- Staff in OTR are preparing to represent the University and ASR at the Big Ten Registrar meeting (October 1-3), the Upper Midwest Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (UMACRAO) annual meeting (October 25-27), and Convergence: Credential Innovation in Higher Education (November 1-3).
- Degree audit (APAS & GPAS)
- Preparing for new/changed program proposals to come through in Coursedog after October 1.
- Destiny One (DORS)
- Members of the DORS team are partnering with undergraduate students in the MiS program in CSOM for their capstone project. The student teams will be evaluating the brief, “The Value of Competency-Based Alternative Credentials and a Comprehensive Learner Record for the University of Minnesota,” to help us better understand the evolving accreditation and credential landscape.
- Preparing to work with usability lab on assessment of Helio Campus (Comprehensive Learner Record).
- Since the beginning of August, we have consistently seen revenue between $350,000 and $360,000 each week for registrations completed in Destiny One. The week of Sept. 4-10, we had actual revenue of $499,656.60. If we factor in in-kind revenue it is nearly $515,000 for the one week. So for the month of August, registrations completed in Destiny One generated over $2.3 million dollars of actual revenue (not including in-kind) for the University.
- Grad Ed Records (GERT)
- The team continues to do ongoing analysis for graduate education workflows in preparation for the move off of the WorkflowGen platform.
- The team welcomed Michelle James in July and are starting to settle in as a fully staffed team!
- Training Duluth OTR on GPAS degree clearance processes.
- Quality Assurance (QA)
- HUGE kudos to the team for the ongoing support and providing data during the UM Report outage.
- As of Friday, September 15, we have seen 153 total requests via the Student Data Request form of which 129 were student records related.
- Records & Enrollment / Service Operations
- We recently concluded an RFP for transcript and diploma (digital, print, mail) services, and we are working with partners in Purchasing, OGC, and UIS to get all of the i’s dotted and t’s crossed. We’re excited to maintain our transcript services with Parchment and to move forward with a new partnership with Paradigm to support diploma production and move it to a vendor solution.
- Staff continue to partner with OSI and OUE to develop a new process for change of college (known internally as ICT), which will be more consistent, streamlined, and provide a better user experience for students, collegiate staff, and OTR staff. This will also move the process off of the WorkflowGen platform and onto Jadu, and we anticipate having the new process in place to support the fall 2024 application cycle for change of college.
- Transfer Evaluation System (TES)
- A high volume of transfer courses continue to be submitted for evaluation.
- Continued work with transfer guides.
- Proactively gathering syllabi for system campus courses with equivalencies expiring in the near future.
Thursday, September 21, 2023
Office of the Registrar
Reserving ASR Spaces
Several spaces in Williamson Hall 130/140 and 160 are reservable for online and in-person meetings. Before using a space, please reserve it in Google Calendar by adding a room to your meeting. Please do not use a room, even if it looks open, without reserving it first. This serves multiple purposes:
- It ensures people are able to use the space they reserved.
- It’s important that we’re able to track our conference room and Zoom room utilization.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
Thank you for your service!
The ASR Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) committee would like to recognize and thank Ian Whitney and Ingrid Nuttall as their time on the DEI committee comes to a close. Ian and Ingrid made invaluable contributions and DEI efforts in ASR while serving on the committee. Thank you both!
National Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 marked the beginning of the United State’s National Hispanic Heritage Month, which continues until October 15. Originally observed as Hispanic Heritage Week beginning in 1968 and later extended to a month in 1988, this month is a national period of reflection and celebration of the histories, traditions, cultural diversity, and contributions of Hispanic and Latinx Americans.
This month also celebrates the independence days of several Latin American countries:
As stated in the U.S. President’s 2022 Proclamation of National Hispanic Heritage Month, “Since the beginning, our country has drawn strength and insights from Hispanic writers, scientists, soldiers, doctors, entrepreneurs, academics, and leaders in labor and government.” In that spirit, you may find some of the following material of interest this month:
Join our ASR DEI Community of Practice
The ASR Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) committee would like to recognize and thank Ian Whitney and Ingrid Nuttall as their time on the DEI committee comes to a close. Ian and Ingrid made invaluable contributions and DEI efforts in ASR while serving on the committee. Thank you both!
National Hispanic Heritage Month
September 15 marked the beginning of the United State’s National Hispanic Heritage Month, which continues until October 15. Originally observed as Hispanic Heritage Week beginning in 1968 and later extended to a month in 1988, this month is a national period of reflection and celebration of the histories, traditions, cultural diversity, and contributions of Hispanic and Latinx Americans.
This month also celebrates the independence days of several Latin American countries:
- September 15: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua
- September 16: Mexico
- September 18: Chile
- September 21: Belize
As stated in the U.S. President’s 2022 Proclamation of National Hispanic Heritage Month, “Since the beginning, our country has drawn strength and insights from Hispanic writers, scientists, soldiers, doctors, entrepreneurs, academics, and leaders in labor and government.” In that spirit, you may find some of the following material of interest this month:
- National Public Radio (NPR) has compiled a list of programming in recognition of Hispanic Heritage Month, including a retelling of how Hernán Cortés and his army conquered the Aztec Empire.
- A 2022 article in the L.A. Times compiled a list of books to read by Latinx authors.
- The Seattle Public Library has a list of recent children’s books by Latinx authors and illustrators.
- Are you a data person? You might find the census statistics compiled by the United States Census Bureau of interest.
Join our ASR DEI Community of Practice
Subscribe to our DEI Google Group to discuss the latest news, connect with the committee, and keep up-to-date with DEI initiatives. More resources and information about the DEI committee can be found on the ASR Intranet.
Staff recognition
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities has signed onto and been accepted as part of the College Cost Transparency Initiative. As part of this, our financial aid notice was approved as meeting the standards of this initiative with no changes necessary! So major kudos to the Office of Student Finance, the UX and Content Strategy team, and One Stop Student Services for all of their hard work over the past years ensuring that our aid notices are compliant and transparent to students about aid types and costs. Thank you!
Update from Stacey
I am pleased to announce that Amber Cellotti has been hired as Deputy Registrar and will lead our Office of the Registrar. She brings decades of experience to the role, starting her University career in the Graduate School (GSSP) to supporting the Office of the Registrar as a Coordinator and then Associate Director. She has served as Interim Deputy Registrar for the last several months and has helped the office through multiple transitions. I’m thrilled to welcome her to this new role!
With Amber in her new role, the Office of the Registrar management team is planning to post her former position. Regarding other positions, the search for a manager of the Student Data Analytics team is in its final round. We have many qualified candidates, and I hope to be announcing a new hire in the near future. We will have a couple of other postings soon, including Jenni Peterson’s former position leading the SR-IT business analysts and a position on the Student Data Analytics team. It’s been a busy time in ASR, and this is just a snippet of what’s going on. Thank you as always for the many ways you are supporting ASR and our University students.
With Amber in her new role, the Office of the Registrar management team is planning to post her former position. Regarding other positions, the search for a manager of the Student Data Analytics team is in its final round. We have many qualified candidates, and I hope to be announcing a new hire in the near future. We will have a couple of other postings soon, including Jenni Peterson’s former position leading the SR-IT business analysts and a position on the Student Data Analytics team. It’s been a busy time in ASR, and this is just a snippet of what’s going on. Thank you as always for the many ways you are supporting ASR and our University students.
Employee Engagement Survey
The 2023 Employee Engagement Survey will take place this fall beginning Monday, October 16. This year marks 10 years of the Employee Engagement Survey at the University. The insights shared during the past decade have changed how we fulfill ASR’s mission, which supports the University’s mission. Together, we’ve taken steps to improve collaboration and survey follow up based on feedback from the results and team meetings. One major initiative has been the alignment work we have done across ASR units. This has allowed us to more effectively support work across all of ASR. We have also committed to flexible work options that relate to work at the team level, rather than an ASR-wide standard.
That said, we want continuous improvement. ASR directors want to create an environment where everyone can collaborate effectively and is empowered to do good work. The Employee Engagement Survey is the most consistent opportunity for you to share your feedback.
The survey invitation will arrive on Monday, October 16. You may wish to schedule some time on your calendar now to complete the survey during the first week. The survey takes about 10 minutes, and your results are confidential. If at least five people in your team complete the survey, your supervisor will receive a report in January 2024.
That said, we want continuous improvement. ASR directors want to create an environment where everyone can collaborate effectively and is empowered to do good work. The Employee Engagement Survey is the most consistent opportunity for you to share your feedback.
The survey invitation will arrive on Monday, October 16. You may wish to schedule some time on your calendar now to complete the survey during the first week. The survey takes about 10 minutes, and your results are confidential. If at least five people in your team complete the survey, your supervisor will receive a report in January 2024.
ASR Staff Engagement September 21 Survey
This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey is focused on employee benefits. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.
Last survey, we tested your knowledge about stress. 93.1% of respondents were correct that acute stress (stress that lasts for a short period of time) can come in many forms, such as inadvertently sending your car into a skid, skiing downhill on a difficult slope, or making a presentation before a room full of people. The Pituitary gland is responsible for the stress response (41.4%), as it increases the production of hormones that help you concentrate and impacts your reaction time.
Most were correct that heartburn, sweaty palms, and dizziness are all symptoms of acute stress (96.6%), and that meditation, exercise, and talking with others are all effective ways to deal with stress (96.6%). Finally, we asked if you have a ‘comfort’ tv show or movie that you watch repeatedly. There was a wide array of responses, but Parks and Recreation and New Girl were mentioned most frequently. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
September 7, 2023 survey results
Acute stress is the most common form of stress. Which of these can cause acute stress?
Last survey, we tested your knowledge about stress. 93.1% of respondents were correct that acute stress (stress that lasts for a short period of time) can come in many forms, such as inadvertently sending your car into a skid, skiing downhill on a difficult slope, or making a presentation before a room full of people. The Pituitary gland is responsible for the stress response (41.4%), as it increases the production of hormones that help you concentrate and impacts your reaction time.
Most were correct that heartburn, sweaty palms, and dizziness are all symptoms of acute stress (96.6%), and that meditation, exercise, and talking with others are all effective ways to deal with stress (96.6%). Finally, we asked if you have a ‘comfort’ tv show or movie that you watch repeatedly. There was a wide array of responses, but Parks and Recreation and New Girl were mentioned most frequently. Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
September 7, 2023 survey results
Acute stress is the most common form of stress. Which of these can cause acute stress?
- Inadvertently sending your car into a skid on slick pavement
- Skiing downhill on a difficult slope
- Making a presentation before a roomful of people
- Any of the above (Correct answer)
- Lymph gland
- Pituitary gland (Correct answer)
- Thyroid gland
- All of the above
- Heartburn
- Sweaty palms
- Dizziness
- All of the above (Correct answer)
- Meditation
- Exercise
- Talking with others
- All of the above (Correct answer)
- New Girl, The Office, Parks & Rec
- Avatar the last Airbender!
- Greys Anatomy
- Gilmore Girls, Devil Wears Prada
- Parks & Rec, Pushing Daisies
- Veep, Arrested Development, The Shining, Hereditary
Thursday, September 7, 2023
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee
Hawaiian History Month and the Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement
September is Hawaiian History Month! Starting in 2020, the Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Coalition began the celebration in honor of Queen Liliʻuokalani’s birthday. Queen Liliʻuokalani was the last ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii (Ke Aupuni Hawaiʻi), which had existed for over 100 years before the United States helped overthrow the government in 1893.
The Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Coalition is one of many groups in Hawaiʻi that teach the long history of Hawaiʻi and its indigenous people. They belong to a wider Hawaiian sovereignty movement that struggled to return the islands to their residents. Interest in Hawaiian sovereignty jumped after the US government apologized for overthrowing and occupying Hawai’i.
The Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi, like Indigenous people throughout the world, have struggled to retain ties to their culture, history, and language through centuries of colonization. Expanding the use of Hawaiian language is one area where they’ve had some success. Starting in 1984, the use of Hawaiian in schools has greatly increased the number of people familiar with the language. NPR covered this in two reports you can listen to:
Vocabulary tip
Use the term “Hawaii resident(s)” for the overall population of Hawaii. “Hawaiian” and “Hawaiians” should only be used to refer to members of the ethnic group indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands.
Additional resources
Join our ASR DEI Community of Practice
September is Hawaiian History Month! Starting in 2020, the Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Coalition began the celebration in honor of Queen Liliʻuokalani’s birthday. Queen Liliʻuokalani was the last ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii (Ke Aupuni Hawaiʻi), which had existed for over 100 years before the United States helped overthrow the government in 1893.
The Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī Coalition is one of many groups in Hawaiʻi that teach the long history of Hawaiʻi and its indigenous people. They belong to a wider Hawaiian sovereignty movement that struggled to return the islands to their residents. Interest in Hawaiian sovereignty jumped after the US government apologized for overthrowing and occupying Hawai’i.
The Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi, like Indigenous people throughout the world, have struggled to retain ties to their culture, history, and language through centuries of colonization. Expanding the use of Hawaiian language is one area where they’ve had some success. Starting in 1984, the use of Hawaiian in schools has greatly increased the number of people familiar with the language. NPR covered this in two reports you can listen to:
Use the term “Hawaii resident(s)” for the overall population of Hawaii. “Hawaiian” and “Hawaiians” should only be used to refer to members of the ethnic group indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands.
Additional resources
Join our ASR DEI Community of Practice
Subscribe to our DEI Google Group to discuss the latest news, connect with the committee, and keep up-to-date with DEI initiatives. More resources and information about the DEI committee can be found on the ASR Intranet.
Staff recognition
We want to give a big shout out to everyone in ASR who stepped up during the UM Reports outage and ensured all of our stakeholders systemwide received their data, especially with it being unavailable at such a critical time of year. A lot of this work involved analyzing the data in the unavailable reports and then investigating ways to get it from other sources.
While many people have been involved in the effort, a special thanks goes to Tony Thomas, Andrew Hill, Carolee Cohen, Christopher Smith, Colleen Harms, Dan Delaney, Ian Whitney, Jack Kimmes, Marc Keaveny, Moses Ngombe, Paul Enestvedt, Rachel McKessock, Richard Toetschinger, and Sarah Hoegger.
While many people have been involved in the effort, a special thanks goes to Tony Thomas, Andrew Hill, Carolee Cohen, Christopher Smith, Colleen Harms, Dan Delaney, Ian Whitney, Jack Kimmes, Marc Keaveny, Moses Ngombe, Paul Enestvedt, Rachel McKessock, Richard Toetschinger, and Sarah Hoegger.
Office of Classroom Management
- Scheduling Team
- The team is busy with fall 2023 class changes! Final exam room requests are being processed as well.
- Check out the Course Section & Student Modality Dashboard to see up-to-date class modality stats for fall semester. As of publication, on the Twin Cities campus for all careers, we are at 82.66% in-person class sections (that's 8,887 classes); 10.72% are remote or online (1152 classes); and 6.62% are blended (a little in-person and a little online/remote; 712 classes).
- Spring 2024 class details are still being updated by departments, but we have about 75% of the classes already assigned. We expect that pace to pick up as we roll into late September.
- CCS will open for department schedulers to start scheduling May/summer 2024 classes at the end of September, so the team is busy with data clean up to prep for summer scheduling.
- Friendly reminder that you can reserve a general purpose classroom (GPC) for your meeting needs as well! We encourage you to use GPCs when they are not otherwise scheduled for classes. They make great meeting spots if you are on campus. You can log in to Astra directly to submit a room request and use Room Search to see room details.
- Service Team
- Fall semester prep by the numbers:
- 4 new students Classroom Technology Monitors hired this August.
- 130+ technology upgrades completed over the summer - Thanks CTS!
- Congratulations to Noah Holm who was promoted to Service Manager in August! Noah has been with OCM since 2017, and has been instrumental in improving the faculty and student experience in learning spaces. In his new role, he will build on his previous efforts by cultivating a team and creating connections across the University to improve services.
- To build out the team, we are looking to hire a Technology Service Lead (see open position below).
- Operations Team
- OCM has been focusing on right-sizing our classroom inventory capacity-wise. We replaced furniture in over 30 classrooms this summer, including Ford and Vincent Halls, where we decreased capacities for more square-footage per student in the rooms.
- Other notable projects this summer include furniture and finish replacements in Ford Hall, new furniture in Vincent, and card reader replacements for classrooms in Burton, Murphy, Elliott, Keller, and Smith Halls.
- Classroom Technical Services
- CTS is positioned to support a great start to the fall semester. For the first two weeks of the semester, project work is put on reduced priority to ensure we have staffing capacity available to assist faculty and students who may have challenges working with the audio-video systems.
- Summer project activity wrapped up last week. Over the past few months, CTS was able to complete approximately 30 large, 75 small, and a few additional miscellaneous projects on the TC Campus despite significant staffing shortages. Working with our partners in OCM, several project schedules were adjusted to balance workload with available resources. Thanks OCM!
- The organization is looking to hire a Senior Electronics Technician/AV Specialist (see open position below).
- In August, CTS began working with a new software support vendor, 3K Technologies, to assist us in managing our business software systems. We’re looking forward to working with our new vendor to bring improved performance and functionality to our systems.
ASR at the Homecoming parade
Please join One Stop in their annual Homecoming parade tradition on Friday, September 29, at 6:30 pm. We will march in the parade, hand out candy, and showcase our pride and spirit for the University of Minnesota. Friends and family are welcome!
No R.S.V.P. necessary, but please email Richard Campo (campo035@umn.edu) to be included on group messages about the event. Full parade details are at Homecoming Parade 2023.
Chrome River tips & tricks
When itemizing a lodging expense on an expense report, always complete the “Allowable Total” field on the “Room Charge” component. Filling this in will automatically check the amount spent compared to the per diem limit for the travel destination. Leaving this field blank will result in unnecessary compliance warnings (i.e., extra steps for you), and will require manual review of the costs before approval. Bonus Tip! Lodging itemizations do not need to be broken out by date, but can be submitted as category subtotals for the entire stay.
When finalizing a purchase, please be aware of any sellers that offer and/or include an automatic round-up for charity. While it can be good to support various causes, the University is prohibited from making charitable donations, so these cannot be included when the University is paying (e.g. PCard, TCard, or reimbursement) for the purchase. This type of expense must be removed from expense reports before approval.
When finalizing a purchase, please be aware of any sellers that offer and/or include an automatic round-up for charity. While it can be good to support various causes, the University is prohibited from making charitable donations, so these cannot be included when the University is paying (e.g. PCard, TCard, or reimbursement) for the purchase. This type of expense must be removed from expense reports before approval.
Update from Stacey
Thank you everyone for your efforts to prepare for the start of fall term. We’ve welcomed one of the largest undergraduate classes to our campus, and many new graduate and professional students. It’s a huge effort, and it would not be successful without all of you!
I also want to thank the many folks that have responded to the UM Reports outage in a variety of capacities. The work has required a team effort, including working on replacement reports, communicating with stakeholders, and fulfilling ad hoc data requests. I appreciate working in an organization where I am confident people will pull together to solve problems.
I also want to thank the many folks that have responded to the UM Reports outage in a variety of capacities. The work has required a team effort, including working on replacement reports, communicating with stakeholders, and fulfilling ad hoc data requests. I appreciate working in an organization where I am confident people will pull together to solve problems.
ASR Staff Engagement September 7 Survey
This week’s ASR Staff Engagement Survey tests your knowledge about stress. Thank you for continuing to share your stories and experiences.
According to the last survey, most do not save their passwords on their web browser (48.4%). The vast majority of respondents have received a suspected phishing email (83.9%). Most also have automatic updates enabled on their computer (74.2%).
Finally, we asked whether you would travel to space or deep into the ocean (or neither) if you could without harm. Most say they would rather travel to space between the two (45.2%). Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
August 24, 2023 survey results
Finally, we asked whether you would travel to space or deep into the ocean (or neither) if you could without harm. Most say they would rather travel to space between the two (45.2%). Thanks all for your continued participation! It is very much appreciated. The results from the last survey are available below.
August 24, 2023 survey results
- Do you save passwords on your web browser?
- Yes (29%)
- Sometimes (22.6%)
- No (48.4%)
- Yes (83.9%)
- No (6.5%)
- I’m not sure (9.7%)
- Yes (74.2%)
- No (16.1%)
- I’m not sure (9.7%)
- Space (45.2%)
- Ocean (32.3%)
- Neither please! (22.6%)
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