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Registrar's Office Annual Report

Annual Report 2011-2012

 

WHAT DO WE DO?

The Office of the Registrar maintains the permanent academic record and provides services for Arts and Sciences students, faculty, and staff at Dartmouth in the areas of academic policy, enrollment and course information. Activities include course election, registration, and class scheduling, major and minor declaration, grade processing, Catalog (ORC) production, graduation support, academic transcript delivery, and student enrollment management.

AND we also:

• maintain, preserve, and disseminate students’ official academic records
• develop and publish the academic calendar
• provide guidance about the academic curriculum
• act as a central academic information source for the College

We:

• manage on-line course assessment and reporting
• certify recipients of Veteran's Administration educational benefits
• oversee student enrollment patterns and "D"-Plans
• manage Faculty elections to committees
• review student academic petitions for exceptions to faculty policies
• administer support for students who study off-campus while on a leave term
• support transfer students and manage the transfer credit process

In addition we:

• report enrollment to the National Student Clearinghouse to support financial aid and student loans
• provide Degree and Enrollment verification support for students
• provide Apostille notarization for international recognition of credentials
• manage Banner (student system) processes and security access
• train and support Department/Program Administrators on course and course system management
• assist with First-year seminar and Writing 5 enrollments

And lastly, we:

• lead internal, cross-divisional and institution-wide projects
• provide reporting services to UG Arts and Sciences Faculty and the Dean of the Faculty Office
• support the Dean of Faculty as a member of the Wentworth Associate Deans group
• participate in numerous Faculty and ad hoc committees
• comply with and educate the campus about Federal, State, and Institutional legislation
• provide consulting, such as for the American University of Kuwait
• present at national conferences such as those sponsored by AACRAO
• advocate for higher education policy issues that impact our students and faculty

YEAR IN REVIEW

 

Registrar’s Office Major Projects 2011-12	Description	Go Live	Project Lead	Goals and Major Benefits
DegreeWorks Degree Audit	Students may now access DegreeWorks, a personalized, web-based degree audit tool which is in an easy-to-read format and helps students to monitor their progress towards the degree. Students may view their audit online from their Banner menu, or print their degree audit and bring it to an advising session.	August 2011	Kristin McAdams	Students are clear on how their courses meet requirements allowing for improved advising Better curricular planning. Helps students better navigate the complexity of the D-plan and meet requirements in time for graduation
Student Address Changes Online	Enabled current students to make address changes and updates online using BannerStudent.	October 2011	Andy Ager	Allows students to update addresses at any time, from anywhere Time saver for Registrar staff Convenience for students Maintains change history of addresses in Banner
Report on Grades Data Warehouse	Migrated the annual report on grades from a manual True Basic process into the data warehouse for improved data accuracy and reporting.	December 2011	Andy Ager	Eliminates risk of basing a major report on unsupported technology  Reduces time needed for report production Opens up more possibilities for reporting through using modern data warehouse technology
Enrollment Verification	All schools except Geisel are partnering with the National Student Clearinghouse to offer students free self-service enrollment verifications	April 2012	Andy Ager	Time Saver for Registrar and Dean of College staff Time Saver for Students Easy 24 hr./ 7 day a week access for Students from Banner menu
ORC online	The ORC (Catalog) will be in a new, upgraded, online format that has an improved search and is easier for the department/programs (and other content editors) to edit.	August 2012	Michael Blumenauer/ Meredith Braz	Eliminates the need to print the paper ORC Departments can print their own, or sections from a PDF version Have established relationship with vendor and allows reuse of license to upgrade other College Documents
Revision of Academic Transcript	Allows for electronic delivery and online request – all 4 schools plus Graduate transcript are being updated with new technology.	October 2012	Andy Ager	Electronic delivery of transcripts in a secure environment is a huge move forward for Dartmouth and a step towards offering our students and our alumni leading edge technology. The delivery of transcripts in a timely manner often contributes to the success of a student or former student seeking admission to graduate school, internship, or employment.
Course Proposal online system	Faculty propose new courses, cross-listings, and course modifications online with an electronic approval system	August 2012	Kristin McAdams/Meredith Braz	Reduces paper consumption Eliminates confusion over who approves what Creates a course database for reference Is a “Global Dartmouth” project that allows faculty anywhere in the world to input curricula for approval Frees more Faculty time for pedagogy and research Improves digital literacy of administrative staff
On-line major declaration	Students declare their majors electronically, and plan both their major/minor courses and academic plan online, while faculty advisors review plans and approve them online after discussing them with the student. Also will use the DegreeWorks reporting tool (to get us off another True Basic report needed for graduation).	December 2012	Kristin McAdams/Meredith Braz	Eliminates an archaic paper process Is a huge leap forward towards improving advising at Dartmouth by granting access to academic records to faculty, who currently have no access Provides tools to students and faculty for academic program planning Provide students with leading edge technology
Access to information to support college-wide faculty advising	A team consisting of members of the Dean of the College, Pre-Major Advising, Registrar, and Computing are exploring what and how information may be securely accessed by Faculty for the purposes of advising students beyond the first-year. A phased in approach for implementation likely as the Curricular Review Committee deliberates in the coming year (Registrar is a member of the Curricular Review Committee).	TBD	Inge-Lise Ameer/John Pfister/Meredith Braz	Provide faculty with access to student records to improve advising Reduce faculty time on administrative tasks so as to increase time for faculty pedagogy and research
Course Assessment	Project underway to build a data warehouse so as to deliver new reports to faculty, establish security/access to allow for faculty to do more advanced reporting and to provide access for students to course assessment results	Fall 2012/ Spring 2013	Amy Hunt/Meredith Braz	Faculty will be delivered improved reports to be able to better assess their courses and their teaching Faculty interested in more advanced reporting will be provided training to report from the new database Students who currently do not have any access to the faculty course assessments will have some level of access as a result of this project.

 

LOOKING AHEAD

 

Registrar’s Office Major Projects 2012-13	Description	Go Live	Project Lead	Major Goals and Benefits
Course Timetable submission online	Create an online process for departments/programs to submit term-to-term course information for Course Timetable building, Classroom Scheduling, and Blackboard set up.		Andy Ager	Allows the College to better utilize its classroom resources, Improve communication among departments/programs, Registrar, and Blackboard Services Offer students and faculty teaching spaces that are the "best fit"
Major/Minor completions online	The Registrar's Office has just a few processes still dependent on True Basic – one is major completion sheets which go to departments/programs at the end of each term so that they can certify the completion and honors status of a student's major or minor. Create a web submission where departments/programs could submit the information directly to Banner themselves.	June 2013	Kristin McAdams	Eliminate another paper process Reduce risk by replacing old technology with new Will speed up the major/minor certification process significantly Reduce the possibility of data entry errors Will be especially helpful spring term prior to graduation for departments/programs and Registrar
Pre-matriculation credit processing and local placement testing	This project continues the work done in 2011-2012 which is operated jointly by the Dean of the College and the Registrar's Office.  It aims to more fully examine the articulation engine and process to see if that can be migrated into baseline Banner (and therefore better supported), as well as continue to improve the interface for processing local placement test results and articulations.	June 2013	Andy Ager/José Sinclair	Improve the faculty interface with the placement testing system so that faculty can easily and quickly post test results Reduce risk by replacing old technology with new, better supported systems Improve the efficiency of pre-matriculation credit processing so that students know immediately what courses and tests have articulated and can better choose their courses

 

Other Projects

We continue to serve as a resource for other offices on campus that require our expertise when possible. We also participate in projects that impact all campus users, and engage in several internal projects that do not involve outside entities. Some of the larger ones included:

• Participated in Identity Management (IdM) project - represented Student System needs; K. McAdams
• Participated in Tenure Name project testing - assisted Dean of Faculty Office; A. Ager
• Participated in STVTERM change testing for Fall 2012 calendar change; K. McAdams
• Special Topics renumbering - internal project to ensure all courses have a unique number so that students may view course descriptions using new technologies; J. Sinclair, A. Hunt
• Transcript course title improvements – project to ensure that course titles reflected on transcripts are abbreviated appropriately; A. Ager, K. Foster
• Review and improvement of our communication plan with the Dean’s Office to ensure students achieve successful degree completion; S. Martin

Production

We continued to re-engineer multiple processes to improve efficiency and delivery of service and took a closer look at some metrics as we continue to balance the Office’s ongoing production needs with the demands of project work. (See histograms below). Behind each production “item” are multiple (literally hundreds) of individual tasks which are challenging to measure. We discovered:

• Communication and student data processing consume the largest amount of our production time (22% and 20%)
• 13% of our time is spent providing reporting services
• Spring term, followed by fall term, has the largest number of production items

April, May, and June have the most production items (as expected, with graduation, two course elections, and deadlines for major declaration and initial D-Plan selection).   Fall is also quite busy with the arrival of new first-year students as well as a large volume of returning students. Summer and winter terms had slightly lower volumes of production activity, but still ranged from 230-260 production items per term.

In summary, this confirms that we are focusing our efforts appropriately (more than ½ of our production time) on our key priorities: service (communications), records work (student data processing) and reporting services for the Dean of Faculty and Academic Departments and Programs.

Production Items – Explanation/samples from each category

Communications: Sending of formal memos to faculty and department and program administrators; Sending of e-mails (including D2U now) to faculty, students and other departments and programs; Mailing major and minor standings; Publishing updates to the Registrar’s website

Course Processing: Timetable, priorities and prerequisites data entry; Course Election processing; Course Assessment; COI meetings

Data Integrity: Proofing distributives, course titles and other timetable data; Checking for missing grades; Faculty Load error processing

Events: ORC Dates and Deadlines; Board of Trustees meetings; Events in other offices such as Admissions, Student Financial Services or the Dean of the College area that generate tasks for the Registrar’s Office

Reporting: All formal and ad hoc Registrar’s Office reports; Internal reports such as course election snapshots, graduation reports, and lists of faculty teaching by term; Reports to external sources such as the National Student Clearinghouse and AMCAS

Student Data Processing: Transcript production; Processing major and minor cards; Graduation processing; Processing transfer term applications; Transfer student credit evaluation and processing; Repeat course processing; 2/4 course processing; D-Plan selection and changes; VA certifications

Systems Management: General Banner settings (GTVSDAX, SOATERM); Configuring Check-in; Setting e-term records; Configuring Course Election; Configuring Course Assessment; NRO setting

1. Hired a new Receptionist, Assistant Registrar for Technology, and Assistant Registrar for Systems. As a result, students have been overheard saying that we are "warm and welcoming," we are now appropriately staffed to begin the data warehouse project which will allow faculty to have improved course assessment reports, and we have solid administrative support for our transfer students and transfer terms. We also promoted a staff member to Senior Service Specialist and hired a new Records Specialist who are both providing exemplary service.
2. Said "goodbye" to three, long time student employees who graduated and who had helped us immensely.
3. Provided extensive online guides for students, faculty, and department/program administrators explaining the new degree audit, enrollment verification, and ORC editing system.
4. Provided several hands-on training sessions for department/program administrators and other support staff so that they could master the new ORC editing system.
5. Established a weekly Outlook, Excel, and Management "tip of the week" for discussion at the staff meeting to improve staff skill sets in these areas.
6. Offered our inaugural, and very well-received Transfer student "credit review day" where Department/Program Chairs were invited to review the transcripts of incoming transfer students and provide us with evaluation feedback.
7. Developed a Chairs Handbook with guidance for new Department/Program Chairs on issues that involve the Registrar's Office which was very well received.
8. Enhanced the section of the Registrar web site and printed materials on non-Dartmouth off-campus studyto improve the information provided to students and families.

 

 

• Committee of Chairs
• Committee on Instruction
• Committee on Withdrawals
• Enrollment Committee
• Classroom Subcommittee
• Computing Oversight Committee – Chair
• Dartmouth Information Security Council
• Dartmouth Registrar’s Committee – Chair
• Dartmouth Mobile Systems Committee
• Language Waiver Committee - (Graduation and Technical Analyst attends)
• Committee on Student Life
• E-Textbook Committee
• Multiple ad hoc committees

• AACRAO – American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Appointed to national Public Policy Committee. – Year 2.
• AACRAO 97th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA Presenter.
• AACRAO –Nominated Vice President for Records and Academic Services and President-Elect
• NEACRAO – New England Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, Executive Board.
• NEACRAO 64th Annual Meeting, Newport, RI attendee.
• Ivy+ Registrars Annual Meeting, University of Pennsylvania
• Speaker at AACRAO/Vanderbilt Institute for Senior Professionals in Academic and Enrollment Services, Nashville, TN
  

• Dartmouth College Today (1 participant)
• Degree Works Symposium, Seattle, WA (2 attendees)
• AACRAO Registrar 101 – online course (2 staff participants)
• AACRAO 97th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA (1 staff Presented)
• NEACRAO 64th Annual Meeting, Newport, RI. (1 staff presented; 1 staff committee member)
• Ivy+ Registrars Annual Meeting, University of Pennsylvania (1 attendee)
  

 

Academic Year	Banner Transcripts
2009	19,159
2010	17,245
2011	16,561
2012	13,819

Unofficial Transcripts were made available to students in December of 2009, which has contributed to the continuing decrease in the overall official transcript volume.

• Produced approximately 4,000 "non-transcripts": unofficial student grade records delivered to departments and programs at the conclusion of each term.
  
  
• Managed 5,240 D-Plan term changes

	Academic Year
	2009	2010	2011	2012
Manual Changes	4,574	4,944	4,218	3,621
Online Changes	0	0	1,474	1,619
Total	4,574	4,944	5,692	5,240

D-Plan changes were made available to students online in November of 2010; however, there are still a large volume of changes that must be made manually.

 

• Processed 607 in-office registration actions (e.g. add/drop):

Term	Academic Year
	2009	2010	2011	2012
Summer	244	420	374	54
Fall	1,956	2,128	2,292	323
Winter	1,399	1,736	1,622	130
Spring	1,842	1,915	85	100
Total	5,441	6,199	4,373	607

New Course Election system implemented for Spring 2011 election and add/drop resulted in a dramatic drop in in-office registration actions.

• Managed scheduling and offering of 2,106 courses:

 

Term	Academic Year
	2009	2010	2011	2012
Total	2,024	2,039	2,062	2,106

Each course count represents every offering with a unique subject, course number and title combination with the exception of cross-listed courses which are counted once. Off-Campus Study courses are included.

 

• Reviewed and processed 1,183 student petitions to the Registrar

Petition Type	Petition Count
	2009	2010	2011	2012
Change in Grade	145	121	150	259
Add Course After Deadline	104	82	93	134
Drop Course After Deadline	45	31	38	36
Additional 2-Course Load	41	34	40	43
Additional 4-Course Load	35	25	27	30
Unlimited 2-Course Load	0	1	5	1
NRO After Deadline	7	9	5	2
NRO Grade Chg After Deadline	0	2	1	0
Repeat Course for Grade Only	5	6	6	4
Postpone Summer Term	8	7	8	8
Waive Summer Term	53	58	69	53
Exempt Summer Term	15	16	20	20
Additional Term in Residence	64	75	90	85
Five+ Year Enrollment Pattern	76	73	80	83
Reduce Sr Yr Residence Req	326	318	332	343
Late Exchange of Courses	0	20	44	19
Late Check-in Fee Waiver	36	35	31	39
Late D-Plan Change Fee Waiver	23	10	23	20
Reduced Tuition	0	2	2	4
Total	983	927	1,064	1,183

The number of grade changes is increasing, from 14.8% of petitions in 2009 to 21.9% of petitions in 2012.

The senior year residence requirement remains an issue that deserves attention, and the number of petitions continues to rise.

 

 

• Processed degree and enrollment verifications for 754 students

	2009	2010	2011	2012
Manual Verifications	1,385	1,549	1,332	754
Self-Service Enrollment Verifications	0	0	0	294
Total	1,385	1,549	1,332	1,048

Electronic enrollment verifications became available in April of 2012, starting to reduce the office workload.

 

• Supported 248 students studying away on non-Dartmouth programs, and 37 students on exchange programs.

Transfer Term Students

	2009	2010	2011	2012
Summer	71	70	105	64
Fall	66	43	46	54
Winter	83	82	86	122
Spring	20	16	13	8
TOTAL	240	211	250	248

Exchange Program Students

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012
Number of Students	39	39	46	37

 

• Certified 40 VA Benefit recipients

	2011	2012
Graduate Students	9	12
Undergraduate Students	26	28
Chapter 31	4	2
Chapter 30	6	3
Chapter 35	4	5
Chapter 33: Post 9/11 GI Bill recipients	21	30
Students eligible for the Yellow Ribbon program	11	25
TOTAL	35	40

 

 

• Graduated 1,093 students

Term	Graduates
	2009	2010	2011	2012
Summer	13	17	22	27
Fall	27	40	32	31
Winter	28	25	38	30
Spring	998	1,003	984	1,005
Total	1,066	1,085	1,076	1,093