tag:www.umbc.edu,2010:/blogs/sa-news//45 2010-08-27T15:10:41Z Movable Type 3.34 tag:www.umbc.edu,2010:/blogs/sa-news//45.13249 2010-05-26T18:17:59Z 2010-08-27T15:10:41Z

June 1, 2010 To: Members of the UMBC Community From: Elliot Hirshman, Provost Michael Busges, SA Project Director Re: SA Next Steps As we enter the next phase of the SA project implementation, we write to inform you of the...

Michael Busges June 1, 2010 To: Members of the UMBC Community From: Elliot Hirshman, Provost Michael Busges, SA Project Director Re: SA Next Steps As we enter the next phase of the SA project implementation, we write to inform you of the creation of a new Academic Advisory Committee that will assist the SA team with identifying and prioritizing issues related to how faculty members, instructors and advisors interact with and use the SA system. The Committee will be comprised of faculty members and support staff from the academic departments and the deans’ offices. Members have been selected by the College Deans in consultation with the Provost and the President of the Faculty Senate. As you know, we started the implementation of SA in July 2007 and concluded Phase I in December of 2009. While we have successfully implemented all five modules (Admissions, Records, Advising, Financial Aid, and Student Financials) and transitioned from the old SIS system to SA, we are aware that the initial implementation was only the first step in what we hope will be a continuous process of improving our administrative processes. For example, there are numerous functions delivered within SA that we did not implement in Phase One, but plan to implement in Phase Two. Examples would be "What-if" degree audits, assigning advisors, and reserve capacities within the schedule of classes. We are also cognizant that some of the existing functions, especially those related to usability of the portal interface for faculty members and advisors, should be enhanced. To facilitate communication in the next phase of the implementation, we have revamped the SA website and created links to it from the Provost's strategic planning website. From both websites, faculty can directly enter suggestions for improvements to the SA system, log issues, monitor progress of initiatives that are underway, and peruse training material. Suggestions from members of the community will be reviewed by the Academic Advisory Committee and the Committee will guide the SA team as to the merit and desirability of the suggestions. The SA Team, in turn, will investigate feasibility and cost of the proposed improvements. Please visit the Provost’s strategic planning website at http://www.umbc.edu/provost/planning.html ; at the bottom of the page you will find links titled "Student Administration Phase II Faculty Website" and “Status of Faculty Issues”. Finally, we would like to introduce and acknowledge the following members of our community who have agreed to serve on the SA Academic Advisory Committee: Taryn Bayles (Professor of the Practice, Chemical & Biochemical Engineering) Melanie Berry (Program Director, Visual Arts) Cathy Bielawski (Director, Undergraduate Student Services, COEIT) Michele Bulger (Academic Advisor, Biological Sciences) Nessly Craig (Associate Professor, Biological Sciences) Jonathan Finkelstein (Director, Judaic Studies & Associate Dean, CAHSS) Jessica Hammond, Asst. Director, Athletics Nathaniel Kim, Student Representative Kristie Lindenmeyer (Professor & Chair, History) Jeff Martens (Lecturer, Information Systems) Carole McCann (Professor and Director, Gender & Women Studies) Joe School (Cartographic Services Director, Geography & Environmental Systems) Anna Shields (Associate Professor & Director, Honors College) John Stolle-McAllister (Associate Professor, Modern Languages, Linguistics & Intercultural Communication) Terry Worchesky (Associate Professor, Physics) tag:www.umbc.edu,2010:/blogs/sa-news//45.13180 2010-05-05T19:33:24Z 2010-05-05T19:38:52Z

Degree Audit Update Requirements for the general education program and general university requirements such as a minimum 2.0 gpa and 120 credits were built and tested last Spring and have been used by students and advisors to monitor progress towards...

Michael Busges Degree Audit Update Requirements for the general education program and general university requirements such as a minimum 2.0 gpa and 120 credits were built and tested last Spring and have been used by students and advisors to monitor progress towards degree completion. Last Fall, we began adding majors to the degree audit. This process is on-going, and we hope to complete all majors within a few months. Most recently, we’ve added Computer Engineering, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering to the degree audit. In accordance with the university’s graduation review procedure and protocol for the bachelors’ degree, university and general requirements are reviewed by the Registrar’s Office and major, minor and certificate requirements are reviewed by the respective academic departments. To facilitate its portion of the review, the Registrar’s Office is utilizing the degree audit to determine whether a candidate for May 2010 graduation has completed the university and general requirements. While academic departments are encouraged to begin making use of the degree audit as well in the major review, please be assured that the degree audit will not be used by the Registrar’s Office to conduct preliminary or final clearance of a student for completion of their major, minor and/or certificate. This review and determination, as has been the case in the past, will remain the sole prerogative and responsibility of each academic department and will be communicated by the academic department to the Registrar’s Office via the customary graduation verification form. Again, it is our hope that those departments whose majors have been released within the SA degree audit will use this tool when clearing students thus ensuring that the degree audit will become as error-free as possible. If an advisor detects a discrepancy between a student’s degree audit and the degree requirements it may be that either the degree audit rules need to be adjusted for all students, or the department wishes to make an exception for a particular student. In either case, the degree audit team should be notified at degreeaudit@umbc.edu, and the team will either enter an exception for the student or adjust the underlying rule which means that the new rule will apply to all students in the major. Additionally, we will add clarifying language to the "Degree Audit Information" section at the beginning of the degree audit. Finally, we would like you to know that we will add a ‘what-if’ feature to the degree audit in the Fall which will allow students to run degree audits for other majors that they may be interested in, or determine how classes that they intend to take in an upcoming semester will affect their degree progress. We hope that advisors and students will continue to utilize degree audit and that we will collectively continue to work on improving and enhancing this important tool.