Update from Stacey

I wanted to share a couple of updates on items I’m working on that are less visible to ASR. The first I’ve mentioned before—the preparation for the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) reaccreditation process. My main role has been leading the drafting of the Federal Compliance Report and assembling the appendix. The overall materials for the HLC will be over 100 pages but the federal compliance report itself is relatively short. It spans instructional time requirements, federal aid requirements, ethics in admissions, and several other topics. I’m nearing the finish line and we will be submitting our materials to the HLC in the coming weeks to prepare for the site visit this fall.

The second item is preparing briefing materials for the new provost to learn about ASR and OUE. Dr. Gretchen Ritter officially starts on July 31, but she is already engaging in meetings and reading background. For ASR, I’m providing the annual report materials—thank you to all of you that participate in that process—and additional narrative to help contextualize the information in the report and highlight work that will need her input in the near future. I am excited to work with her and help get her up to speed prior to our HLC site visit.

Student Degree Progress team

Last month, the Student Degree Progress (SDP) team, Rachel McKessock and Tracy Fischer, moved from ASR to the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) and began reporting to Jennifer Reckner. This change aligns with OUE’s strategic needs and broader initiatives, and offers a closer relationship to the vice provost.

Many of Rachel and Tracy’s primary job responsibilities will remain the same, and there will continue to be strong ties between the SDP team and ASR. Their work in student degree progress is crucial to our shared commitment to student success across OUE and ASR.

Change of College update and terminology review

In the summer of 2023, representatives from OUE and ASR collaborated to improve change of college (internally known as ICT—Intra Campus Transfer) processes and definitions. The ICT working group asked the ASR UX & Content Strategy team for assistance on this project. So far, the team has helped with:

• Journey mapping
• Conducting advisor and transfer advisor interviews
• Gathering transfer-related Google Analytics information
• Organizing and managing a UX team content plan
• Participating in weekly ICT working group meetings
• Developing a terminology review worksheet and working with Usability Services

Gathering student feedback is crucial when altering a student-facing process. The UX team partnered with Usability Services to conduct a terminology review with over 100 student participants. These results will impact how the ICT working group defines the change of college process for both students and staff. The ICT group aims to share this improved definition and process by early November 2023.

Update from Stacey

As usual, ASR is a busy place! I can’t ever mention it all, but one example is the work to support our students who are taking final exams this week (starting today). This would not be successful without the scheduling work that OCM and CTS support, reminding departments to reserve rooms, assigning them in Astra, making sure last-minute requests are managed and technology is working correctly, and that people have clear information about needing UCards, etc. The Office of Student Finance and ASR-IT have worked on packaging aid for summer, supporting 3,734 students thus far. Some highlights from OSI are in the article below too. All of our units contribute together to the success of our students, and I’m very grateful and champion our work with University leadership whenever I have the opportunity. In OUE, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the fall class. Now that the May 1st confirmation deadline has passed, it’s safe to share that we have a very strong class entering next fall. We can’t announce exact numbers yet, but even with some summer melt, we anticipate meeting the class size targets. I’m pleased to share that one of those fall students will be my son Eddie!

Update from Stacey

Thank you everyone for attending the OUE event this week, whether virtually or in person. Minnesota winter has definitely arrived!

Please be sure to check out the kudos and the OSF update section below. It’s wonderful to see ASR supporting each other. As usual, we have a lot going on. Something that I have learned in this role is that we often have work happening related to our various vendor contracts. We will have several RFP’s starting in order to follow university procedures and evaluate vendors. Parchment and Nelnet services will be going through this process soon. We just renewed our contract with NameCoach and will likely be extending our ECSI contract as well. As I said, there is a lot going on even as we enter the holiday season. Thanks for everything you do!

OUE virtual training webinar

OUE is offering a virtual training webinar with Karen Diver, Senior Advisor to the President for Native American Affairs on April 25, 2022 at 2:30 p.m. The training, A History of Federal Indian Policy and its Current Day Impacts: to understand the issues facing contemporary Tribal governments and Indigenous Peoples, will provide a unique opportunity to learn more about Native American Tribal issues and help us better understand and support the University’s Native American student population. You are encouraged to register for the training, which will include a 90-minute presentation and a 30-minute Q&A.

All OUE Assembly

The next ALL OUE Assembly will be on November 30, 2021 from 9:00-11:00 AM. This will be an in-person event staff are expected to attend. A formal invitation and RSVP will be sent before the event.

OUE DEI survey

The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) is looking for feedback regarding their efforts to better align OUE's diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work with the DEI work being done in individual units. If you have any insights or interest in being involved with this work, please complete this feedback survey no later than April 23, 2021.

Update from Sue

Thank you to everyone for attending the OUE Assembly this year. It is always informative to hear what is happening and what external units are doing. Bob Burgett and Tina did a nice job talking about the important work of the Foundation, and how it relates to what occurs in a student’s world. I appreciate learning about the interrelatedness of our work. It was also nice to hear from leadership who sincerely appreciate all of the work that you are doing for our community. Provost Crosen and Vice Provost McMaster are very appreciative of all that you are doing.

I noticed that the focus was on TC undergraduates, and we are much much more than this group of students. So I sent off a note to the Provost’s communications writer, and the person was very thankful and appreciative to hear the feedback. I mentioned our work in the areas of non-credit, graduate, professional, various technologies, facilities, financial, and campus support. It is important for all of ASR to feel part of the OUE organization as you all do great work. Thank you so much for making such a positive difference!

The OTR Director search is getting closer to being finalized. Currently, I am working through the approval process to offer the position to a candidate.