June 16, 2016

In Attendance:

1.  Release Date for Minors/Certificates system

• The workgroup agreed that the minors/certificates systems wouldn't be released to the students and advisors until a date to be determined after the 12th class day in fall 2016.

2.  December Graduates

• Concern was raised about students graduating in December 2016.   These students may potentially want to switch to the 16-18 catalog so they can obtain a minor for display on their transcripts.  Because of this, the group agreed:
  • Minors and certificates need to be entered into the new minors system by early fall 2016.
  • All minor/certificate requirements must be coded, tested, and moved to Live by the time certified audits run.
  • Because the system won't be open for students and advisors until after the 12th class day, the effective CCYYS for each approved minor/certificate won't be avaialble until the spring 2017 CCYYS.  Owning colleges of the minors/certificates will need ot have a way to change the effective CCYYS for the students that want to graduate with the specific minor/certificate. (See Administrative Suite)  

3.  Administrative Suite

• The Administrative Suite is currently being developed that will allow authorized college staff to search, list, and update student information related to minors/certificates.  These staff will be able to:
  • Search on a minor/certificate and see all students approved, pending approval, expired, and conferred. 
  • Search on a student and list all minors/certificates they currently have an their associated statuses.
  • Allow authorized staff to update status and effective CCYYS.
  • Incorporate functionality of the current credential system for a one-stop shop for minors/certificates in the 16-18 catalog and beyond. 

4.  Testing and Training 

• A draft of the training manual can be found on the Documentation site.
• A testing session has been schedule for Friday, July 15, 10 - noon in PHR 2.116 for the workgroup.  The initial meeting will be a hands on, walking the group through the process to familiarize them with the system and test the functionality to ensure that it works as expected.  The group should be able to sign off on testing by the end of July.   
• Additional training sessions for the identified train-the-trainer from each area will begin on Friday, July 22, 10 - noon in PHR 2.116.  These are scheduled through Friday, August 12.  The trainers may bring their advisors to these sessions to become familiar withe the processes and systems. 
• More sessions will be scheduled through the end of September after the summer session is over. 

5.  Reporting

• It was agreed that students that did not have a minor attached to a degree major a year after the effective CCYYS of the minor would automatically be expired from that minor.  Owning colleges if the minors will be able to retrieve a report of all the students impacted.
• Because certificates may be awarded up to a year after degree conferral, they will not be automatically expired at this time.
• The workgroup agreed that a generic message would be sent to any student newly approved to a minor/certificate.  Wording will be vetted by the group, but state something similar to:

                 Dear Student, 

                   You have applied and approved for X minor/certificate.  Please contact the college of your MAJOR (college name) for the next step in the process.

• The group requested that the current IDA profile report also include the list of minors/certificates that a student is approved for and those they are pursing. 

6.  Minor/Certificate Student Portal

• The Registrar's Office has created a basic portal with the systems the students will use.  Colleges can link to this or create their own access points.   The url is https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/degree/minors/student_links/nlogon/.