System campus relationships

Eleanor Pijut, ASR system campus relations coordinator, has been diligently working to further establish and support relationships between the University's Twin Cities and system campuses. Here, she shares an update on her recent visits to the system campuses.

Sue Van Voorhis, Jeannine Rich, and I visited Crookston campus at the request of the registrar, Ken Myers, on July 25-26 to perform a review of the Office of the Registrar (OTR) office. We enjoyed meeting with people from across the campus, including Chancellor Fred Woods, and listening to input, criticisms, and compliments regarding Crookston's OTR operations. The Crookston campus is experiencing an exciting time, as it has recently filled several key leadership positions. We met the new Admissions Director, Carola Thorson, and the new Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, Barbara Keinath, and were impressed by the level of energy and commitment they expressed about the future of Crookston. We just sent a report with several suggestions that will improve the presence and reputation of Crookston's Registrar's Office.

Sue and I also visited Rochester this week to share information and gather feedback. Our meeting included Rochester staff from the following offices; Registrar, Admissions, One Stop, Advising/Coaching, and Information Technology. Even Chancellor Stephen Lehmkuhle, and Vice Chancellor, Claudia Neuhauser were in attendance. We sought out questions and concerns they had for us and we provided them updates on current projects, and the status of the ESUP Student IDPs. They provided us with updates and expressed thanks and gratitude to all the Twin Cities and system campus staff who have been willing to support Rochester's efforts in their organizational review and restructuring. They are especially excited about the pending implementation of APLUS on campus this fall and working toward full implementation of Astra Schedule in the near future.

On Aug. 20, I visited Duluth. I sat in on the Student ESUP Transcript IDP session with Carla Boyd, Duluth's Registrar's office, and experienced firsthand the full spectrum of remote access via Join.me. I was able to spend additional time with Carla to plan out the agenda for the campus visit scheduled for Duluth in September. We will coordinate that visit with some of the ESUP change management group. I then sat in with the Financial Aid Director, Brenda Herzig, on the Financial Aid IDP session.

It sure is different being "in the field," but it's wonderful to find the campuses fully engaged and in great shape for the start of fall term.