Strategic direction for ASR: Course, Class, Calendar, Classrooms

Thank you to all ASR staff who attended the Course, Class, Calendar, Classroom session at the spring ASR staff event. We continue to collaborate with the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE), develop requirements, and outreach to departments. To ensure the best process development possible, we continue to engage in the following practices:

• Researching best practices at peer institutions and at the University of Minnesota
• Gathering input and feedback from stakeholders
• Engaging in an iterative and collaborative design process

Campus stakeholders continue to offer feedback through listening sessions, information-gathering sessions, committee meetings and informal networking.

Progress is underway for a few topics:

Credit and grading-base changes after registration starts

• The bulk of credit and grading base changes happen prior to the start of the term, but after registration starts.
• A process has been implemented for a cross-functional ASR group to complete an audit of the requests to understand student impacts.
• The group can approve, reject, or offer solutions for requests that do not impact students.

ECAS improvements

• We reviewed priorities with OUE and developed functional designs for various ECAS improvements, including course attributes, freshman seminars, and cross-listed courses.
• Development work will transition to production later this summer.

WebEx upgrade on July 8

WebEx will be upgraded on the evening of Friday, July 8, to provide a refreshed user interface and to improve user experience. Previously scheduled meetings will not be affected by the upgrade. Some of the new features and improvements:

Personal Meeting Room will be available at no extra cost and will no longer require an InterCall account to access.

• Avatars can be created and personalized.
• Personal Room pages can be customized.
• Better notifications.
• Microsoft Office 2016 compatibility.

Visit the University’s Office of Information Technology document to view additional details about the WebEx upgrade »

Reminder: ASR Appreciation event

The event is drawing near! Here are some additional details and information: When: Thursday, July 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.Where: Bruininks Plaza (outside), or inside Bruininks Hall if it rains

The silent auction fundraiser will be held in 330 Bruininks Hall for the same time and duration as the Appreciation event. See further fundraiser information below.


This year’s event will be catered by Deli Double. The menu will include hamburgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, fresh fruit, BBQ beans, and jumbo cookies. Water and Coke products will be provided.

ASR Silent Auction fundraiser

The ASR Appreciation event is just three weeks away! Remember to drop off your donation items for the 3rd annual ASR Staff silent auction fundraiser to support students through our ASR student scholarship funds. Can we beat last year’s $1,000 bounty?

Drop your items off at Mara Schnieder's office in 259 Fraser Hall, or Eleanor Pijut's office in 160 Williamson Hall.

One Stop Financial Wellness Counseling update

One Stop Student Services capped a successful first year of Financial Wellness counseling sessions with 173 student appointments between July 1, 2015, and July 1, 2016. One Stop now has 31 staff members certified in Personal Financial Management.

The counseling sessions we offer give students an opportunity to meet one-on-one with the trained counselors to discuss issues pertinent to their current and future financial well-being. The most common topics that students wanted to have addressed were budgeting, instructions on how to create spending plans, student loans, and learning about credit cards or credit scores.

ASR Staff Engagement

The ASR staff engagement team and the ASR directors have decided to focus on finding ways to improve the following during the 2016-17 academic year:

• Collaboration/ Cross Functional Opportunities
• Development & Recognition
• Effective Environment
• Mentorship/Training/Coaching
• Communication/ Documentation

Several initiatives related to the items above are already underway:

• ASR -IT is documenting and creating templates for business processes

Opt-in Duo two-factor authentication for W-2s and Direct Deposit

This coming weekend the change to "opt-in" Duo 2-factor authentication for W-2s and Direct Deposit access will go live. Staff can expect an email middle of next week from the Office of Information Technology. This new process adds an extra layer of protection to the user's personal information. For more information read this OIT document »