Last week, Sue Van Voorhis met and spoke with the Chancellors of the coordinate campuses. The purpose of her talk was to further educate them as to ASR's role within the University system as a critical support unit. There has been significant turnover in roles at the highest levels of the coordinate campuses; thus, Sue's visit was, in part, an orientation to how ASR works to make a positive difference in students' lives on all campuses.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Web cameras now available in Williamson 162, 164, and 160J
If you've had a meeting in one of the Williamson Hall conference rooms recently, you may have noticed the new cameras that automatically hook-up to the computers. This is to facilitate the participation of off-site meeting attendees via Google hangouts. If you've never done a hangout before, take a look at this quick guide.
"This Week @Minnesota" features financial literacy
The "Live Like a Student" campaign was featured in "This Week @Minnesota," a weekly video feature from University Relations that provides a weekly snapshot of life at the University of Minnesota. If you haven't seen it already, check it out.
People in your neighborhood: Jody Stadler
Jody Stadler considers herself a nerd. She loves Star Wars, comic books, and everything science fiction. One of Jody's favorite comic book characters is Batman and she's even dressed up as Batman for Halloween.
She also remembers one year when she tried to dress up as a ghost from the Peanuts Halloween Special, but had a minor wardrobe malfunction. "I cut the holes in the wrong place and they were on top of my head. Tufts of hair were sticking out of the top," Jody said.
Jody also enjoys "geeking out by listening to podcasts and tinkering around with computers," Jody said. "I'm my parent's IT person."
Though Jody loves comic books and Star Wars, if Hollywood made a movie about her life, she would choose Anne Hathaway in her Princess Diary days as the actress to play her. "I always picture her looking the mirror saying, 'This is as good as it's going to get,'" Jody said.
Originally from Shoreview, Jody graduated from the U with a degree in English in 2005. Immediately after, Jody began working as a Student Personnel Coordinator in the Loan Unit of the Office of Student Finance (OSF).
"I sort of tripped and fell into my current job," Jody said. "I started out as a student worker in OSF in 2002 and I've just never left. I haven't found anything that else that is as interesting."
Jody helps students who have Direct Loans, mostly through email, who want to request an adjustment to an award package. "I also coordinate with One Stop on troubleshooting loan questions and help out our Business Analyst, Marietta (Upsher)."
When One Stop was still located in Fraser Hall, Jody would interact with students face-to-face, but it's now all through email. But she has one memory that stands out.
"I had a random moment with a student who gave me documentation to have a checklist item cleared," Jody said. "I did the work and then she asked to see me at the counter. She gave me a big bear hug and thanked me for helping her out. It was really awesome and surprising."
Before ASR, Jody vividly remembers her previous job. She worked as a janitor in Sanford Hall. "I cleaned the bathrooms and the University Dining Services. Nothing grosses me out anymore," Jody said. "It was an interesting job though. I saw a whole other side of the U. It was like the underbelly of the U."
Last year, Jody bought a townhouse in Maplewood. She enjoys gardening in her new home and is learning to play the guitar.
Just Jody
1, Her favorite movie is Stars Wars (the original trilogy) or Moulin Rouge
2. She wishes she could imitate Chewbacca or Yoda.
3. She grew up wanting to be an author like Stephen King.
4. Jody still does creative writing, mostly short stories and fanfiction.
5. Jody is an only child.
6. Her first concert was DC Talk.
7. If she could have any superpower, Jody would love to fly because she is an impatient traveler.
8. Her favorite food is Indian or Italian.
9. Her favorite book is The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.
10. The last book she read was a short story called Don't Eat Cat by Jess Walter.
She also remembers one year when she tried to dress up as a ghost from the Peanuts Halloween Special, but had a minor wardrobe malfunction. "I cut the holes in the wrong place and they were on top of my head. Tufts of hair were sticking out of the top," Jody said.
Jody also enjoys "geeking out by listening to podcasts and tinkering around with computers," Jody said. "I'm my parent's IT person."
Though Jody loves comic books and Star Wars, if Hollywood made a movie about her life, she would choose Anne Hathaway in her Princess Diary days as the actress to play her. "I always picture her looking the mirror saying, 'This is as good as it's going to get,'" Jody said.
Originally from Shoreview, Jody graduated from the U with a degree in English in 2005. Immediately after, Jody began working as a Student Personnel Coordinator in the Loan Unit of the Office of Student Finance (OSF).
"I sort of tripped and fell into my current job," Jody said. "I started out as a student worker in OSF in 2002 and I've just never left. I haven't found anything that else that is as interesting."
Jody helps students who have Direct Loans, mostly through email, who want to request an adjustment to an award package. "I also coordinate with One Stop on troubleshooting loan questions and help out our Business Analyst, Marietta (Upsher)."
When One Stop was still located in Fraser Hall, Jody would interact with students face-to-face, but it's now all through email. But she has one memory that stands out.
"I had a random moment with a student who gave me documentation to have a checklist item cleared," Jody said. "I did the work and then she asked to see me at the counter. She gave me a big bear hug and thanked me for helping her out. It was really awesome and surprising."
Before ASR, Jody vividly remembers her previous job. She worked as a janitor in Sanford Hall. "I cleaned the bathrooms and the University Dining Services. Nothing grosses me out anymore," Jody said. "It was an interesting job though. I saw a whole other side of the U. It was like the underbelly of the U."
Last year, Jody bought a townhouse in Maplewood. She enjoys gardening in her new home and is learning to play the guitar.
Just Jody
1, Her favorite movie is Stars Wars (the original trilogy) or Moulin Rouge
2. She wishes she could imitate Chewbacca or Yoda.
3. She grew up wanting to be an author like Stephen King.
4. Jody still does creative writing, mostly short stories and fanfiction.
5. Jody is an only child.
6. Her first concert was DC Talk.
7. If she could have any superpower, Jody would love to fly because she is an impatient traveler.
8. Her favorite food is Indian or Italian.
9. Her favorite book is The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.
10. The last book she read was a short story called Don't Eat Cat by Jess Walter.
Bracketed commas, and what they can do for you
The comma is a pesky little piece of punctuation that tends to trip up many an innocent bystander. One such time is in the use of bracketed commas.
You can use commas to mark both ends of a clause that causes an interruption in a sentence or provides additional information. This is called bracketing commas. The commas mark an area where a reader could easily pull out that clause and still have it be grammatically correct, though potentially less interesting. For example, take the sentence, "John Keats, who never did any harm to anyone, is often invoked by grammarians." Removing the clause "who never did any harm to anyone" does not make the sentence grammatically incorrect, just less interesting.
Sometimes bracketed commas may seem necessary when they really aren't. If the clause is integral to the meaning of the sentence, you don't need to present it with a pair of commas. For example, take the sentence, "Belinda opened the trapdoor and, after listening for a minute, closed it again." Removing "after listening for a minute" still provides a grammatically correct sentence, but one that is not as informative. That clause is integral to understanding the meaning of the sentence.
You can use commas to mark both ends of a clause that causes an interruption in a sentence or provides additional information. This is called bracketing commas. The commas mark an area where a reader could easily pull out that clause and still have it be grammatically correct, though potentially less interesting. For example, take the sentence, "John Keats, who never did any harm to anyone, is often invoked by grammarians." Removing the clause "who never did any harm to anyone" does not make the sentence grammatically incorrect, just less interesting.
Sometimes bracketed commas may seem necessary when they really aren't. If the clause is integral to the meaning of the sentence, you don't need to present it with a pair of commas. For example, take the sentence, "Belinda opened the trapdoor and, after listening for a minute, closed it again." Removing "after listening for a minute" still provides a grammatically correct sentence, but one that is not as informative. That clause is integral to understanding the meaning of the sentence.
Friday, September 7, 2012
State grant work (submitted by Deb Wilkin)
Some may be interested to know that the Minnesota Office of Higher Education (MOHE) is exploring the possibility of changing the limit on State Grant eligibility from 4 years of full-time post-secondary attendance (as tracked by College state grant staff manually reviewing academic transcripts--go Michelle Boland!) to four full-time academic years of State Grant payments ( tracked by MOHE and electronically stored on their shared data base ).
MOHE recently asked for the University's help in identifying students and potential state grant award information for those students losing out on state grant eligibility due to 4 years of attendance rather than 4 years of payments. Identification of these students and the subsequent calculation of award information was no easy task, but thanks to Deb Edwards and Diane Ashby, the Office of Student Finance was able to provide the much needed information for MOHE's preliminary cost projection work.Nice going!
In 2011-2012 the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities disbursed $22,971,115 to over 6,400 undergraduate students.
MOHE recently asked for the University's help in identifying students and potential state grant award information for those students losing out on state grant eligibility due to 4 years of attendance rather than 4 years of payments. Identification of these students and the subsequent calculation of award information was no easy task, but thanks to Deb Edwards and Diane Ashby, the Office of Student Finance was able to provide the much needed information for MOHE's preliminary cost projection work.Nice going!
In 2011-2012 the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities disbursed $22,971,115 to over 6,400 undergraduate students.
A busy start to the term
The first day of class was a busy one for our systems. On September 4, 24,945 reports were run in UM Reports, making it one of the top 10 days of usage of all time. The busiest hour for UM Reports was 3-4 p.m. (2,514 reports were run). There were 33,559 registration-related transactions, and 97 percent of those were processed in 5 seconds or less.
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