Committee on Academic Policy and Procedures

Meeting Notes September 5, 2007- 9:00 A.M.

113 Seaton

Attending:

Delker, Herspring, Wheatley, Pumphrey, Niedfeldt, Perl, Hightower, Pence, Devault, Morse, Crow

David Delker convened the meeting, and asked Mike Crow to proceed.

Mike distributed “Schedule of Activities for Go-Live of Program/Plan Stack.”

Security Migration

  • Most DO have two or three persons authorized with “Dean’s Office Role,” which is as expected.

Training Refresher/Planning & Coordination

  • Program/Plan Stack session on Thursday, Sept 6 will be a “final exam” or “quiz-out” to test skill in entering plan changes. If uncertain about skill/understanding after Thursday session, a special training session will be held on Friday, September 7 from 11-noon in F9.

PPS Conversion

  • Program/Plan Stack for active students (N=28,000+) will occur Sept 7.

Go Live

  • Beginning Sept 10, Dean’s Offices must enter all plan changes in both SIS and iSIS. Need to settle coordination issues: dual entry (dual monitors helpful) OR enter curriculum changes in SIS and set aside plan changes for weekly entry in iSIS.
  • Question was raised about recording assigned adviser at time of curriculum/plan change. Adviser entry in iSIS is not yet available. Enter in SIS, and the assigned adviser will be pulled into iSIS with HR conversion. After HR conversion, all adviser assignments will have to be entered in both systems. Program changes sent to REG for processing may be problematic if the changes are not all entered at time of conversion. If the adviser information is provided on the form, will REG enter the adviser? DO may be able to run a report to identify students for whom adviser assignments are missing so corrections can be made.
  • DO roles have been created and we should have full access, but it is imperative to limit activity to PLAN CHANGES ONLY. ( and FOR REAL changes only – not practice changes! Practice/training should occur only in CS-1.)
  • Department access will begin mid-month. Two levels: Dept Head (overseer) and Dept Office (actively engaged).
  • Student worker roles need to be created, and should be limited roles.
  • It is hoped that roles will be settled by October 1.
  • For Program/Plan Stack, everything appears to be ready to roll out on Monday, Sept 10 for the start of dual maintenance.

Form Changes

  • Shanna Pumphrey agreed to serve as the iSIS Task Force representative on the committee to design the new “Change of Program/Plan” form to be used beginning Jan 2008. Current “Change of Curriculum” forms will continue to be used through Dec 2007.

Questions/additional discussion

  • When does DARS interface go up? “Interface is working but not using right people table.”
  • When will DARS/SIS be shut down? May take longer than first thought.
  • What does “Program/Plan Stack (PPS)” mean? Refers to computer hierarchy. Each student has a “stack” of program + plan (+ subplan in some cases).
  • A College/Registration & Records Team liaison list will be distributed to each DO. Each college will have a team of four people to provide assistance. E-mail all four members of the team, and one or more team members will respond to you and the team so all can understand problems and provide expertise for solutions. (Indication of position of each team member was requested.)
  • (From June 28 “Hot Topics” issues document) The issue of when to purge waitlists was settled (purge after 1st week of classes), but there was concern about short courses. Cut-off adjustments can be made for short courses.
  • Encourage departments to use “Reserve Capacity” instead of adding seats.
  • Management of class seats to accommodate enrollment during all 12 days of new student orientation and enrollment may be a problem. If not managed, those who come early take the best times, leaving only 7:30 am, 4:30 pm and evening courses for those who enroll later, limiting their ability to enroll in a full schedule of classes because of conflicts. We want to encourage students to come throughout the enrollment period, and assuring that they will have reasonable class choices is important. Without that assurance, we have unmanageable numbers to accommodate in the first few days of O&E, and unhappy students and parents. Not everyone can come early, nor are we equipped to accommodate everyone who wants to come early. Adding sections usually is not a productive solution, because availability of space and instructors often pushes those sections into conflicting times. The ability to periodically add seats to every section is very important. With SIS, seats can be added easily to all sections of a course. With iSIS, seats can only be added section by section. Mike was asked to pursue this further.
  • What is the F08 Class Schedule development schedule?
    • Oct 1: class schedule available to Colleges. Periodic help sessions will be available in F9.
    • Nov 15: updated class schedule available to Colleges.
    • Dec 03: updated class schedule available to Colleges.
    • Dec 14: College access to F08 Class Schedule ENDS.
  • Concern was raised about Admissions training – people are confused.
  • An “overview of class schedule” training for “others” (departments) is planned.
  • Issue to be addressed: permissions. Should faculty have access to give permission? Permission overrides EVERYTHING, including prerequisites and room capacity.
    • Clarification: “consent” has no functionality. Classes may have “Consent of instructor” or “Consent of Dept” listed which directs students where to go for “permission.” “Permission” is what actually puts the student in the class.
    • One strategy: faculty complete a form giving consent, and the student takes the consent form to the departmental office or dean’s office for permission to be entered. DCE does not want paper forms. Some Dean’s Offices want forms for proof of consent. Perhaps forms could be submitted by e-mail and printed as needed??? Some departments will want DO to do transactions, however, department offices may have best information about room capacity. Discussion will continue.