Earlier this month, the First Lady remarked upon the University's One Stop financial literacy program, Live Like a Student, at the College Opportunity Summit. She, along with President Obama, spoke about the effort to help young people pursue an education. In particular, the First Lady recognized the U as not only providing financial aid services but also "committing to expand those services to include financial literacy programs to help students and their families manage the costs of college."
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Sneak peek: new self-service centers in PeopleSoft 9.0
Two "sneak peek" videos on the new Faculty Center and Advisor Center are now available. The videos provide an overview on how these centers will benefit users. The ESUP Student Training Team will be developing more in-depth tutorials and documentation of this new functionality before ESUP goes live.
New ASR onboarding video
The Academic Support Resources onboarding video is now available on the ASR intranet site. A link to the video can also be found in the professional development resources page. The video will help new employees understand how ASR departments function individually and as a whole.
One Stop hours changing Monday, Feb. 3
Walk-in hours at the STSS One Stop location will change beginning Monday, February 3, 2014. At that time, One Stop hours will be 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Friday office hours will remain the same (8 a.m.-4 p.m.). This change will ensure the STSS One Stop location is appropriately staffed.
Additionally, the STSS One Stop location will remain open until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday during the first two weeks of spring semester, as well as the week prior to and the first two weeks of fall semester. Office hours at the West Bank and St. Paul One Stop locations will not change.
Additionally, the STSS One Stop location will remain open until 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday during the first two weeks of spring semester, as well as the week prior to and the first two weeks of fall semester. Office hours at the West Bank and St. Paul One Stop locations will not change.
New year, new initiatives
After reviewing the results from the latest ASR survey and hearing recommendations from the survey team, the following initiatives are being planned:
- Brown bag discussions focused on clarifying issues regarding merit pay.
- Supervisors will look for additional opportunities to recognize staff and encourage colleagues to do the same. (ASR thank you cards are available from Debbie Henderson. The Office of Human Resources thank you ecard is also another nice way to tell someone you appreciate his or her work.)
- The ASR Development Team will look for ways to increase cross-departmental understanding of what each ASR unit does and how we all work together.
- The ASR Survey Team will plan on reducing the number of surveys distributed and the number of questions asked. The team will also explore asking new questions. If you have a suggestion for the ASR Survey Team, contact Matt Tveter.
These initiatives are still in the planning stage, so be sure to stay tuned for updates in future issues of News & Notes.
- Brown bag discussions focused on clarifying issues regarding merit pay.
- Supervisors will look for additional opportunities to recognize staff and encourage colleagues to do the same. (ASR thank you cards are available from Debbie Henderson. The Office of Human Resources thank you ecard is also another nice way to tell someone you appreciate his or her work.)
- The ASR Development Team will look for ways to increase cross-departmental understanding of what each ASR unit does and how we all work together.
- The ASR Survey Team will plan on reducing the number of surveys distributed and the number of questions asked. The team will also explore asking new questions. If you have a suggestion for the ASR Survey Team, contact Matt Tveter.
These initiatives are still in the planning stage, so be sure to stay tuned for updates in future issues of News & Notes.
ASR organizational chart
Have you familiarized yourself with the ASR organizational chart lately? It's useful to take a peek every now and then to reacquaint yourself with colleagues' titles and the department's report structure. You can also view vacant positions as well.
Are you really anxious?
We use the word anxious a lot, but its meaning may be different than you previously thought. We usually say, "I'm anxious to see my friends" or "I'm anxious to finally travel to Europe." The real definition of the word, however, means to have a feeling of dread, fear, or anxiety. It doesn't mean you're looking forward to something. So unless you fear your friends or visiting Europe, it's best to say you're excited or eager instead.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Huge thanks!
During the past six weeks, ASR staff raised more than $400 in gift cards for the Student Parent Help Center and donated four large bags of new toys for Toys for Tots. And the giving didn't stop there. ASR staff also filled three heavy grocery bags and donated $40 in cash for Second Harvest and gave 11 big boxes of recycled items (e.g. towels, blankets, newspaper) to the Animal Humane Society.
Additionally, on Saturday, January 11, 21 One Stop staff members volunteered to bag, pack, and label food at Second Harvest. One Stop was part of a larger group that helped pack 6,435 pounds of oatmeal and pasta during a two-hour period.
If you have ideas for future ASR services projects, please contact Tina Falkner.
Additionally, on Saturday, January 11, 21 One Stop staff members volunteered to bag, pack, and label food at Second Harvest. One Stop was part of a larger group that helped pack 6,435 pounds of oatmeal and pasta during a two-hour period.
If you have ideas for future ASR services projects, please contact Tina Falkner.
Hockey City Classic
Just a reminder the University is hosting the Hockey City Classic on Friday, Jan. 17 at TCF Bank Stadium, so you'll likely experience congested traffic when leaving campus. Or, if you're brave enough to withstand the cold, you can cheer on the women's hockey team at 4:30 p.m. when they host Minnesota State and then the men's team at 8 p.m. when they face Ohio State. Go Gophers!
OCM is now on Twitter!
The Office of Classroom Management (OCM) has joined Twitter! Be sure to follow for the latest classroom and scheduling news, as well as updates on classroom upgrades and projects. It's also a great way to communicate with OCM staff regarding any questions or concerns you may have about room scheduling, study space, or classroom technology.
A Peek into the Past: Maintaining student records in the '70s (Part 2)
By Jeff von-Munkwitz-Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President & University Registrar, Boston University
The following story is the second of a two-part installment about managing student records in the 1970s. Going forward, issues of News & Notes will include additional entertaining stories of times gone by in the student finance/financial aid and records office. Hopefully, you will find it interesting to read about how much our offices have changed over the years! If you have a story you'd like to share, please send your submission to epaxton@umn.edu.
The Student Master File (SMF) was a batch system. Updates were applied once a week. Some, including registrations, came from the Active Student File (ASF); others were based on a kind of blind data entry by records clerks. To change a grade, for example, you entered the student ID and name, information about the course, the old grade, and the new grade. If any of the student or course information, including the old grade, didn't match exactly what was in the SMF, the update wouldn't be applied, and the transaction would appear on an error report.
Records maintenance responsibilities were divided up alphabetically by college. For example, my colleague kept the records of College of Liberal Arts (CLA) students whose last names were in the range Mea-N. At the end of the cancel/add period each quarter, records clerks would receive the registration cards and any cancel/add forms for their students. For those not stamped SMF, the clerks would add the term information and courses to the linen transcripts, which they kept in binders in their desks. Future changes to student registrations might require the use of the electric eraser.
Later in the quarter, we'd receive printouts of the course information on the ASF for each student, and we'd compare that information to the accumulated registration and cancel/add forms to an audit of the student bills to ensure students were billed properly, as all of the bills were calculated by hand.
When grades came in at the end of the quarter, we would transfer the grades from the grade sheets to the course cards that students turned in when they registered, using a No. 2 pencil to fill in the appropriate grade in the correct bubble on each card. The cards would then go to the Unit Record section of central IT for processing, and the grades would be added to the SMF. Once all the grades were processed, we'd receive a printout of all grades for each student and we'd add the grades to the linen transcripts. When grade changes came in, we'd once again use the electric eraser.
Assistant Vice President & University Registrar, Boston University
The following story is the second of a two-part installment about managing student records in the 1970s. Going forward, issues of News & Notes will include additional entertaining stories of times gone by in the student finance/financial aid and records office. Hopefully, you will find it interesting to read about how much our offices have changed over the years! If you have a story you'd like to share, please send your submission to epaxton@umn.edu.
The Student Master File (SMF) was a batch system. Updates were applied once a week. Some, including registrations, came from the Active Student File (ASF); others were based on a kind of blind data entry by records clerks. To change a grade, for example, you entered the student ID and name, information about the course, the old grade, and the new grade. If any of the student or course information, including the old grade, didn't match exactly what was in the SMF, the update wouldn't be applied, and the transaction would appear on an error report.
Records maintenance responsibilities were divided up alphabetically by college. For example, my colleague kept the records of College of Liberal Arts (CLA) students whose last names were in the range Mea-N. At the end of the cancel/add period each quarter, records clerks would receive the registration cards and any cancel/add forms for their students. For those not stamped SMF, the clerks would add the term information and courses to the linen transcripts, which they kept in binders in their desks. Future changes to student registrations might require the use of the electric eraser.
Later in the quarter, we'd receive printouts of the course information on the ASF for each student, and we'd compare that information to the accumulated registration and cancel/add forms to an audit of the student bills to ensure students were billed properly, as all of the bills were calculated by hand.
When grades came in at the end of the quarter, we would transfer the grades from the grade sheets to the course cards that students turned in when they registered, using a No. 2 pencil to fill in the appropriate grade in the correct bubble on each card. The cards would then go to the Unit Record section of central IT for processing, and the grades would be added to the SMF. Once all the grades were processed, we'd receive a printout of all grades for each student and we'd add the grades to the linen transcripts. When grade changes came in, we'd once again use the electric eraser.
Official University closings
After our near recording-breaking temperatures last week, it seems like a good time to revisit the University's policy on official closings. As a general practice, the University does not close unless the health, safety, and security of University personnel and students is seriously brought into question. When this does happen, either because of severe weather conditions or other emergencies, the Executive Vice President and Provost initiates appropriate action. You can check out additional information about this policy in the ASR employee handbook.
Secure your home network
Not sure if your home network is secure? The January issue of "OUCH" offers tips and tricks for ensuring your security is up to par. You can also check out a video on encryption. It's a great way to secure your data, yet many people don't understand what it is or how it works.
May and might
Here's another tricky one to remember the difference between. May implies a possibility. For example, "I may go to the gym after work." Might, on the other hand, indicates much more uncertainty or indecision. For instance, "I might decide to run a marathon one day."
Friday, January 3, 2014
People in your Neighborhood: John Sill
John Sill is surrounded by education. His father is a biology professor at a junior college in North Dakota, his mother is a retired high school teacher, his older brother is a business teacher at Minnetonka High School, and his twin sister is an undergraduate nursing professor at St. Catherine University. So, naturally, John also got involved in education.
He grew up in Bottineau, North Dakota. He received his bachelors degree in elementary education from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. "After I graduated from Luther I taught abroad in Brussels, Belgium from 2007-2008," he said. "The traveling opportunities were amazing, the kids were ridiculously adorable, and the beer, chocolate, and frites were incredible."
John returned to the U.S. and spent about three years substitute teaching, table clearing at Maggiano's in Edina, and working as a paraprofessional in the Bloomington School District. Then, in 2010, he went on to obtain a Master's of Arts in Education: Leadership in Student Affairs from the University of St Thomas.
In 2011, John started working at the University in the Orientation and First Year Programs office as an intern. In September 2012, he began working at One Stop Student Services as a counselor.
"As a counselor, I help save the world by offering assistance to students and parents regarding financial aid, registration inquiries, academic record requests, University resources, and all other sorts of tidbits of information," he said.
John works on the St. Paul campus so he works closely with the OTR staff. "It's been really fun getting to know them. They keep me on my toes," he said. "I could not do my job without all the great folks back in ASR and other University offices as they follow up with my incredibly brilliant questions."
John currently lives in Woodbury with his fiancé Allison and their Ragdoll cat. "She's a luxury cat because she costs too much money, but is great because she acts like a dog and loves to chill with people."
His fiancé just finished her Nurse Practitioner's degree at St. Kate's. The two are getting married in July 2014 in her hometown of Spicer, Minnesota.
John's personal goals for the upcoming years include "successfully getting married next summer, paying my car off, running two more marathons for a total of five, and enjoying my upcoming new title of uncle," he said.
Professionally, John hopes to stay at the University. "It's an incredible place and I thoroughly enjoy helping students and working with the people here," he said.
He says that, besides improving his swashbuckling skill-set, he would like to explore other professional areas to utilize the Regent's Scholarship.
Outside of work, John's favorite activity is to get together with college friends, grill out, and play bags all day. He's also not modest about his hidden talents. "I draw an incredible bat symbol," he said. "And my cursive handwriting is better than literally everyone else's."
Jovial John
1. Field of Dreams is his favorite movie.
2. His first concert was The Goo Goo Dolls at the North Dakota State Fair. "It was dope."
3. He just reread The Hobbit in preparation for the second movie.
4. His favorite TV show is Archer.
5. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs is his favorite book.
6. John loves the Dave Matthews Band and Foo Fighters.
7. New Zealand is his favorite vacation spot.
8. John's favorite foods are lutefisk and macaroni and cheese.
9. John's most memorable Halloween costume was Shredder from The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. "Instead of prepping lessons for student teaching, I spend a day and a half creating my costume and won $60."
10. If he could be anyone for a day, he'd be Stephen Colbert.
He grew up in Bottineau, North Dakota. He received his bachelors degree in elementary education from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. "After I graduated from Luther I taught abroad in Brussels, Belgium from 2007-2008," he said. "The traveling opportunities were amazing, the kids were ridiculously adorable, and the beer, chocolate, and frites were incredible."
John returned to the U.S. and spent about three years substitute teaching, table clearing at Maggiano's in Edina, and working as a paraprofessional in the Bloomington School District. Then, in 2010, he went on to obtain a Master's of Arts in Education: Leadership in Student Affairs from the University of St Thomas.
In 2011, John started working at the University in the Orientation and First Year Programs office as an intern. In September 2012, he began working at One Stop Student Services as a counselor.
"As a counselor, I help save the world by offering assistance to students and parents regarding financial aid, registration inquiries, academic record requests, University resources, and all other sorts of tidbits of information," he said.
John works on the St. Paul campus so he works closely with the OTR staff. "It's been really fun getting to know them. They keep me on my toes," he said. "I could not do my job without all the great folks back in ASR and other University offices as they follow up with my incredibly brilliant questions."
John currently lives in Woodbury with his fiancé Allison and their Ragdoll cat. "She's a luxury cat because she costs too much money, but is great because she acts like a dog and loves to chill with people."
His fiancé just finished her Nurse Practitioner's degree at St. Kate's. The two are getting married in July 2014 in her hometown of Spicer, Minnesota.
John's personal goals for the upcoming years include "successfully getting married next summer, paying my car off, running two more marathons for a total of five, and enjoying my upcoming new title of uncle," he said.
Professionally, John hopes to stay at the University. "It's an incredible place and I thoroughly enjoy helping students and working with the people here," he said.
He says that, besides improving his swashbuckling skill-set, he would like to explore other professional areas to utilize the Regent's Scholarship.
Outside of work, John's favorite activity is to get together with college friends, grill out, and play bags all day. He's also not modest about his hidden talents. "I draw an incredible bat symbol," he said. "And my cursive handwriting is better than literally everyone else's."
Jovial John
1. Field of Dreams is his favorite movie.
2. His first concert was The Goo Goo Dolls at the North Dakota State Fair. "It was dope."
3. He just reread The Hobbit in preparation for the second movie.
4. His favorite TV show is Archer.
5. The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs is his favorite book.
6. John loves the Dave Matthews Band and Foo Fighters.
7. New Zealand is his favorite vacation spot.
8. John's favorite foods are lutefisk and macaroni and cheese.
9. John's most memorable Halloween costume was Shredder from The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. "Instead of prepping lessons for student teaching, I spend a day and a half creating my costume and won $60."
10. If he could be anyone for a day, he'd be Stephen Colbert.
Reminder: Annual service outage January 4 & 5
The University's annual data center maintenance outage is scheduled for 6 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, with restoration scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014. The maintenance outage requires a complete shutdown of the primary data center and will affect many IT services, including One Stop self-service applications, PeopleSoft, and Moodle. The Grade Distribution Report will be unavailable beginning Friday, Jan. 3 at 3 p.m. BI reports will be unavailable beginning 12:01 a.m. January 4. It is expected that all affected services will be restored by noon Sunday.
The list of affected services, as well as updates during the maintenance period, will be
available on the University's IT Service Status page. (Note: You may need to expand the Planned Maintenance section to view the list). Click here for a complete list of affected services.
Questions and concerns should be directed to Data Center Operations Services service owner Joe Zanmiller at jpz@umn.edu.
The list of affected services, as well as updates during the maintenance period, will be
available on the University's IT Service Status page. (Note: You may need to expand the Planned Maintenance section to view the list). Click here for a complete list of affected services.
Questions and concerns should be directed to Data Center Operations Services service owner Joe Zanmiller at jpz@umn.edu.
ASR employee survey results available
The results from the third 2013 ASR employee survey are now available. The survey team (Amber Cellotti, Trinity Muller, Maggie O'Neill, and Matt Tveter) reviewed and analyzed survey responses and presented recommendations to the ASR directors based on those responses. Please contact a member of the survey team if you have any questions or suggestions regarding the employee survey.
ASR service units in ServiceNow
Wondering which ASR service units have access to ServiceNow and the best way to reach each one? Find out here. You'll also see a brief description of what each service unit does.
Disinterested vs. uninterested
It's easy to assume that disinterested and uninterested mean the same thing, but they don't actually. Someone who is disinterested is impartial. For example, a judge should be impartial, or fair and not biased, while presiding over a trial. Another way to think of it is someone who is indifferent. Someone who is uninterested, on the other hand, is a person who doesn't care at all or has no feelings toward something. He or she is unconcerned. For instance, someone may be uninterested in reading books.
A Peek into the Past: Maintaining student records in the '70s
By Jeff von Munkwitz-Smith, Ph.D.
Assistant Vice President & University Registrar, Boston University
The following story is the first of a two-part installment about managing student records in the 1970s. Going forward, issues of News & Notes will include additional entertaining stories of times gone by in the student finance/financial aid and records office. Hopefully, you will find it interesting to read about how much our offices have changed over the years! If you have a story you'd like to share, please send your submission to epaxton@umn.edu.
On August 16, 1974, I began my career in the registrar business as a senior clerk in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) records section of the Registrar's Office. All registration then was in-person and busy. The supervisor of my section didn't have time to do any training. On my desk was a large computer printout, a tray of registration cards, a red inkpad, and a stamp that read "SMF." My instructions were simple: If a card in the tray belonged to a student on the printout, stamp the card; if not, don't. When you finish with a tray, get the next tray. If the phone rings, don't answer it.
I learned that SMF stood for Student Master File, but I had no clue what that was. I spent the rest of the day stamping cards SMF. I went home at the end of the day with red ink on the side of my hand and on my shirt sleeve and wondering how long I'd last.
Eventually, I learned that SMF was the computerized record of students who started at the University beginning fall quarter 1972. The transcripts were produced on microfiche every two weeks. Transcripts for degree-seeking students who started before fall 1972 were maintained manually, handwritten in ink on special linen transcript paper. SMF stamped on a registration card let the records clerks know they didn't need to print the courses on the linen transcript.
At the time, the registration process had not changed too much since 1948 when a system using 80-column computer cards and IBM unit record equipment was developed to help deal with the influx of many thousands of returning World War II veterans. (What is now the Office of Information Technology at the University began in the late 1940s as a part of the Registrar's Office.) Each student was given a card with basic information and punched into 80 columns: ID number, name, college code, and a few other elements. Students would go around campus to academic departments and college offices to pick up cards for the courses they wanted to take. These cards had the basic course information, subject, course number, section number, and so on printed and punched on them. The number of cards printed for each section matched the section capacity, so a course with 25 seats would have 25 cards produced.
Once the cards were gone, the section was full. Students brought their individual student card, the cards for the courses they wanted to take, and another card on which they had written the courses, to either the Registrar's Office on the first floor of Morrill Hall or to the remote outpost in Johnston Hall where students in CLA and the Graduate School could register. Clerks would take in the packets of cards, making sure that all of the necessary cards were present, and write out a fee statement on a multi-part form. The packet of cards was paper-clipped together and put into boxes. Students received a carbon copy of their registration card and the fee statement.
The typical wait for a student could well be more than an hour. (This coming after the student had traveled across campus picking up the course cards from multiple locations.) Before being sent for processing, each set of registration cards was examined by an assistant supervisor to make sure that all of the cards were present. Boxes of cards went to the unit record section of the central IT department, where the sets of cards were processed, creating entries on the Active Student File (ASF), which contained demographic and current course registration information for all active students, including those not on the SMF. Eventually, the registration cards wound up in trays, waiting for an unlucky records clerk to compare them to names on a printout and stamp some SMF.
Assistant Vice President & University Registrar, Boston University
The following story is the first of a two-part installment about managing student records in the 1970s. Going forward, issues of News & Notes will include additional entertaining stories of times gone by in the student finance/financial aid and records office. Hopefully, you will find it interesting to read about how much our offices have changed over the years! If you have a story you'd like to share, please send your submission to epaxton@umn.edu.
On August 16, 1974, I began my career in the registrar business as a senior clerk in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) records section of the Registrar's Office. All registration then was in-person and busy. The supervisor of my section didn't have time to do any training. On my desk was a large computer printout, a tray of registration cards, a red inkpad, and a stamp that read "SMF." My instructions were simple: If a card in the tray belonged to a student on the printout, stamp the card; if not, don't. When you finish with a tray, get the next tray. If the phone rings, don't answer it.
I learned that SMF stood for Student Master File, but I had no clue what that was. I spent the rest of the day stamping cards SMF. I went home at the end of the day with red ink on the side of my hand and on my shirt sleeve and wondering how long I'd last.
Eventually, I learned that SMF was the computerized record of students who started at the University beginning fall quarter 1972. The transcripts were produced on microfiche every two weeks. Transcripts for degree-seeking students who started before fall 1972 were maintained manually, handwritten in ink on special linen transcript paper. SMF stamped on a registration card let the records clerks know they didn't need to print the courses on the linen transcript.
At the time, the registration process had not changed too much since 1948 when a system using 80-column computer cards and IBM unit record equipment was developed to help deal with the influx of many thousands of returning World War II veterans. (What is now the Office of Information Technology at the University began in the late 1940s as a part of the Registrar's Office.) Each student was given a card with basic information and punched into 80 columns: ID number, name, college code, and a few other elements. Students would go around campus to academic departments and college offices to pick up cards for the courses they wanted to take. These cards had the basic course information, subject, course number, section number, and so on printed and punched on them. The number of cards printed for each section matched the section capacity, so a course with 25 seats would have 25 cards produced.
Once the cards were gone, the section was full. Students brought their individual student card, the cards for the courses they wanted to take, and another card on which they had written the courses, to either the Registrar's Office on the first floor of Morrill Hall or to the remote outpost in Johnston Hall where students in CLA and the Graduate School could register. Clerks would take in the packets of cards, making sure that all of the necessary cards were present, and write out a fee statement on a multi-part form. The packet of cards was paper-clipped together and put into boxes. Students received a carbon copy of their registration card and the fee statement.
The typical wait for a student could well be more than an hour. (This coming after the student had traveled across campus picking up the course cards from multiple locations.) Before being sent for processing, each set of registration cards was examined by an assistant supervisor to make sure that all of the cards were present. Boxes of cards went to the unit record section of the central IT department, where the sets of cards were processed, creating entries on the Active Student File (ASF), which contained demographic and current course registration information for all active students, including those not on the SMF. Eventually, the registration cards wound up in trays, waiting for an unlucky records clerk to compare them to names on a printout and stamp some SMF.
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