New look for Google Calendar

Google Calendar is getting a facelift! Changes to the interface of Google Calendar will be available for University users as of Tuesday, November 28. It will be “optional” to keep the old look until February 28. Learn more about the updates from Google.

Getting reimbursed by the University

University policy requires reimbursement requests to be submitted within 60 days. Once submitted, have you ever wondered where your reimbursement is? Well, by navigating to MyU > My Pay > Reimbursement > Reimbursements/Payments, you are able to view status information once the report has been entered in PeopleSoft.

Google Meet

On November 3, the University launched Google Meet, which is the new default app for video and chat calls (such as when you “Add a video call” to a Google Calendar meeting). Refer to OIT’s website and/or read Google’s how-to guide for more details.

OIT’s help desk is called “Technology Help”

A few years ago, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) rebranded their help desk and renamed the service “Technology Help.” In order to align with OIT’s naming convention, we are combing through ASR websites to make sure we refer to OIT’s service as Technology Help (instead of a variation of the name such as 1-Help, which is just shorthand to help users remember their phone number). This is just a reminder to be aware and refer to OIT’s help desk by its right name.

ASR went to UMACRAO

Last week, a handful of ASR staff attended the Upper Midwest Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (UMACRAO) conference that took place in Alexandria, Minnesota. Other attendees came in from Iowa, the Dakotas, and Canada. The conference provided time for attendees to reconnect with colleagues from other institutions, as well as the opportunity to raise over $1000 for the chosen charity organization, Someplace Safe.

Varied session topics allowed for much discussion: creating web forms, handling campus emergencies, creating effective registrar offices, commencement, grades and end of term processes, FERPA, and conversations about gender identity, pronouns, and preferred name.

At the conference, Amber Cellotti was sworn in as 2017-18 UMACRAO president, and Erik Sparby was elected UMACRAO treasurer. ASR staff gave presentations including:

• Registrar Lessons Learned—Amber Cellotti
• FERPA Pre-Conference Session—Tina Falkner and Stacey Tidball
• Financial Aid and Records Working Together—Tina Falkner
• Reduce Debt and Improve Graduation and Retention—Tina Falkner and Holly Johnson
• FERPA Q&A—Tina Falkner and Stacey Tidball
• FERPA and Social Media—Adrienne Bricker

The Cubicle Chronicles: Tea Time by Chris Abts

Did you know that Chris Abts (GPAS team) loves to read comics and graphic novels? He has an ever-expanding library at home, and even doodles his own stories. A few of his favorite series include Transmetropolitan by Darick Robertson and The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. If you see Chris around the office, and know anything about comics, bet you could strike up a pretty good conversation with him about it.

This week, enjoy an original Chris Abts comic—a goofy take on what to do when the shared watering hole needs a refill.

Thanks for contributing, Chris!

LucidChart team account expires October 31

The ASR team account of LucidChart will expire on Tuesday, October 31. At this time, Central OIT is not supporting an enterprise-wide license of Lucid, so you will be downgraded to a free EDU license. All registrants with a .edu email address and employer of a college/university will automatically be registered for a free EDU account.

In preparation for this change, we recommended you download/export any documents you want to preserve as a back-up. If you have a business need to maintain an EDU Premium account, talk to your supervisor.

You will still be able to create documents, import from/export to Visio, and have advanced shape library access as part of the free EDU license. What you will lose as part of the premium license is your ability to collaborate with other users on a shared document. See the list of features that differ between the free and paid accounts.