Graduate Program Coordinators meeting

The inaugural meeting of the Graduate Program Coordinators Network (GPCN) meeting is scheduled for February 16 from 8:30-10 a.m. in 155 Blegen Hall. The GPCN is the result of feedback from our constituents for a formalized community where departmental and program staff can gather to share information, best practices, and discuss issues and opportunities. A formal invitation was sent January 15. An online option will be available for those on the Duluth campus and who require remote participation; however, in-person attendance is strongly encouraged. If you have any questions, please contact Ingrid Nuttall at ingridn@umn.edu.

Continuous enrollment for graduate and professional students

All Twin Cities and Duluth post-baccalaureate students enrolled in a graduate or departmental master's program (excluding Twin Cities MBA students) that have not registered for spring 2016 term received an email the week of January 11 indicating they must register by Monday, February 1, or they will be discontinued.

Program staff who have students requesting permission for GRAD 999, xxxx-8777, xxxx-8666 and xxxx-8888 may issue the necessary permission provided students have met internal eligibility requirements. Students requesting permission for xxxx-8333 and xxxx-8444 should be directed to the Graduate Student Services office at gssp@umn.edu.

If a student is discontinued and wishes to resume graduate work, he or she must request readmission to reactivate his or her status. It is up to the program or college to determine the best readmission path for a student. In all cases, students should contact the major program for which they are applying.

New location for Graduate Student Services & Progress starting November 9

On November 9, the Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) office currently located in 160 Williamson Hall will move to the One Stop Student Services center in Bruininks Hall. Graduate and professional students and others who need to speak with GSSP staff in-person should visit the One Stop in Bruininks Hall for assistance. All phone and email information for GSSP will remain the same. The GSSP office in 160 Williamson Hall will have limited service (no walk-in service; available via email and phone) after Wednesday, November 4 for the move and re-open with full service in its new location on November 9. You may continue to contact GSSP at 612-625-3490 or gssp@umn.edu.

New location for Graduate Student Services & Progress starting November 9

On November 9, the Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) office currently located in 160 Williamson Hall will move to the One Stop Student Services center in Bruininks Hall. Graduate and professional students and others who need to speak with GSSP staff in-person should visit the One Stop in Bruininks Hall for assistance. All phone and email information for GSSP will remain the same. Further details about when the location in Williamson 160 will officially close are forthcoming.

Soliciting feedback for Graduate Education Degree Clearance

Graduate Student Services & Progress (GSSP) is currently reevaluating the process for Graduate Education Degree Clearance. If you have suggestions for how to improve this process, please email Chris Allen at alle0288@umn.edu.

Continuous enrollment for graduate and professional students

All Twin Cities and Duluth post-baccalaureate students enrolled in a graduate or departmental master’s program (excluding Twin Cities MBA students) that have not registered for fall 2015 term received an email the week of August 24 indicating they must register by Monday, September 21, or they will be discontinued.

Program staff who have students requesting permission for GRAD 999, xxxx-8777, xxxx-8666 and xxxx-8888 may issue the necessary permission provided students have met internal eligibility requirements. Students requesting permission for xxxx-8333 and xxxx-8444 should be directed to the Graduate Student Services office at gssp@umn.edu.

If a student is discontinued and wishes to resume graduate work, he or she must request readmission to reactivate his or her status. It is up to the program or college to determine the best readmission path for a student. In all cases, students should contact the major program for which they are applying.

GSSP seeing success in customer service model

Since adopting a new customer service model utilizing Salesforce, an Auto-Caller Distribution (ACD) phone line, and five new Customer Relations Representatives in the fall of 2014, the Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) office has been able to make a positive difference in students’ lives by improving form tracking, maintaining response times by using Salesforce statistics for proactive scheduling and project prioritization, and keeping better customer interaction records to investigate and resolve errors. The new model has helped to spread out work more equitably and allows the team to provide better back-up coverage during meetings and absences. The tiered model has also added value to student interactions by providing faster responses for general questions and added context for questions that are routed to the second tier of support. GSSP will continue to utilize statistics and trends from Salesforce data to inform process improvements that will ultimately benefit students, faculty, and staff.

2015 Staff Resource Guide: New Graduate & Professional International Student

There have been several major changes in the process and support for new international students.
Information in the guide includes:

• International Student Pre-Arrival and Arrival Information
• New International Student Registration
• Course Registration Guidelines: First Semester International Students
• Minnesota English Language Program Credit Courses
• English Language Requirements and Support
• Students with Personal Difficulties and Mental Health Issues
• Articles and Resources 
• Contact Information

The entire guide can be found here.

Postbaccalaureate realignment proposal

The University of Minnesota is considering a realignment for supporting postbaccalaureate education. Generally the proposal works to align programs into either a traditional graduate education community or a professional degree program community. You can view the details of the proposed alternative structure on the UMN Academic Affairs and Provost website. Senior Vice Provost Karen Hanson is encouraging faculty and staff to send feedback on the proposal to provost@umn.edu.

Changes to outstanding degree requirements notices (“balance letters”)

Effective May 2015, you will see updated language and data in the “coursework - no grade” section of the outstanding degree requirements emails sent to students once their files are reviewed for degree completion. GSSP will no longer list missing grade information (i.e., individual course title and credit amount) for current term coursework. Rather, this section will reflect the following language:

You have courses on your Graduate Degree Plan (GDP) for which you have not yet earned a grade. This may be because we reviewed your file before grades were due, or because your grades have not yet been submitted. All courses on your GDP must be graded on or before the last working day of your intended graduation month. We will review your file at the end of the month and update your GDP with any newly graded courses at that time.

Action Required: Monitor your unofficial transcript to ensure that a grade is submitted. To request removal and/or addition of course(s) from your GDP, you may file a petition form available at http://policy.umn.edu/forms/otr/otr190.pdf to the Graduate Student Services Office (160 Williamson Hall) for approval. 

Change to Prelim Oral Exam (0807) milestone reporting

As we continue to make improvements to student milestones, Graduate Student Services & Progress (GSSP) would like to make you aware of a milestone reporting change from the Graduate Education Student Report for Majors/Minors (G032) in UM Reports.

If a student passes their prelim oral exam with reservations, GSSP staff enter the Prelim Oral Exam (0807) milestone as “Pass with reservations,” which is then indicated in the UM Report as “P-R.” Instead of adding another milestone once the reservations are resolved, GSSP staff are changing the initial milestone to “Pass (P) - reservations removed.” This method is beneficial to the student, as they will only see one milestone on their record in the new MyU portal. However, it was noticed that after the milestone is changed to “Pass (P) - reservations removed,” there is no record indicating the student completed exam reservations in the UM Report; the record in the report is blank.

To see the student’s full 0807 milestone record, view in:
PeopleSoft by following Main Menu > Records and Enrollment > Enroll Students > Student Milestones
(Pre-PeopleSoft Upgrade): UM Reports > Graduate Education Student Report for Majors/Minors (G032) > click on the student name or ID
(Post-PeopleSoft Upgrade): MyU > Key Links > Reporting Center > Student Services > Student Records > Graduate Education Student Report for Majors/Minors

Due to the reporting changes addressed above, GSSP recommends referencing the Milestones page in PeopleSoft for the most current and complete milestone data. Please view this Milestone Tutorial (UPK) to view the full milestone changes that will occur from 8.9 to 9.0 PeopleSoft.
Any questions regarding this update can be directed to gssp@umn.edu.

Upgrade - GSSP process modifications

As you know, the PeopleSoft Upgrade cutover period has been established (starting April 10 with an anticipated April 20 go-live). The Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) office is working to adjust processes to accommodate system downtime and reduce delays in students' degree progress.

We want to make you aware of a website dedicated to GSSP process modifications for the cutover period. As we will be taking our automated forms (i.e., workflows) offline prior to and during the cutover period, this website will serve as the place where students and staff can access interim forms should they need to complete processes during system downtime.

This information will also be shared with students in the March 23 issue of the Graduate and Professional Student Update (GPU). As always, we appreciate your patience and understanding.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at gssp@umn.edu.

Upcoming GSSP deadlines prior to Upgrade

As you know, the PeopleSoft Upgrade cutover period has been established (starting April 10 scheduled to Go Live on April 20) and the Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) office is working to adjust workflows and processes to accommodate system downtime and reduce delays in students' degree progress. As a result, we wanted to make you aware of two upcoming dates that are particularly important for students planning to defend and/or graduate this spring.

• March 13, 2015 - deadline for students to submit their completed and signed Graduate Degree Plan to GSSP (160 Williamson Hall or gssp@umn.edu) 
• March 20, 2015 - deadline for students to submit any examination committee assignments via the online workflows

Please encourage your students to complete these items before their respective dates so they can be processed in a timely manner to the cutover as many systems will be inaccessible or read only. The GSSP office is also planning to take down all workflows in advance of the cutover and will continue to provide more information related to system and process changes in the coming month.

Thank you for understanding and please contact GSSP at gssp@umn.edu with any questions.

Change in process ownership for graduate non-degree registration

As of December 5, the responsibility for processing the Registration Request for Graduate Credit form (OTR026) for the Twin Cities campus shifted from One Stop Student Services to the Office of the Registrar. The change in process ownership was discussed at the December 1st RAC meeting.

A student wishing to receive graduate credit for a course must continue to receive written approval from authorized signers in each department or program offering courses in which they plan to enroll. If the form is missing signatures or incorrectly filled out, it will be given back to the student to complete.

Once the form has been completed, it must be submitted to the Office of the Registrar for approval. Forms can be sent by email to otr@umn.edu or by mail to:

Office of the Registrar
Room 130 Coffey Hall
1420 Eckles Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55108

Once the Office of the Registrar has approved the form and registered the student, confirmation will be sent to the email address listed on the registration form.

Questions regarding the processing of these forms can be directed to the Office of the Registrar at otr@umn.edu. Students may continue to contact One Stop at onestop@umn.edu.

If you have questions regarding this notice, please feel free to contact Amber Cellotti in the Office of the Registrar.

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.

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.

Programmatic student holds

With the start of fall semester, it is important that any programmatic holds on student accounts are reconciled (provided the student has completed all necessary steps to resolve the hold).

As a reminder, colleges and programs are now able to place/remove the following holds:

• OJ - general hold


• OM - too many incompletes


• OG - doctoral program not filed


• OF - master's program not filed


• OL - GPA requirement not met

If you are interested in being able to place/remove holds, please email Amber Cellotti directly at knap0071@umn.edu. However, in order to be able to place holds and give access, you must have completed Student Data Inquiry and Student Data Update training in PeopleSoft. If you're not sure you have completed these, you can check your training history on the HR website.

Continuous enrollment for graduate and professional students

All Twin Cities and Duluth post-baccalaureate students enrolled in a graduate or departmental master's program (excluding Twin Cities MBA students) that have not registered for fall 2014 term received an email on Tuesday, August 26 indicating they must register by Monday, September 15, or they will be discontinued.

Program staff who have students requesting permission for GRAD 999, xxxx-8777, xxxx-8666 and xxxx-8888 may issue the necessary permission provided students have met internal eligibility requirements. Students requesting permission for xxxx-8333 and xxxx-8444 should be directed to the Graduate Student Services office at gssp@umn.edu.

If a student is discontinued and wishes to resume graduate work, he or she must request readmission to reactivate his or her status. It is up to the program or college to determine the best readmission path for a student. In all cases, students should contact the major program for which they are applying.