Approval process for international coursework on Graduate Degree Plan

All international coursework that will appear on a Graduate Degree Plan needs to be approved by Jim Rowan in graduate admissions before the college can sign off on the form. It is the responsibility of the program/college to ensure that Jim approves international coursework. Please contact Jim at j-rowa@umn.edu to have international coursework evaluated.

FERPA Q&A: Storing student information

Question: What's the best way to store information about students?

Answer: Student data (e.g., grades, attendance, test scores, advising appointment information) should be stored on central servers, not on personal computers, hard drives of computers that more than one person has access to, flash drives, or laptops.

It is important to keep in mind that portable electronic devices stored with sensitive information can easily be lost or stolen. If this occurs, the affected students must be notified that their non-public (or suppressed public) student data has been released.

Student degree progress update

The new degree credit summaries on APAS (Academic Progress Audit System) rolled out last fall. The change allowed students and advisers to see a summary of credits considered degree credits and elective credits, and what courses do not meet the requirements for the student's declared program(s).

Some recent highlights regarding student degree progress include the following:

--Creating an APAS tutorial on the One Stop website.
--Providing colleges with degree progress data for NHS and NAS students prior to the enrollment period to help identify potential graduates.
--Completing an extensive comparison of program requirement information on collegiate websites. This has helped detect any discrepancies appearing in PCAS.
--Identifying a program requirement that was causing issues for students and working with the department to adjust the curriculum.

The biggest and most time sensitive goal for student degree progress is to reach a 60% graduation rate for the fall 2009 cohort. As of right now, 2,895 degrees have been posted, but a total of 3,229 are needed by approximately October.

Questions regarding student degree progress should be directed to Tracy Fischer at fisch074@umn.edu or 6-1301.

Be aware of phishing

Phishing is a serious security issue at the University. If you're not already familiar, phishing is the practice of using fraudulent emails and copies of legitimate websites to obtain financial data from computer users for purposes of identity theft. U of M Information Security has established a phishing examples blog that lists examples of phishing targeting the University community. Of particular importance are phishing schemes that exist to compromise accounts in order to target individual PeopleSoft self-service options.

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced early November deadlines for student applications for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The GRFP provides three years of graduate education support for students who have demonstrated potential for significant achievement in science and engineering research. For eligibility information and application instructions, see the program description.

Faculty are encouraged to inform qualified students of a fall semester NSF GRFP Writing Seminar led by Professor Scott Lanyon (Head and Professor; Ecology and Behavior).

Resources available for Graduate Degree Plan (GDP) review

Just a reminder that Mike Brown, Graduate Student Services and Progress Coordinator, is still available through the end of August to assist with the Graduate Degree Plan (GDP) review process and answer any questions you may have. To have Mike come to your office, please email him at mlbrown@umn.edu to schedule an appointment.

Also, tutorials on reviewing the Graduate Degree Plan to meet policy compliance are available on the Graduate School website under Info for Faculty and Staff.

• Post-baccalaureate tutorial


• Master's degree tutorial


• Doctoral tutorial

The Graduate Degree Plan Checklist can also be found on this page.

How does it work in 9.0?

As ESUP progresses, many people are interested in what PeopleSoft delivers today. Oracle's User Productivity Kit (UPK) is a tool that will be used to deliver training and "in application support" (the Help button on PeopleSoft pages) in the 9.0 environment. It can be used to create simulations and documentation of PeopleSoft system processes.

Since our current student and human resources systems are highly customized, the University of Minnesota purchased UPK materials illustrating the latest off-the-shelf or "vanilla" PeopleSoft functionality so users and stakeholders can familiarize themselves with its capabilities and limitations. Some, not all, processes have associated UPK materials and the Student UPK materials can be found online as soon as they are available.

Please note: It is important to understand that these UPK materials present delivered functionality only, without further refinement or branding. Although eliminating costly modifications remains a primary objective of ESUP, these materials do not accurately represent what will be implemented at the University of Minnesota.