Twin Cities Registrar search

The search committee for the open Office of the Registrar (OTR) director position has recommended three candidates for on-campus interviews.

How we interact with each candidate throughout the interview process is part of recruitment and we need to balance being inviting, friendly, and informative with our need for assessment. The interview day consists of meetings with the search committee, University Registrar, ASR directors, members of the department, and members of the system campuses. Individuals participating in the interviews are asked to provide feedback through a candidate evaluation survey. All feedback will be aggregated and shared with the search committee and forwarded to Associate Vice Provost Sue Van Voorhis for final recommendations.

The search committee hopes to have made a final decision by mid-October and will update ASR staff again as the process comes to a close.

ASR budget update

ASR has been asked to model for both a .68% ($124,500) and a 2% ($366,100) reallocation as our budget cut this year. However, we cannot impact students which is always difficult due to the nature of ASR’s work. The ASR directors are working on their proposal submission which is due October 7, 2016. Note that any of this information could change once the state legislature begins meeting.

Stay tuned for updates as we learn more about the process.

Mid-year reviews coming up

Please remember that mid-year reviews are coming up. This year staff will use an updated mid-year form that better matches our annual form. That form, along with more detailed instructions, will be available in mid-October. The timeline is:

• Mid-October: Supervisors will begin to communicate with staff about their reviews
• By November 14, staff should complete their self-evaluations

• By December 9, supervisors will complete their written evaluations and hold meetings

ASR Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee and survey

Earlier this week, ASR’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee send a survey to all ASR staff to assess ASR’s climate of diversity and inclusion. All responses to this survey are anonymous. Aggregated survey results will be shared with ASR staff and used to inform future efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion. Please look for your survey link in a September 27th email and share your thoughts and ideas.

The survey coincides with a week of focused conversations and events about equity and diversity. Greater Than 7 is designed to engage our entire University community in these important topics. Check out the events happening on campus, or find out more about the ASR Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee’s work.

Earlier this summer, ASR formed a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee consisting of a cross-functional team of representatives from each of ASR's units. The members of this committee include: Chelsea Weber, Josh Geiger, Katie MacDonald, Rachel McKessock, Roxanne Johnson, Sherief Elabbady, and Julie Selander.

The committee has been developing the charter for their work, and has explored some ideas for future priorities. It became clear to the group that it should first assess and better understand ASR's climate of diversity and inclusion, which will help determine where the committee should focus their efforts.

If you have any questions about this survey or the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee, please contact your unit representative or speak to your supervisor.

ASR website update: organizational charts

As part of the ASR website redesign, the ASR-wide organizational charts are being re-created in a new format. The ASR-wide organizational chart that was hosted on the previous version of the ASR website was not accessible when the new ASR website was launched. However, as a few staff members have expressed a need for the ASR-wide org. chart, a link to the previous version of the ASR-wide org. chart has been added to the ASR website. When the new version is ready, the old version will be replaced. You may need to bypass a warning about website security in order to access the ASR-wide org. chart.

The Community Fund Drive is the month of October

The Office of Undergraduate Education is going to have a Penny War with all proceeds supporting the Completion Fund for students. There was unanimous agreement for where the funds should go. Stay tuned for more information about the Penny War.

New this year, the process for counting the people who have participated in donating to the annual community campaign is more streamlined. Each person does NOT have to fill out a form to be counted. Instead, a simple sign-up list for people to write their names and x.500 and/or Employee ID will do. This should lead to a more accurate count and quicker processing time.

SDP SWAT update and nomination parameters

The ASR Student Degree Progress (SDP) SWAT team has been busy awarding completion funds to students completing their degrees.  You can help by nominating a student for funds!  Potential candidates must be Twin Cities undergraduates admitted Fall 2011 or later that have exhausted available financial aid options.  The goal of these funds is to remove financial barriers that prevent (or could prevent) students from registering for classes needed to complete their degree.

If you have any questions, or wish to nominate a student, please email the ASR SDP team at asr-sdp@umn.edu. This email account can be utilized for all student degree progress and retention-related requests for the team, and helps the SDP team ensure coverage and timely responses for your inquiries. Just a reminder, there is no lead for this group as they all report to Sue VanVoorhis.

Recent ECAS fixes and enhancements

On September 25, more fixes and enhancements were made to the Electronic Course Approval System (ECAS). The changes include:

• Updated or removed links on the main ECAS page to outdated resource materials.
• Removing a Topics attribute in ECAS will now remove the attribute in PeopleSoft.
• Deleting or changing a Liberal Education requirement will now delete and/or add the attribute in PeopleSoft.
• Added a Freshman Seminar attribute option.
• Added Learning Abroad attribute option.
• Added a cross-listing option.

• Updated text descriptions for multiple fields.

Graduate Planning and Audit System update

The Graduate Planning and Audit System (GPAS) is a new tool that allows graduate students and their advisors to view student degree progress in real-time and approve planned  coursework. In addition, the GPAS audit is used for degree clearance processed by the Graduate Education Records Team in the Office of the Registrar.

To date, the GPAS team has mapped, coded, and built 770 plans, subplans, and minors. The team continues to support CEHD, who went live with the new system in April 2015, and will soon launch this tool for the following colleges and programs:

• MBA is live as of September 6, 2016
• CSOM will go live on October 3, 2016
• CVM will go live on November 7, 2016

Beginning September 16, the Graduate Education Records Team in the Office of the Registrar will take over exceptions processing for CEHD students. For more information, visit the the GPAS project website.

The University’s six-year capital plan

At the September Board of Regents meeting, the University's six year capital plan was reviewed,including an item that could potentially impact ASR staff if approved -- moving Williamson and Fraser Hall staff to the Bell Museum space in several years.

However, it's many years off and plans can change in the interim. So, while this plan is being considered, don’t start packing yet!

This project would renovate or replace approximately 56,000 square feet in 10 Church Street (former Bell Museum) for Admissions, innovative learning spaces and Academic Support Resources. The new or renovated facility will allow Fraser and Williamson Hall to be vacated. The vacated Fraser Hall is planned for the new Chemistry Teaching Facility.

The University’s overall capital improvement plan is guided by the Capital Strategy Group (CSG). The CSG includes:

• Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost
• Vice President, Health Sciences and Medical School Dean
• Vice President, Research
• Vice President, University Services
• Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• Special Assistant to the President, Government and Community Relations (exofficio)

This group recommends a capital plan to the President, and the President recommends a plan for review and approval by the Board of Regents.

Class Time Conflict Workflow update

The Class Time Conflict Workflow launched for all campuses on August 15 is being successfully used by students, faculty, and staff. Since the launch date, the form has had 112 requests across all campuses with 110 requests on the Twin Cities campus and one request each at Crookston and Morris. The project team will be meeting again on September 30 to discuss feedback and prioritize work for the second iteration.

MyU/PeopleSoft downtime planned for Sept. 24-25

MyU/PeopleSoft will be unavailable for a short window during an upgrade to the Oracle databases: on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 10pm MyU/PeopleSoft will become unavailable. MyU will back online by Sunday, Sept. 25 at 8am and PeopleSoft will come back online according to the normal maintenance schedule (available by Sunday, Sept. 25 at noon).

Login page updates for PeopleSoft, Moodle, and Google on Oct. 2

The login pages for some University applications will be launching new looks beginning October 2, 2016. There will be no service disruption for this change and no action is required by users. Find out more about this change.

St. Paul One Stop & CFANS Open House

Both offices are extremely excited for this new advising center where students can receive service from both CFANS and One Stop in one location. Stop by to check out this newly renovated space. Remarks will begin around 3:00 p.m. from Michael White (CFANS) and Julie Selander (One Stop Student Services). Light refreshments will be served, along with tours of the space. All are welcome. Please let Nate Peterson in One Stop Student Services know if you have any questions.

These walkstations were made for walking, and that’s just what they do...

Update (Dec. 2017): Please refer to the ASR Intranet for updated Walkstation directions and information.

Looking for a way to stay fit while you work? ASR has three Walkstations available. One Walkstation in 160 Williamson Hall and two in Fraser 200. Each is outfitted with a computer and is available as a resource in Google Calendar:

• (EQ) ASR-160 WmsonH Walkstation
• (EQ) ASR-200 Fraser Walkstation 1
• (EQ) ASR-200 Fraser Walkstation 2

To add a resource to an event and reserve a walkstation:

• On your computer, open Google Calendar
• Create a new event or open an existing one
• On the right side of the page, click Rooms, etc.
• Next to the resource you want, click Add. If you don’t see the resource in the list, use the “Filter room” search box.



Here’s the view if you search for “Walkstation” 

• Click Save. Other people in the organization won’t be able to book the resource at the same time.

You can request a waiver from Marit Gladem via email. Fill out the waiver, sign and submit the original copy to Marit Gladem in 234 Morrill Hall.

Inbox by Gmail

University of Minnesota users now have access to Inbox by Gmail, a Google app focused on improving email productivity and organization. Watch Google’s introductory video, Meet Inbox by Gmail, to see examples of its features. To use Inbox, sign in to your University Gmail account and visit inbox.google.com.

Updated Apple iOS

On Tuesday, Sept. 13, Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 10, was made available for download. The new version promises an updated user interface with lots of new functionality. OIT has performed basic functionality tests to ensure this release will work in our environment.

University of Minnesota Twin Cities makes first financial aid disbursements

On Monday, August 29, the Office of Student Finance made their first financial aid disbursements of the fall 2016 term for the majority of the careers on the Twin Cities campus. More than $90 million was disbursed to Twin Cities undergraduate students. The first disbursement of the semester was the biggest, although the financial aid disbursement process will be ongoing throughout the term.

Note: the "count" is the total number of disbursements, and it is possible that individual students may receive multiple disbursements (i.e. a loan and a scholarship).

UGRD
Count 52,737
Amount $90,949,196

DENT
Count 600
Amount $7,713,376

GRAD
Count 4,097
Amount $24,718,010

LAW
Count 1,226
Amount $11,472,142

PHAR
Count 662
Amount $5,760,336

VMED
Count 617
Amount $6,545,529

MED (to date)
Count 1673
Amount $11,520,005

New student degree progress tool for MyU being developed

Later this fall, the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities and Rochester campuses will launch a new tool within MyU that helps undergraduate students better understand their degree progress and plan for four-year degree completion. This tool utilizes data from APAS to calculate a student’s progress within their degree program. Students will receive recommendations, based on their individual progress and University experience, to help guide them toward four-year degree completion.

Currently, the project team is gathering feedback from meetings with advisors and usability sessions with students. Communication efforts are ongoing for advisors and staff, and outreach to eligible students will begin in October.

If you have additional questions, please contact the ASR Student Degree Progress team.

New ASR site coming on September 12 - some resources moving

The ASR website redesign will change where certain resources used by ASR staff are located. Some resources that have been available on the ASR site will be moved to the ASR intranet site, while others will have a different look or feel. Some changes include:

• The FA Help and Communications request forms will be removed
• If you need to make an FA Help request, send an email to fahelp@umn.edu
• If you need to make a request of the communications team, send an email to asrcomm@umn.edu
• OSF and One Stop policies and procedures will be accessible through the ASR intranet
• Look under the “Quick Links” column on the right or go straight to policy.asr.um.edu
• The ASR organizational chart will be re-designed using a new interface
• The ASR-only directory will be removed
• Staff should search for ASR staff contact information using the search bar in the header of any UMN website.
• Working on a new process for items associated with the ASR Directory, such as storing job descriptions and identifying career families
• Information on career families and ASR Knowledge, Skills and Abilities will be housed on the ASR intranet

These changes are being implemented so ASR can be more strategic about how we manage our websites. Moving forward, the ASR website will mainly be a resource for University staff and faculty, while the ASR Intranet will be where ASR staff find resources meant just for us. Here’s a preview of the new ASR website homepage:

Campus mail reminders

A few campus mail reminders to help avoid confusion and delays in mail processing:

• Cross off the last address used before sending your campus mail.
• Don’t forget that ASR’s HR representatives, Marit Gladem and Olga Kavun-Wozniak, are in 234 Morrill Hall, Delivery Code: 0262C.
• Mail for the Office of the Registrar should no longer be sent to 160 Williamson Hall. Instead, send mail to 200 Fraser Hall.

Williamson Hall elevator repairs

The Williamson Hall elevator is scheduled to be out of service starting Monday, September 12, for 3 weeks until the end of the month.

ASR Project Management Courses

The 2016-2017 course schedule is now posted and available for registration. Check out the Project Management Program Page for more info on all of our courses! There are multiple sections of all courses available between now and June 2017.

Upcoming PM 101: Project Management Fundamentals Course - Registration is very limited for the October 4th section of PM 101. If you would like to be added to the waitlist for this section, please click the “Add to Waitlist” option in the Registration block for this section. If a spot opens up the system will email you when you’re at the top of the waitlist. You can also register for sections scheduled for January and April. A reminder to new staff members: PM 101 is part of your new hire onboarding - please sign up today!

New sessions of PM 201 & PM 202 are also available.

NEW COURSE! We are pleased to announce the launch of the next class in the ASR PM Series: Project Management 301: Evidence Based Project Management. This course discusses how to use data to remove subjectivity, analysis methodologies to help you decide whether to proceed with a project, and aggregating information to help you effectively manage a portfolio of projects. Prerequisites: PM 101, 201, 202. The first section offering is Thursday, September 29th 10:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

For all of our courses, please be sure to add these events to your Google Calendar once you receive your registration confirmation. Unfortunately, our registration system cannot do this for you.