Operations & Strategic Initiatives

Operations

• Annual review of our Williamson Hall building emergency plan and ASR’s Continuity of Operations plan is happening.
• The annual space survey was completed last week. Each year departments are asked to look at the space they are responsible for and ensure that everything is accounted for accurately. 

Projects

• Completed the New American Indian Scholars Program workflow in Jadu and it is ready for launch.
• The Projects team is providing project management coaching for lead staff working on the FAFSA Simplification project through the launch in spring 2024.
• We continue to partner with the ASR Application Development team to provide ongoing UX & Business Analysis to support their work intake and refinement.
• The Projects team has taken on the OIT PI Planning coordination efforts for ASR. We have been meeting with all ASR-IT and business unit teams to ensure our collaborative efforts with OIT are submitted to the appropriate OIT agile team for prioritization in the coming quarter. 

Training

• To coincide with the Coursedog launch, OSI Training created four new training courses that teach Coursedog authors and approvers across the University the basics of the new system.
• OSI Training is beginning to create an updated online FERPA training.

UX & Content Strategy

• The team has been supporting the FAFSA Simplification effort mandated by changes at the federal level. There are many changes related to terminology, so a thorough review of forms, emails, and web content is underway. The team is also helping ensure that students and families are aware of the changes and this year’s delayed availability of the FAFSA form. 
• Following a redesign of the DORS website, an awareness campaign was kicked off so that the campus community is aware of the benefits of using DORS. This effort is based on feedback from users saying they wished more people knew about DORS. 
• The 2022-2023 annual report process has kicked off. This is an update of a publication initiated for the previous academic year (linked on the ASR website homepage). An area of focus for this year’s project is documenting the sources of data we publish. 
• We’re also starting a content review of the One Stop website. This annual process ensures that all the content is accurate and trustworthy.

Office of the Registrar

• OTR has been busy implementing an interim staffing structure to support continuity and promote professional development over the next year. The high level org chart is available on the ASR intranet, but below are some highlights. Please continue to use otr@umn.edu as the primary point of contact or for necessary student referrals. 
• Colleen Harms has been promoted to Interim Associate Director overseeing a combined unit of Service Operations and Records & Enrollment.
• Matt Duggan has been promoted to Interim Assistant Director overseeing the service operations team. 
• Theresa Nelson has been promoted to a management position overseeing the Graduate Education Records team.
• Josemy Morales has been promoted to Service Operations manager overseeing the OTR student workers. 
• In addition to adopting a new staffing structure and new allocations of work, OTR has also been busy with ongoing end of term processing including:
• 6970 undergraduate degrees posted system-wide for spring 2023
• 1552 graduate degrees posted system-wide for May 2023 (210 Twin Cities graduate term-based degrees)
• 813 professional degrees posted for spring 2023
• Over 9700 diplomas sent since May 1!
• The Destiny One Registration System (DORS) team will officially join OTR as of July 1. 
• The Duluth campus went live with GPAS which now closes out the GPAS implementation! 
• OTR staff have also been engaging in professional development. The APAS and TES teams (Stephanie Sutton, Amanda Grimm, Kathryn Kvam, Laura Butchko and Chris Smith) recently attended the CollegeSource conference in San Diego. James Harms and Amber Cellotti attended AACRAO Hill Day and the AACRAO Leadership Meeting in DC respectively. 
• We want to give the biggest kudos to all OTR staff for their ongoing support and flexibility during this interim period!

DORS website redesign

The Destiny One Registration System (DORS) is an enterprise system that handles payment and registration for events and non-credit offerings. It is a trusted, affordable, and secure tool. However, many University departments are unaware of DORS’s offerings and are utilizing third-party systems instead. These systems pose security risks and liability issues.

In order to expand awareness and attract more users, we’ve redesigned the DORS website with the new user in mind. Featuring in-depth information about DORS, a reorganized training and self-help library, and customer support resources, this new website will streamline processes for current users and educate new users. Mark your calendars: the redesigned website will launch on July 5. 

For more information, or if you have any questions, please email dorshelp@umn.edu.