Registration numbers for spring 2016

This registration period for spring 2016 has begun well for system-wide students. Thus far 31,785 University of Minnesota students have successfully used the upgraded system to register for spring 2016 classes, with 22,187 students having completed registration from the Twin Cities campus.

Twin Cities begins transition to new voicemail system

UMN IT began the process of introducing a new voicemail system to the UMTC campus in late October. All current voicemail users received a voicemail message with instructions about the transition, including what users need do before December 11, 2015, in order avoid interruption in their voicemail service. If you don’t go through the process of setting yourself up in the new voicemail system before that transition date, you will not have voicemail until you set yourself up again. The new system offers the same features, including a voicemail-to-email tool. You can visit z.umn.edu/voicemail for more information.

Community Fund Drive update

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this year’s Community Fund Drive. Through the four weeks of fundraising efforts, the Office of Undergraduate Education had a 22.06% participation rate and $23,089.44 donated. Those numbers are just under our totals from 2014, where 30.98% of OUE employees participated and $25,028.57 was donated. Visit the Community Fund Drive’s web page for more information about this year’s effort »

One Stop’s Jenni Peterson wins U.S. Department of Defense’s Patriot award

While on deployment in 2014-15, Jake Murphy nominated his manager, Jenni Peterson, for the Department of Defense Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve's Patriot Award. The nomination and award recognized her tremendous contributions and selfless support for service members that contributed not only to a successful deployment of a soldier under her management, but it set the tone and exemplified the principles that should be the standard for all employers.

OTR’s St. Paul staff moving into Williamson Hall

The staff from the Office of the Registrar (OTR) in 130 Coffey Hall on the St. Paul campus will be moving to a new location beginning Monday, November 23--160 Williamson Hall on the Minneapolis East Bank campus. This move will allow the OTR staff to be closer to other Academic Support Resources colleagues and allow for more integration and cross-training opportunities across the OTR units. The One Stop staff on the St. Paul campus will remain and be available for service during and after the move.

The OTR team began moving their offices today, November 19, meaning they will have limited service availability until they re-open on November 23. If you have an urgent question and OTR staff are unavailable, you may contact One Stop at onestop@umn.edu or 612-624-1111 for assistance.

GSSP move to One Stop completed

Graduate Student Services and Progress (GSSP) at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities has completed the transition into One Stop Student Services at the Bruininks Hall location. While the staff, phone numbers, and emails have not changed, the physical location has changed from Williamson Hall to Bruininks Hall. During the transition time, there was minimal service disruption to students and other constituencies. At this point, service has been fully integrated into the One Stop model in Bruininks Hall and has been met with positive feedback from current graduate and professional students.

Reviewing ASR’s Individual Development Plans process

As part of the most recent ASR Directors retreat and ongoing evaluation of Employee Engagement survey results, the directors identified a need to cultivate leadership within ASR. Part of this effort is to examine the current ASR process for Individual Development Plans (IDP). 

This week John Vollum and a consultant have been conducting interviews with a sampling of ASR staff to learn more about how we are using -- or not using --  our IDP forms and what we can do to create a better process to support professional development. Stay tuned for additional updates from the directors in future News & Notes.

Professional Development Requests

The Staff Engagement Team would like to remind everyone about ASR's Professional Development Request (PDR) process and how staff are using the process to support development opportunities.

The Professional Development Request, is the workflow process used by ASR to route professional development or funding requests for approval. 

You should submit a PDR whenever you are requesting:

• approval of time or funding needed to pursue a professional development opportunity

• purchase of new equipment (i.e. computer hardware or software)

Last month was a busy time for professional development opportunities, as there were 39 approved PDRs in October 2015. Many ASR staff members took part in attending conferences, gaining certificates, or participating in on-campus activities.

Please speak with your supervisor or fill out a PDR form by selecting "Submit a PDR" from the Quick Links on the ASR Intranet if you would like to take part in an opportunity.

Being gracious

Cultivating an “Attitude of Gratitude” has been linked to better health, sounder sleep, less anxiety and depression, higher life satisfaction, and kinder behaviour toward others. But, how can we be more gracious? Read more from the New York Times »

Expectations for degrees at the University of Minnesota

The Board of Regents created progress cards that ASR needs to make sure we are aligned with, so that we are better situated to accomplish the various goals set forth for the University of Minnesota. To better understand the expectations for the Provost, Vice Provost and ASR regarding graduation, please read the following:

• Students are expected to complete their degree in 4-years.
• There is an ongoing discussion about how to handle students who finish their degrees before 4 years and whether or not they need to be cleared.  Stay tuned.

• Students that have completed all degree requirements are expected to be cleared for their degree to remain in federal aid compliance:
• A student who completes the academic requirements for a program but does not yet have the degree or certificate is not eligible for further additional FSA funds for that program.
• Degrees should be posted so that students do not receive aid for courses that are not applicable to their degree

• And, here is the link to the whole segment of the handbook, if you need some additional information: http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1415Vol1Ch1.pdf

• Students that have completed degree requirements but are still pursuing a second major (including Honors) or minor get their degree posted and become non-degree students

• Students that have completed degree requirements, have not applied for graduation and are not taking classes should be cleared for graduation (right now this should be initiated by the college, but this may change with the Timely Graduation Policy proposal).

• Students that have completed degree requirements but have in progress coursework that is not applicable to their program should be cleared for degree.

• Colleges should not be forcing students to fill out a readmission form for the sole purpose of degree clearance/posting.  Colleges should contact their OTR representative.

• Colleges should use comments/notes section on the degree clearance page to identify the term in which the student completed their degree requirements (rather than have the student change their grad application term).

Please contact me if you have any questions, as we are not always providing correct information even within our own unit and to others.

Thanks,

Sue

2015 Community Fund Drive

The theme is Do Good. Feel Good, where employees give to the causes they care about - ending hunger, curing diseases, helping students pay their college tuitions, preserving the environment, sheltering the homeless, or supporting the arts.

The Community Fund Drive reflects the University's long tradition of giving back to the community and includes seven federation partners that represent nearly 500 agencies/charities. You can also make a pledge to your own favorite charity as long as it's a 501(c)3 organization. Select the federation or charity you want to support and give online at www1.umn.edu/cfd/ today.

Giving Made Easy
Last year units reporting to the Office of Undergraduate Education had a 31% participation rate. This year we'd like to raise that--everyone can make a difference. You can donate as little as $1 per pay-period or sign up to provide a modest one-time donation.

The Community Fund Drive is unique because you can give a small gift from each paycheck or a one-time gift. Donate online through the University. Printable forms are also available here.

Time is running out to Do Good. Feel Good. The 2015 Community Fund Drive runs through November 13.

Help us improve the ASR website

Please take a few moments to give us your input on the ASR website. We know you’ve been asked to take a lot of surveys recently, but this one should only take about five minutes. Your input will help guide future improvements to the ASR website.

You are invited to the 9th annual Student Veterans Appreciation Day

Join us for the 9th annual Student Veterans Appreciation Event on Tuesday, November 17 from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. in Coffman Great Hall. Say "thank you" to student veterans, participate in some games, and grab a slice of pizza. Everyone is welcome! Can't make it? Stop by our booth to write a thank-you message to our veterans. Dates and locations are available on the One Stop website.

Carolee Cohen recognized with IT@UMN Outstanding Service Award

Ten University IT staff received an IT@UMN Outstanding Service Award for their contributions to the mission of IT@UMN. The biannual award recognizes those demonstrating high performance in the areas of creativity, organizational abilities, work success and teamwork. Among this year’s recipients was Academic Support Resources’ Carolee Cohen. Congratulations, Carolee!

OCM will staff front desk after GSSP move out

With GSSP moving out of Williamson Hall 160 and into Bruininks Hall, the Office Classroom Management will begin supporting the front desk with a rotating team of students and OCM staff. Stop by to say hello!

Academic Support Resources technical projects updates

ASR has created a resource for the U of M community to track planned, in-progress and completed projects that our technical staff are or were recently working on related to the PeopleSoft Upgrade. This information is being compiled on the new ASR Technical Project Updates webpage . These projects largely address issues that our users have identified related to their work with the Office of the Registrar, the Office of Student Finance, the Office of Financial Aid, the Office of Classroom Management, and One Stop Student Services.

IT Service Management Tool (ServiceNow) Upgrade

To maintain vendor support and take advantage of an improved user interface, the Office of Information Technology will upgrade the enterprise-level IT service management tool, ServiceNow, to its latest release (Fuji). The activities will occur behind the scenes over the weekend of December 12-13 (pending final approval by the enterprise IT Change Approval Board), and no service disruption is expected.

Increased Email Spam

Last Thursday, the University experienced a significant unplanned email disruption. In response, the email infrastructure was updated to accommodate new security standards. Users have been reporting more spam messages in their inboxes, and the OIT team is working to reinforce and update the University’s spam filters in order to reduce and eliminate spam resulting from this event.

Visit the University’s Service Status page for updates.

Introducing the Staff Engagement Team

Academic Support Resources’ Staff Engagement Team started in the summer of 2015 to help coordinate unit engagement efforts across ASR. Within the group, each unit is being represented. It’s current members include Christa Nichols, David Crane, Eleanor Pijut, John Vollum, Betsy Everts, Mara Schneider, Tonisha White, and Matthew Tveter. This group has been charged with:

• Improving E2 Survey follow-up on 2014 results and following years
• Addressing development opportunities for staff
• Communicating progress to staff

Please look for more to come in News and Notes from the Staff Engagement Team!

Fall Staff event video now posted online

The event planning team wants to thank everyone who was able to attend the Fall ASR Event. If you were not able to attend or would like to relive the experience, a video of the event is available on the ASR Intranet.

Password managers

From “Ouch!”, Securing the Human’s monthly security awareness newsletter: “One of the most important steps you can take to protect yourself online is to use a unique, strong password for each of your accounts. Unfortunately, most of us have so many accounts that it’s almost impossible to remember all of our passwords. A simple solution is to use a password manager, sometimes called a password vault.” Read more about password managers.