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form on December 31, 2023. During the first few weeks of launch, the form was periodically unavailable for short periods of time due to site maintenance and technical updates. Students can now complete the form to apply for financial aid for 2024-25. An updated financial aid timeline regarding the changes to the FAFSA is available on the One Stop website.

2024-2025 FAFSA Update

The US Department of Education announced that the 2024-2025 FAFSA will be available no later than December 31, 2023. In previous years, the FAFSA was published on October 1. This delay is due to work being done to implement a newer, streamlined version for students. 

The Office of Student Finance sent communications to students about this announcement in September to prepare students for impacts of any delays. If you have students with questions about the 2024-2025 FAFSA, you can refer them to the FAFSA Simplification webpage or have them contact One Stop Student Services. 

Chatbot launch on One Stop website

The One Stop Student Services chatbot officially launched on October 2, 2023. This chatbot replaces One Stop’s live agent chat with conversational AI technology provided by Ivy.ai. The chatbot is designed to answer questions pertaining to the information on the Twin Cities One Stop website. This shift allows One Stop to move resources to other contact methods where they are better suited to answer student-specific questions. One Stop will continue to monitor the quality of the chatbot responses to ensure a positive user experience.

Spring 2024 registration

Spring 2024 class registration begins Tuesday, November 14. Registration appointment times will be posted for students in MyU on Monday, October 30. Students can find their appointment time by logging into MyU and selecting the "Academics" tab, then selecting the "Registration" sub-tab. Registration times and information on how to register for classes are available on One Stop.

If a student needs their appointment time adjusted because of a system error, contact One Stop Student Services. Include the student's internet ID, student ID, and name. 

2024-2025 FAFSA

Normally available October 1, the 2024-2025 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) will not be available for students until December 2023. This is due to the FAFSA Simplification Act, which also resulted in following changes to the upcoming FAFSA:

• A streamlined and easier process to complete the FAFSA.
• A new method for determining financial need.
• New terminology added to the FAFSA.

For a complete list of changes, see the FAFSA simplification page on the One Stop website. Additional information is available on the Federal Student Aid website. 

Twin Cities One Stop Student Services to launch a chatbot

In early October, One Stop Student Services will replace the live agent chat on its website with chatbot technology provided by Ivy.ai. It’s the same chatbot technology the Office of Information Technology uses on its website. We hope the bot will help students and staff find answers to their registration, financial aid, academic records, billing, veteran services, and graduate student services questions. 

One Stop will continue to be available via email, phone, Zoom, and in person. You can find contact information on the One Stop website.

Launch of One Stop websites

The redesigned One Stop websites launched on Monday, Jul 18, 2022. As we close out the project and move the One Stop websites into a product management process we hope to uphold the content strategy standards that have been used throughout the redesign project. Putting user research and testing at the forefront of any decisions about what to change on the site will be crucial in maintaining the site's objectives.

If you notice any issues on your campus One Stop website, have feedback or suggestions, please reach out to the appropriate contact for your campus.

One Stop soft-launch for staff

From July 1 to 18, links to the unpublished One Stop websites will be available on the One Stop website upgrade project page. These soft-launch links will allow university staff and faculty access to explore the unpublished redesigned One Stop websites for each campus. The soft-launch links will be available until the redesigned sites are “live” and published in place of the existing One Stop website on July 18, 2022.

As a reminder, the primary purpose of the soft-launch is to allow for staff exploration and self-directed learning before the sites are made public to students. Self-directed exploration of the site allows for:

• Self-paced learning
• Individual depth of knowledge needs
• Varied use cases

All project and soft-launch details can be found on the One Stop website upgrade project page.

Join us for the One Stop website redesign demo

All university staff and faculty are invited to join a virtual event about the upcoming launch of the redesigned One Stop website. Join us for a demo of the site and learn how a user experience focus influenced the site’s redesign.

We will also provide details on how staff can participate in the upcoming soft-launch to familiarize themselves with the new website before it’s made public to students.

Register now

This event will be recorded and posted on the One Stop website upgrade project page so that anyone unable to attend will still have an opportunity to review all of the information.

One Stop website upgrade update

The One Stop website upgrade is scheduled to go live in July, 2022. This upgrade from the Drupal 7 to Drupal 9 content management system will include a few key updates, including a transition to the central University Relations created Folwell design theme as well as some select feature updates based on student-centered usability testing findings. Early this summer, student services staff will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the new site before it goes live for students.

One Stop Student Services hours

One Stop Student Services will be providing limited in-person services over the upcoming dates in December:

• West Bank and St. Paul locations will be closed Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Bruininks Hall will remain open for in-person services.
• All in-person locations (Bruininks Hall, Coffey Hall, and West Bank Skyway) will be closed from December 27, 2021 to December 29, 2021.

Services will continue to be provided via phone, email, and chat from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (except when the University is closed). For our most up to date contact information, please see our Contact us page.

One Stop office closures

One Stop Student Services will be providing limited in-person services over the upcoming breaks:

• West Bank and St. Paul locations will be closed Wednesday, November 24, 2021 and Wednesday, December 22, 2021. Bruininks Hall will remain open for in-person services.
• All in-person locations (Bruininks Hall, Coffey Hall, and West Bank Skyway) will be closed from December 27, 2021 to December 29, 2021.

Services will continue to be provided via phone, email, and chat from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday (except when the University is closed). For our most up to date contact information, please see our Contact us page.

One Stop Website Upgrade Project: User experience research overview

The One Stop Website Upgrade project, which will move the website from Drupal 7 to Drupal 9, recently completed its user experience (UX) research. The research helped the project team better understand the website’s audience and their needs. They discovered the following insights:

• Students want to have control and quickly find support.
• Students and staff expect timely and accurate information.
• Students and staff identified issues with the navigation on the site.

The project team concluded there should be a focus on experience design of content for users and their decisions should be supported in the editorial strategy. The research also led to the expansion of the existing site audience, including a primary audience of students, a secondary audience of parents and guardians, and an indirect audience of student-support staff. This new audience will ensure that staff users will be involved in testing and reviewing changes. For more information about the project, visit the One Stop Website Upgrade project page.

One Stop Student Services Zoom appointments

Starting Monday, October 4, One Stop Student Services will be pausing the Zoom appointment option for meeting with a One Stop Counselor for the foreseeable future. One Stop Counselors will still be available via email, in-person drop-in meeting, and phone to assist students. Please see the contact us page for the most up to date contact information.