2018-2019 ANNUAL REPORT Service, Accuracy, Integrity
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The University of Texas at Austin
FROM THE REGISTRAR It has been just a little over six months since I began my journey at the University of Texas as the Assistant Vice Provost for Enrollment Services and University Registrar. They say “What starts here changes the world�. That is certainly true and the incredible team of people I have the privilege of working with take that message to heart in their commitment to our students on a daily basis. I have said it many times but we here in the Office of the Registrar really do help the campus do awesome things. The work that we do touches every facet of campus and that puts us in a unique position to really make an impact in the lives of our students, their families, faculty, staff, and so many, many others. Over the past year, the Office of the Registrar has undergone many changes. Some of the bigger changes include: the search and appointment of a new registrar, moving our staff in stages from the Main building to our new home in the University of Texas Administration (UTA) building, and our collaborative work with the Texas One Stop team to create a single destination for student resources related to registering for classes, financial aid, paying their bill, ordering transcripts and more. I would like to acknowledge Brenda Schumann for her outstanding service as Interim Registrar, as well as the entire leadership team and staff for their contributions and dedication during this time of transition and change.
As you review our annual report, you will see that our dedicated team has continued to serve the campus through continuous improvement to our systems and processes. Among our accomplishments, over the last year we have continued to support DMS in enrolling medical students and look forward to our first medical school graduating class in 2020, we implemented a new online portal to improve access for veteran and veteran dependent students requesting a Hazlewood Exemption (veteran education benefit), automated diploma pick-up, completed a major records retention project, implemented additional campus trainings, and launched a new seat management system that allows departments to manage seat counts and profiles and better control the makeup of their classes during registration. As the new year approaches, we find ourselves well-positioned to continue providing our students, faculty, and staff with the registrar services they need to succeed. We couldn’t do it without all of the support and collaboration with our colleagues across campus. Thank you so much! Best wishes,
Mark Simpson Assistant Vice Provost for Enrollment Services and University Registrar
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WHO WE ARE OUR MISSION
The mission of the Office of the Registrar at the University of Texas at Austin is to create, maintain, certify, and protect University records of courses, degrees, and students.
OUR VISION
The Office of the Registrar strives to: • Recognize the importance of each person we serve
• Hold the trust and confidence of students, faculty, and staff for our quality of work, collaborative solutions, and administrative foresight
• Care for our employees by promoting a friendly and stimulating office environment with opportunities for professional development • Earn national respect for excellence in academic services and our use of technology to benefit our campus and the higher education community
OUR VALUES
The Office of the Registrar emphasizes: • Accuracy, to maintain exceptional quality in our records and processes
• Integrity, to demand responsibility, confidentiality, and honesty in our work • Customer Service, to help people in a timely and caring way 3
The University of Texas at Austin
• Communication, to share expertise and listen to our clients and each other • Teamwork, to foster a collaborative work environment and coordinate the intricacies of our collective mission
OUR CORE FUNCTIONS
The core functions of the Office of the Registrar include: • Campus Support Activities • Catalog Production
• Certification of Athletic Eligibility • Course Inventory Administration • Course Scheduling • Degree Audit
• Diploma Services
• Document Management
• Enrollment Certification • Final Exams • Registration
• Room Scheduling
• Student Academic Records • Transcript Services
• University Academic Calendar • Veteran Certification
ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT’S MISSION
We boldly and innovatively champion success for all students at all stages of their educational journey.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN CORE PURPOSE To transform lives for the benefit of society.
THE PROVOST’S MISSION
The Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost coordinates the academic mission of the University, manages the academic experience for students, and implements policies and procedures related to faculty and administration.
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GOAL 1
CONTRIBUTE TO KEY STRATEGIES ADVANCING THE UNIVERSITY MISSION DELL MEDICAL SCHOOL The Office of the Registrar is proud to help our colleagues on campus do incredible things. One of the best things to happen to UT recently was the creation of the Dell Medical School (DMS)—and during 2018-19 the Registrar’s team has continued to support the DMS in enrolling their third class of medical students and implementing Dual Degree programs, enabling medical students to pursue a graduate degree while still being engaged in medical school.
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The University of Texas at Austin
The onboarding of the medical school has been a collaborative effort with not only DMS but all entities on campus who have helped make this growth and progress possible over the 20182019 academic year. Our monthly meetings, that include the many entities on campus has helped all of us make great strides in helping the medical school succeed and we look forward to our first medical school graduating class in 2020.
TEXAS ONE STOP Working in conjunction with our campus partners, other units within Enrollment Management, and the Enrollment Management leadership, the Office of the Registrar has been actively involved in the creation and onboarding of the Texas One Stop (TOS). The Texas One Stop will be a single destination for student questions related to registration, transcripts, financial aid, and tuition and fees. Registrar leadership has assisted in identifying Texas One Stop business processes, services, technological needs, hiring staff
and strategic planning. To aid in the successful transition, the Registrar’s office developed a training series to prepare TOS members on front counter registrar services related to transcript requests, enrollment certification and academic summary requests, registration assistance, and diploma pick-up. Once the Texas One Stop opens, the Registrar’s office will provide continued assistance through on-going training and monthly check-in between TOS and Registrar leadership.
CORE FUNCTION ATHLETIC CERTIFICATION
The Office of the Registrar is the certifying agent for reporting the academic eligibility status of University student-athletes to the Big XII Conference and the NCAA. Assuming this role in 2003, the office has continued to work with deans’ offices, the athletic student services office, and the athletic compliance office to develop a comprehensive process for the review of student-athletes’ academic performance and the application of appropriate University, Big XII, and NCAA rules.
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The University of Texas at Austin
GOAL 2
CUSTOMER SERVICE EXEMPTION ONLINE APPLICATION/STAFF HAZLEWOOD PROCESSING ONLINE INTERFACE The Office of the Registrar, in close partnership with Academic Information Services (AIS), responded to the needs of veteran and veteran dependent students requesting the Hazlewood Exemption (a veteran education benefit) by developing, testing, and launching a new online Hazlewood Exemption Application and Status Portal in November 2018. Prior to the implementation of the Hazlewood Portal, the Hazlewood exemption application process was exclusively paper-based.
The online application portal has provided improved access for students, given students the ability to check and see their application status online, and significantly reduced the volume of phone calls and emails concerning Hazlewood application status and decisions. We have received consistently positive feedback from students since the implementation of the new Hazlewood online portal.
CORE FUNCTION COURSE SCHEDULE PRODUCTION
The Course Schedule Production section trains and works with 112 academic units to build and maintain their class listings in the online Course Schedule. The section handles the scheduling of all classes meeting in universitycontrolled classrooms. Academic units use our online Class Manager system to build their class listings, and our course schedule update form to maintain their class listings online. More than 11,000 classes are listed each fall and spring semester; approximately 3,800 are listed in the summer session.
AUTOMATION OF DIPLOMA PICK-UP Receiving the diploma is by far one of a student’s favorite experiences. This past year, the Office of the Registrar, implemented the diploma hold for pickup interface, where students select to have their diploma held for pick-up. Upon visiting the diploma pick-up website, students entered information such as name, degree, college/school and graduation semester. Students even
have the option to select for someone else (proxy) to pick-up the diploma on their behalf. Students receive an email once their diploma is ready to be picked up in the Office of the Registrar. Since implementing in late fall 2018, over 2,000 students have picked up their diplomas, doubling the amount of pick-up requests.
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GOAL 3
PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY ONLINE TRANSCRIPT ORDER SYSTEM (OTOS) Updates were made to our current Online Transcript Order System (OTOS) to better assist students and staff in their transcript ordering experience. In anticipation of OTOS usage in the new Texas One Stop, this system can now be used to
instantaneously print a transcript and process a payment (as opposed to having to use the mainframe). As another new update, once a transaction is complete, a receipt is now immediately available to be printed for a student.
RECORDS RETENTION PROJECT During the last year, the Office of the Registrar completed its move to the UTA building from Main. One of the most daunting tasks of the Office of the Registrar move was a plan for all of the stored records, catalogs and production material that lived in our bottom basement (down 2 flights of narrow stairs and behind a cage door in Main). Many of the items dated back to the 1920’s. With the help of the UT Records Retention Specialist (with the assistance of the state archivist) a plan was formulated.
This plan included: 1) identifying records for disposal – we cleared out fourteen (14) – 96-gallon shred bins. We have some wonderful student workers that loaded and wheeled these huge shred bins through the underground to and from the bottom basement. 2) records moving to our new office in UTA – departments separated their material into archival copies and a set for a future scanning project, and 3) records to be processed for storage at the records retention center through the State Library.
CORE FUNCTION CERTIFICATION
This section of the Registrar’s Office provides official certifications to students and others for health insurance, loan deferment and other reasons. (Such certifications verify information like enrollment status, academic standing, earned degrees and attendance dates.) The certification section regularly reports to the National Student Loan Data System on the continued enrollment of those receiving Title IV loans, and also issues class audit permit forms. In addition, the Certification staff advises veterans and dependents about their vocational rehabilitation and employment benefits -- programs like the Montgomery GI Bill (Active Duty and Selected Reserve), Reserve Educational Assistance, and Survivor’s and Dependents’ Educational Assistance -- as well as certifying veterans with the US Dept of Veterans Affairs. In accordance with the Hazlewood Act, our staff also determines eligibility and processes forms for Texas ex-servicemembers and their children.
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CORE FUNCTION DIPLOMA SERVICES
Diploma services works with deans’ offices to capture information relating to degree candidates each semester, including the certified list of graduates. This area is responsible for producing and distributing diplomas for the University.
CATALOGS AND COURSE INVENTORY Over the course of the academic year, there were many improvements in management of the catalogs and course inventory, including an improved course inventory request form that automates audits as an effort to streamline and simplify the process for our campus partners. Other improvements included: • Development of more robust reporting options for our campus partners. • Complete transformation of the training model and user resources: ◊ Created on-demand resources (e.g. “step-by-step” guide for course inventory, inventory review worksheet, and a training PowerPoint).
• Increased transparency for the campus community with the crossteam collaboration and publication of the “Office of the Registrar Standards,” which is now available as a resource for our University staff and faculty. • Improved authorizations schema to better identify and communicate with our users as well as manage risk. • Improved special handling processes to better track items across inventory and catalog cycles. • Adjustments to our process timelines to better coordinate with legislative and user editing timelines to be able to respond to changes in a proactive, timely way.
◊ Offered over twelve on-site • Developed a distributed model sessions customized for each for DMS catalog edits and course individual college across campus inventory. to provide training, introduce • Drafted a “Glossary of Catalog changes and new resources, Terms” as part of the 4-year Degree and collaborate for continued Plan workgroup subcommittee. improvement. ◊ Held over a dozen individual one-on-one sessions, multiple work sessions, and training presentations. ◊ Collaborated with SAI and the Graduate School in coordinating catalog training.
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The University of Texas at Austin
DEGREE AUDIT The academic year 2018-2019, also saw several remarkable successes related to degree audits for students, including: • Automated minor/certificate overlap functionality to reduce workload for staff in colleges and improve accuracy in audits for students • Creation of a “Certified Verification” report as an aide for colleges in preparing to confer degrees. • Improved profile screen to include proposed degree CCYYS and include in-progress, future registered, and planned coursework. • Laid groundwork for authorization improvements to allow for agility, scalability, and flexibility.
• Identified ways to increase efficiency of IDA and held initial conversation with colleges to clean up data. • Updated IDA to display message at 85% progress toward degree (PTD) to prompt students to speak with an adviser about planning for graduation. • Completely retired mainframe system NRDAPF (now fully replaced with online system).
CORE FUNCTION
DOCUMENT IMAGING The document imaging section scans student record documents for viewing online. Campus units may also use the imaging system to scan and view internal documents not intended for a wider campus audience. Scanning of these documents can be performed at the Office of the Registrar or at the unit’s location.
• Made Topic Title Inventory available to all staff so it could be used as a curriculum and degree map planning tool. • Completed all post-mortem projects for undergraduate minors and certificates implementation.
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GOAL 4
STAFF EXCELLENCE CORE FUNCTION OFFICIAL PUBLICATIONS
Official Publications maintains the University’s course inventory and edits and publishes the undergraduate, graduate, and law school catalogs and General Information.
IMPLEMENTED FINAL EXAM SCHEDULING TRAINING The Registrar’s Scheduling team has created a new training event that will now take place near the 12th class day of every fall and spring semester to review the final exam scheduling process. This training is open to all final exam schedulers and will cover the final exam timeline from start to finish. The following questions will be covered: • What happens during reporting? • How are rooms chosen?
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The University of Texas at Austin
• How can you move exam periods? • What is the workflow for last minute final exam requests? • What actions should be taken as a locked building and/or room is identified? Any individuals new to final exam scheduling or those needing a refresher are able to sign up for training via UTLearn.
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89,000 transcripts issued
25,407 registration activities supported
15,340 diplomas issued
15,786 Course Schedule changes
11,563 certifications issued
35,442 events scheduled 26,899 sections scheduled 5,611 final exams scheduled 16,765 flag changes 516 catalog pages updated 2,914 course inventory changes 98,219 documents imaged
2,733 Hazlewood exemptions managed
479,126 grades accepted/processed
2,220 GI Bill requests administered
18,047 grade changes
2018–2019 ACADEMIC YEAR
BY THE NUMBERS 1
The University of Texas at Austin
GOAL 5
STRATEGIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS IMPLEMENTATION AND MODIFICATIONS TO THE ONLINE HAZLEWOOD PORTAL AND REPORTING COMPLIANCE Beginning in FY 2019, the Texas Veterans Commission’s (TVC) mandated that institutions of higher education report additional data into the Hazlewood Act database. This requirement including providing additional veteran demographic data requested by the Texas Legislature. In order to meet this requirement, the Office of the Registrar collaborated with Academic Information Services (AIS) to incorporate the veteran’s active duty Department/Branch (Air Force, Army, Marines, Navy, Coast Guard) and Component (Active, Reserve, National Guard) information as indicated of their qualifying DD-214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty). Following the launch of the new online Hazlewood Exemption Application and Status Portal, there was a need to provide the Veteran Certification staff tools to migrate the paper application
documentation to an online platform. In partnership with Academic Information Services (AIS), the Office of the Registrar implemented a new technical solution to enhance the staff experience in processing Hazlewood applications. This collaboration resulted in a new Administrative Document Upload service that allows staff to migrate the previous student paper Hazlewood materials into the new Hazlewood Portal. The new service also facilitates staff processing by merging students’ previous Hazlewood application and supporting documentation into the current Hazlewood electronic interface. By combining this information in a single location, staff have easier access to all the necessary materials resulting in a more efficient process. In addition, this creates a more consolidated view for auditing Hazlewood exemption applications.
CORE FUNCTION STUDENT ACADEMIC RECORDS The student academic records section reviews the accuracy of student data upon a student’s matriculation and is responsible for maintaining all academic records. This maintenance includes ensuring that all changes to student records, such as name changes and grade changes, are done accurately and according to University policy. This area is also responsible for posting all final grades, including grades from study abroad, credit by exam, and University Extension. The archive includes all records from the first group of students in 1883 to current students. The Office of the Registrar provides regular training sessions about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to faculty, staff, and students. The office supports a public Web site as well as the institution’s compliance module concerning this important topic.
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CORE FUNCTION REGISTRATION
The primary duties of Registration involve the coordination, maintenance, delivery, and support of the registration process for University students and approved special registration groups. Additional duties are associated with supporting students’ other enrollment needs, including college transfers, withdrawal and drop processing, pass/ fail and credit/no credit status changes, in absentia registration, student identification number changes, and UT EID issues.
SEAT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM One of our biggest successes was the launching of a new Seat Management System (SMS) during Spring 2019. Developed with input from representatives in our colleges and schools, the Seat Management System puts more control in the hands of academic departments. It allows departments to manage options, such as seat counts and profiles, and to better control the makeup of their classes during registration. New functionality of the SMS includes: • Prioritize, reserve, or exclude by new group types such as minors, certificates, classification and orientation session • Prioritize seats using by multiple rule types for a class section • Expand the number of EID entries to the number of seats available in the class
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The University of Texas at Austin
• Ability to copy EIDs from unique to unique • Log activities for all changes • Check a student to determine if they can access a class based on the priorities, reservations, and exclusions. Since implementation, 29,438 rules have been created, 63% of them are by major. During the initial fall 2019 registration period, 1,000 individual actions were being logged in the system per day. The Office of the Registrar and campus partners continue to work together to identify future enhancements and usability of the seat management system.
475,116 grades processed
26,996 classes and sections scheduled
86,622 transcripts issued
25,576 registration documents processed
84,559 documents imaged
17,100 grade changes
36,208 rooms reserved & events scheduled
16,414 Course Schedule changes
15,051 Course Schedule Update
2,736 Hazlewood exemptions processed
requests processed
2,328 course inventory changes
14,331 diplomas issued
2,139 GI Bill requests processed
5,454 final exams scheduled
506 catalog pages updated
4,559 flag changes
2018–2019 ACADEMIC YEAR
BY THE NUMBERS 1
The University of Texas at Austin
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89,000 transcripts issued
25,407 registration activities supported
15,340 diplomas issued
15,786 Course Schedule changes
11,563 certifications issued
35,442 events scheduled 26,899 sections scheduled 5,611 final exams scheduled 16,765 flag changes 516 catalog pages updated 2,914 course inventory changes 98,219 documents imaged
2,733 Hazlewood exemptions managed
479,126 grades accepted/processed
2,220 GI Bill requests administered
18,047 grade changes
2018–2019 ACADEMIC YEAR
BY THE NUMBERS 1
The University of Texas at Austin
2018–2019 ACADEMIC YEAR
COMMITTEE AND CAMPUS/PROFESSIONAL PARTICIPATION • Academic Calendar Committee
• MyUT Portal Group
• Academic Counselors Association (ACA)
• NSC/VA Working Group
• Administrative IT Leaders • Administrative Business Leaders • Admissions and Registration Committee of the Faculty Council • Association of Student Affairs Professionals • Campus Safety and Security Committee • Committee on Undergraduate Degree Program Review • Course Availability Registration Slotting Committee • Curriculum Management Committee • Data Governance Committee • Degree Audit Users group, chair • Document Management Customer Services Committee • Educational Policy Committee • Identify and Access Management Committee • Legislative Review Committee • Minors Workgroup, chair
• One Stop Advisory Committee • One Stop Implementation Team Committee • Proposal Tracking Committee • Provost’s Office Communication Group • Registrar User Request Advisory Committee (RURAC) • Staff Council • Student Dean’s Committee • TACRAO Executive Committee • TACRAO Graduation and Commencement Sessions Committee
CORE FUNCTION ROOM AND EXAM SCHEDULING
The Duties of Room and Exam Scheduling include reservations in Universitycontrolled classrooms on behalf of faculty and staff members. Registered student organizations reserve University space through the Office of Student Activities and Leadership Development. Additional duties include scheduling final exams as requested by academic units and producing online course schedules and final exam schedules. This group also tracks and coordinates construction projects as they relate to scheduling classrooms.
• TACRAO Student Success Session Planning Committee • TACRAO Technology Committee • Technology Classroom Committee • The Campus Safety and Security Committee at the University of Texas at Austin • Undergraduate Management Council • Veterans Services Committee 20
2018–2019 ACADEMIC YEAR
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION • AACRAO Conference • AACRAO Technology and Transfer Conference • AAU Registrar Annual Meeting • Big 12 Business Officers and Enrollment Services • Center for Professional Education • Leepfrog User Conference • Professional Development Day • SACRAO Conference • CollegeNET Users’ Conference • NCAA Regional Rules Seminar • Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (TACRAO) Conference • Texas Association of Collegiate Veteran Program Officials (TACVPO) Conference • Texas Veterans Higher Education Symposium • Western Association of Veterans Education Specialists (WAVES) Conference
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The University of Texas at Austin
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CONTACT US WEB SITE
registrar.utexas.edu
MAILING ADDRESS
The University of Texas at Austin Office of the Registrar PO Box 7216 Austin, TX 78713-7216
CAMPUS LOCATION
1616 Guadalupe St., 4th fl. Main Building, Room 16 Campus Mail: Registrar, M5507
PHONE NUMBER 512-475-7575
FAX NUMBERS
Administrative 512-475-7515 Certification 512-475-7520 Transcripts 512-475-7681
OFFICE HOURS
Monday through Friday 8am to 5pm
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The University of Texas at Austin
CAMPUS SUPPORT ACTIVITIES 512-475-7510
CATALOG PRODUCTION 512-475-7607 offpubs@austin.utexas.edu
CERTIFICATION OF ATHLETIC ELIGIBILITY 512-475-7525 athcert@austin.utexas.edu
COURSE INVENTORY ADMINISTRATION 512-475-7607 offpubs@austin.utexas.edu
COURSE SCHEDULING
512-475-7604 course.schedule@austin.utexas.edu
DEGREE AUDIT
512-475-7618 degreeaudit@austin.utexas.edu
DIPLOMA SERVICES
512-475-7619 diplomas@austin.utexas.edu
DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT 512-475-7678 david.cole@austin.utexas.edu
ENROLLMENT CERTIFICATION
512-475-7644 studentacademicrecords@austin.utexas.edu
FINAL EXAMS
512-475-7600 scheduling@austin.utexas.edu
REGISTRATION
512-475-7656 registration@austin.utexas.edu
ROOM SCHEDULING AND FINAL EXAMS 512-475-7600 scheduling@austin.utexas.edu
STUDENT ACADEMIC RECORDS 512-475-7644 studentacademicrecords@austin.utexas.edu
TRANSCRIPT SERVICES 512-475-7689 transcripts@austin.utexas.edu
UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC CALENDAR registrar.utexas.edu/calendars
VETERAN CERTIFICATION 512-475-7540 certification@austin.utexas.edu
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The University of Texas at Austin