SRCAA Advisory Group
Monday, November 28, 2011
Conference Room 0205, LS&A Building
8:30 – 10:00 am
Meeting Notes
Present: V Bell (Social Work), P Bousley (Art & Design), K Briske (RO), W Dobberstein (Eng),
L Emery (MAIS), D Harju (RO), Jody Misiak (Rackham), JoAnn Peraino (LSA),
E Plantinga (Bus Ad), P Robinson (RO), P Roocroft (Kines), S Shimones (Arch & Urban
Planning), B Vorobiev (Dent)
I. Electronic Transcripts (Kortney)
Kortney shared an update on the Office of the Registrar’s eTranscript project. Details included:
· What is an eTranscript?
AACRAO’s definition: A transcript that comes in any of the following formats: EDI (SPEEDE), XML, PDF or other standardized electronic (non-hardcopy) format.
· Background
Staff from the RO, ITS, and AVOW (chosen vendor) have been working on the project and will go-live with eTranscripts (PDF format) this coming weekend.
· Why are we implementing eTranscripts?
To provide better service to our students:
- Immediate delivery anywhere in the world
- Weekends
- Holidays
- Season days
- Any time of day/night
To reduce operating costs:
- Stamps
- Envelopes
- Transcript paper
- Labels
- Paper
- Toner
- Person hours ( note – there are no plans to actively reduce our workforce)
Commonly accepted Registrar Practice
Our peer institutions are doing it. Most Big Ten schools are either live or have plans to be live soon.
This project has support from the Provost’s Office and committed ITS resources.
· What is changing?
Students will be able to elect to have transcripts sent electronically.
Students can check the status of their orders online.
Students can pay for expedited processing or delivery of paper transcripts online.
Improved communications regarding orders; tweaked existing messages plus new messages for each electronic order.
Enhanced Operational Page for RO Transcripts Staff
Avow portal available for troubleshooting and reporting.
New Transcripts web site accessible from RO Home Page (to supplement RN Knowledgebase)
· How will this work? (Paper vs. PDF)
Kortney will share his PowerPoint with the SRCAA Advisory Group. Communications to the students will include an update on Wolverine Access, update to the Office of the Registrar’s transcript order webpage, an article in the Daily (January).
Kortney will also share the sample PDF communication coversheet and transcript with the SRCAA Advisory Group.
II. Project Updates (Lisa)
Lisa provide an ITS Project Update. Details included:
· President Coleman’s Message to Campus - $120 Million in Savings
ITS is committed to saving $8 million.
Moved 25% of ITS’s effort to support NextGen.
FY12 ITS Capacity Utilization which reflects ITS is pretty limited to start new projects. Quick wins or in-progress projects will be the worked as time permits.
· Realignment of Managers
ITS now has 1 Technical Manager overseeing all of the Student Administration developers and 2 Product Managers. Support areas were distributed between the 2 Product Managers.
Elaine Nowak: Recruiting & Admissions, New Student Programs, Financial Aid, Student Financials
Lisa Emery: Global Engagement, Student Records, Curriculum,, Academic Advising, Student
Co-Curricular
· Realignment of Business Systems Analysts
Had 8 and now have 4
New Business Systems Analysts pool was developed to provide assistance with high priority projects.
· Current ITS Projects
- eTranscripts (rolling out December 2011)
- M-Compass
- Academic Structure Improvements (used for single degree conferred by multiple schools)
- eTextbooks
- NCAA Improvements for Compliance (not started; will be broken into multiple small projects)
- EPIC Interface for UHS (DSA Project)
· Other Related ITS Projects
- Mobile Academics (Mobile Apps Team)
- Academic Analytics (Teaching and Learning Team)
- CTools Infrastructure Replacement (Teaching and Learning Team)
· Quick Wins
- Textbook Search Enhancements
- Batch.pdf Official Transcripts
- Links to School/College Specific Advising Reports
· Production Support Allocations
- Academic Advising Partition Modifications
- Teaching Evaluation Changes in CTools
- Fixes to National Student Clearinghouse Process
- Oracle Bundles & Fixes
· NextGen Initiatives
- ITS Strategic Plan
- End-User Computing (Information Assurance Project)
· New Projects and Priorities
Lisa mentioned it no longer makes sense to prioritize projects by fiscal year. A list is being maintained by ITS and she is requesting the SRCAA Advisory Group to continue to submit ideas and comments to her via email. Projects will be submitted to SASAC and then onto ADAC for final approval.
III. Electronic Textbooks (Kortney)
Kortney provided an update on the eTextbook Pilot Project and the project’s governance structure. The goals of the project are to provide cheaper books to students and to provide students and faculty with a single e-textbook platform. Faculty would not be restricted from doing something different from the University supported solution. The University is in the RFP process for a delivery platform and negotiating with publishers directly. There are three business models:
1) Retail (student pays publisher directly)
2) Wholesale (University makes contract with both the publishers and the interface company)
3) Open (often free but not always)
IV. Textbook Communications (Kortney)
Kortney shared ITS heard from some of the bookstores that there are some University departments not getting their textbook details in on time. Currently, a reminder is sent to faculty once a term. Kortney inquired what could be done to assist with resolving this issue. The consensus of the group agreed having Kortney follow-up with the Provost’s Office to see if they could send out a communication to the Deans and/or Associate Deans would probably be the most effective.
V. Other Matters Arising (All)
December meeting has been canceled.