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:
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.
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.
Coursedog successfully launched on August 21. Thank you to the many people on all campuses who contributed to the success of this project! Moving forward, Coursedog will be managed by a support team in ASR and governed by a systemwide Curriculum Administration Best Practices Working Group.
The Coursedog support site provides information like training courses, supplemental guides, access role information, and a link to the Coursedog ARF (Access Request Form). The support team can be reached at coursedog@umn.edu for any questions or issues.
Board of Regents Policy: Student Education Records was adopted in 1991 and last amended in June 2021. This policy sets forth the University’s implementation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), including what student information can be released to the public as “directory information” and what student information can be more narrowly shared as “limited directory information.” The limited directory information category includes “student’s physical addresses, University email address, telephone numbers, and University ID photos.” Directory information can be shared only with student groups and University officials without a student’s written consent.
In the most recent legislative session, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a bill including provisions to facilitate student voter registration. It requires that colleges and universities share student address information with county auditors prior to elections, to the extent permitted by FERPA. The statute includes deadlines for the sharing of this information based on election day.
The University of Minnesota supports the effort to facilitate voter registration. However, in order to provide the information to county auditors the requested student address information, the Student Education Records policy needs a minor edit to include limited directory information being available to county auditors for the purposes of voter registration.
Several groups have reviewed this policy edit, including campus vice chancellors, the registrar’s offices from each campus, and student affairs offices on each campus. Campuses have committed to consulting with their student government leaders, and this consultation will be concluded prior to the October meeting.
As part of the academic policy comprehensive review process, proposed policy edits are posted for review by University program leadership, student governance leadership, advisors, and other faculty and staff who administer our academic policies. The University asks for your feedback by Wednesday, October 11, 2023 on the following policies:
If you have any trouble accessing these policy materials or have general questions about this review process, please contact barne062@umn.edu. If you have questions about a particular policy undergoing review, please email the contact listed in the policy
With the start of the term approaching, remember to bring your U Card to ensure access to campus buildings. You can find entrances with a card reader by reviewing Campus Maps and turning on the layer for Accessibility in the top right.
