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Registrar's Office Annual Report

2014-15 Annual Report (Full report, print version [PDF])

2014-15 Executive Summary (PDF)

Annual Report Archive

“Registrar’s Office Annual Report” webinar with Parchment (recording)

Annual Report 2014-15

HIGHLIGHTS 2014-15:

• Hosted Ivy-Plus Registrar's Annual Meeting, October 2014
• Completed the "Curricular Flow" System under development for several years, which created a structure where various applications work together in concert
• DCARS- Dartmouth Course Approval Routing System implemented
• Student view of Course Assessment results developed
• Courses renumbered to allow for expansion and special topics
• Student Data Warehouse built

WHAT DO WE DO?

The Office of the Registrar maintains, preserves, and disseminates students' permanent academic record and provides services for Arts and Sciences students and faculty 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:

• develop and publish the academic calendar
• provide guidance about the academic curriculum
• act as a central academic information source for the College
• schedule centrally reserved classrooms and final examinations

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
• administer DegreeWorks degree audit to support progress towards the degree and academic program planning
• train and support Department/Program Administrators on course and course system management
• assist with First-year seminar and Writing 5 enrollments

And also, we:

• lead multiple internal, cross-divisional and institution-wide projects
• act as the primary liaison with IT for faculty members' administrative system implementations
  
• provide extensive 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 Dean's Senior Leadership Team
• participate in and support 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
• participate as board members in regional and national professional organizations
• advocate for higher education policy issues that impact our students and faculty
• Provide other registrar's offices with systems leadership, support, and oversight from the functional/technical perspective, and with standards of practices and professional leadership

 

Goals and Focus

The Registrar's Office continued to focus on providing exceptional service to the Dartmouth Community, working closely with both academic and administrative departments to provide leading edge technology to support administrative processes. We support students in attaining their educational goals and strive for efficient and effective processes related to academic records, registration, enrollment data and graduation. We seek continuously to cultivate an environment that encourages growth, supports academic integrity, protects student confidential data, promotes teamwork, encourages staff/constituent investment, and respects each individual.

Production

The Registrar's Office spends time on "production," which is those activities that are required in the usual academic cycle.  Additional time is spent on "projects," which are described in the next section.  Below are representations of our main functions and a some general measurements of time spent on production.

• Communication and student data processing consumes the largest amount of our production time (25% and 19%)
• 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 busy with the arrival of new students and the start of the academic year.

In summary, we are focusing more than ½ of our production time on our key priorities: service (communications), records work (student data processing) and reporting service. Note, this does not include service data we are unable to capture here such as phone calls, emails, faxes and walk-in service.

Production Items – Explanation/samples from each category
Communications: Sending of formal memos to faculty and department and program administrators; Sending of e-mails (including VOX Daily) 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

 COMMITTEE WORK - Registrar

• Committee of Chairs
• Committee on Instruction
• Committee on Withdrawals
• Enrollment Committee
• Classroom Subcommittee
• Student Systems Oversight Committee – Chair
• Dartmouth Information Security Council
• Dartmouth Registrar’s Committee – Chair
• Curricular Review Committee
• Language Waiver Committee - (Associate Registrar for Curriculum & Graduation attends)
• Committee on Student Life
• Presidential D-Plan Review Committee
• Multiple ad hoc committees

• AACRAO – American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Elected Vice President, Leadership and Management Development; Co-Chair - AACRAO Program Structure Task Force
  
• AACRAO 101st Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD
  
• AACRAO Leadership Meeting, Washington, DC
• NEACRAO – New England Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, Executive Board
• NEACRAO 67th Annual Meeting, Newport, RI - Presenter
• Ivy+ Registrars Annual Meeting, hosted at Dartmouth College
  
• Consulting: American University of Kuwait, Carleton College, Emerson College, Smith College
  
• Parchment Coffee Talk Webinar - Highlighting our Annual Report; 175 attendees

• AACRAO, Vice-Chair LGBTQA Caucus
• NEACRAO 67th Annual Meeting, Newport, RI (1 staff attended; 1 staff committee member)
• Ivy+ Registrars Annual Meeting, hosted at Dartmouth College (3 attendees)
• NEBUG Annual Meeting, (1 attendee)
• DegreeWorks Conference, New Orleans, LA (2 attendees)
• Ellucian LIVE, New Orleans, LA (1 attendee)
• Registrar 101 (1 participant)

 

Staffing and Promotions

• Promotions
  • Assistant Registrar for Operations (November 2014)
  • Assistant Registrar for Systems (February 2015)
  • Academic Systems Project Manager (February 2015)
  • Academic Systems Technology Manager (February 2015)
• Staffing changes
  • New Senior Associate Registrar, June 2015

 

Academic Year	Banner Transcripts
2009	19,159
2010	17,245
2011	16,561
2012	13,819
2013	12,237
2014	9,257
2015	8,076

• Unofficial Banner Transcripts were made available to students in December of 2009
• Unofficial eTranscripts were made available to students in January 2013
• Both have contributed greatly to the continuing decrease in the overall official transcript volume.
• This allows students to use unofficial transcripts when there is no need to use an official transcript, and is a cost savings to the College.
• Official transcript volume is split 55/45 between eTranscripts and paper transcripts.
• Paper official transcript volume is down to 3,601.

 

 

 

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584 courses went through the new Dartmouth Course Approval Routing System (DCARS). Additionally, 31 courses were newly cross-listed in the system.

Type	Number
Updated Courses	400
New Courses	184
Crosslists Created	31
Total Courses	584
Overall Total	615

 

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Managed 5,215 D-Plan term changes

	Academic Year
	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Manual Changes	4,574	4,944	4,218	3,621	3,991	3,688	3,838
Online Changes	0	0	1,474	1,619	1,529	1,435	1,377
Total	4,574	4,944	5,692	5,240	5,520	5,123	5,215

D-Plan changes were made available to students online in November of 2010; however there is still a large volume of changes that must be made manually. It is disappointing to see the manual volume remain high, and actually slightly increased this year.

 

 

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Managed scheduling and offering of 2,168 courses:

 

Term	Academic Year
	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total	2,024	2,039	2,062	2,106	2,177	2,168	2,168

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. This year we offered *exactly* the same number of courses as last year!

 

 

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Assigned 2,031 courses to classrooms from the academic schedule*, and 873 courses to classrooms for final examinations.

*Does not include classrooms assigned for small arranged courses, language drills, or other ad-hoc classroom assignments.

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Reviewed and processed 998 student petitions to the Registrar

Petition Type	Petition Count
	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Change in Grade	145	121	150	259	123	121	151
Add Course After Deadline	104	82	93	134	122	81	108
Drop Course After Deadline	45	31	38	36	19	28	46
Additional 2-Course Load	41	34	40	43	40	47	48
Additional 4-Course Load	35	25	27	30	28	35	2
Unlimited 2-Course Load	0	1	5	1	5	2	4
NRO After Deadline	7	9	5	2	4	0	0
NRO Grade Chg After Deadline	0	2	1	0	0	0	0
Repeat Course for Grade Only	5	6	6	4	3	3	4
Postpone Summer Term	8	7	8	8	8	12	28
Waive Summer Term	53	58	69	53	47	64	59
Exempt Summer Term	15	16	20	20	20	23	19
Additional Term in Residence	64	75	90	85	84	77	87
Five+ Year Enrollment Pattern	76	73	80	83	89	84	85
Reduce Sr Yr Residence Req	326	318	332	343	305	288	328
Late Exchange of Courses	0	20	44	19	39	13	15
Late D-Plan Change Fee Waiver	23	10	23	20	8	16	8
Reduced Tuition	0	2	2	4	12	4	5
Total	983	927	1,064	1,183	989	921	998

Aside from a peak in 2012, grade change petitions appear to have settled into a more regular pattern.

After a downward trend in senior year residency petitions, the number has gone back to its normal range.

 

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 Processed 2,789 enrollment verifications, 2,275 of which were provided electronically.

	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Manual Verifications	1,385	1,549	1,332	754	430	Over 273*	514
Self-Service Enrollment Verifications	0	0	0	294	1,727	1,845	2,275
Total	1,385	1,549	1,332	1,048	2,157	Over 2,118*	2,789

Self-service enrollment verifications became available to students in April of 2012, which has led to a significant reduction in the office workload in this area, allowing staff to focus on higher level tasks.

*Some data missing for 2013-14.

*Some data missing for 2013-14.

 

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56 students studying away on non-Dartmouth programs (transfer terms) and 54 students on exchange programs were supported.  The total number of transfer term participants has steadily decreased in recent years, while the total number of students participating in exchange programs increased in 2015.

Transfer Term Students

	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Summer	71	70	105	64	39	43	34
Fall	66	43	46	54	42	35	17
Winter	83	82	86	122	15	9	4
Spring	20	16	13	8	5	1	1
TOTAL	240	211	250	248	101	88	56

Note: The significant drop in the number of transfer term students is a result of new policies on the part of the COI regarding participation in transfer terms.

Exchange Program Students

Year	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Number of Students	39	39	46	37	43	33	54

 

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Certified 38 VA Benefit recipients

	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Graduate Students	9	12	8	6	5
Undergraduate Students	26	28	32	32	35
Chapter 31	4	2	2	2	2
Chapter 30	6	3	1	1	0
Chapter 35	4	5	7	3	6
Chapter 33: Post 9/11 GI Bill recipients	21	30	30	32	32
Students eligible for the Yellow Ribbon program	11	25	24	28	29
TOTAL	35	40	40	38	40

Our Office certifies Graduate as well as Undergraduate VA benefit recipients. 

 

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Graduated 1,093 undergraduate students

Term	Graduates
	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Summer	13	17	22	27	35	22	30
Fall	27	40	32	31	24	33	30
Winter	28	25	38	30	31	29	40
Spring	998	1,003	984	1,005	969	1,032	993
Total	1,066	1,085	1,076	1,093	1,059	1,116	1,093

 

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Registrar's Office Major Projects 2014-15

DCARS - Dartmouth Course Approval Routing System; A. Hunt, J. Sinclair, project leads

• April 2013- Summer 2015
  
  • Eliminated an archaic paper process
  • Provided an automated course creation and modification system which allows faculty anywhere in the world to input courses for approval
  • Improved the course review and approval process
  • Created a course database for reference

Credits & Exemptions Improvements - A. Ager, J. Sinclair, project leads

• April 2013 - September 2014
  
  • Integrated new AP policy into the process
  • Reduced risk by replacing old technology with new, better-supported systems
  • Incoming students know immediately what courses and tests have articulated and can better choose their courses

Topics Renumbering - J. Sinclair, project lead
Course Descriptions into Banner - M. Blumenauer, A. Hunt, A. Ager project leads

• April 2014 - October 2014
  
  • Renumbered all special topics courses in Banner so that every course offering has a unique number and their descriptions can therefore be displayed
  • Improved the ability to report on course information and how courses appear on the student transcript
  • Allowed for courses to be disseminated across the web and to other consumers of course information
  • Created opportunities for departments and programs to expand their numbers beyond the two-digit system which was limited

 Student Data Warehouse - A. Hunt, A. Ager project leads

• June 2014 - ongoing
  • Build a student data warehouse to allow for improved student data reporting
  • Provide leadership for the overall project so that professional and graduate school student data is also included in the warehouse
  • Expand faculty research capacity thus far limited to Banner reporting

Music Contracts integration with Banner registration process - A. Ager, project lead

• Summer/Fall 2014
  
  • Eliminated complex paper- and departmentally-based system
  • Improved tracking of courses that span several terms

National Student Clearinghouse 150% Regulation Reporting Changes - A. Ager, J. Sinclair, project leads

• July 2014 - December 2014
  • Implemented a series of Banner upgrades designed to follow Federal loan reporting requirements

Improved Banner/Canvas Feed - A. Ager, project lead

• August 2014 - September 2015(?)
  
  • Updated the Banner course data feed to Canvas to make it smarter and more adaptive to Banner data changes

ORC/New Course Supplement

• September 2014 - February 2015
  • Created a complimentary Catalog to include new courses approved via DCARS after the annual publication of the ORC/Catalog

Student Access to Course Assessment - A. Hunt, project lead

• March 2015 - September 2015
  • Developed student access to faculty course assessment reports and a system for faculty to "opt in" and allow their reports to be viewed

National Student Clearinghouse reporting changes - A. Ager, J. Sinclair, project leads

• June 2015 - August 2015
  
  • Changes to the internal reporting process to support better data transmission to the Clearinghouse and federal NSLDS

 

LOOKING AHEAD

Hickory/VMS Decommission - A. Hunt, project lead

• Migrate a series of reports and small projects to new technologies that will allow the office to become independent from VMS, an old technology which Computing Services needs to decommission

Revised Class Schedule - A. Ager, project lead

• Implement the new revised class schedule in Banner and satellite systems voted by the Arts and Sciences Faculty June 4, 2014

President/Provost initiatives – To be determined

• Several initiatives are under development such as "enrollment smoothing," summer blocks scheduling, and a new credit system.

New Curricular Rules – To be determined

• Numerous items are in the Arts and Sciences Curricular Review Proposal to be voted on in AY '15-16 which include new distributive requirements, new language requirement, etc.

DegreeWorks Upgrade - E. Pavesic, project lead

• DegreeWorks requires a major upgrade, which will impact both the degree audit function and online major/minor declaration.

Advising enhancement - M. Braz, project lead

• Consulting support with UG Advising and Dean of the College as they enhance advising to year 2

Upgrade Registrar website - To be determined

• Part of campus-wide initiative

 

Other Technical 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:

• System testing; A. Hunt
  • OBIEE/Data Warehouse upgrade testing (also A. Ager)
    
  • OPS$ to NetID transition testing
  • Ruby on Rails application upgrades - A. Ager, A. Hunt, J. Sinclair
• EMS (Event Management Software) - R25 replacement; A. Ager, D. Choate
• Investigation of gender non-conforming options in Banner; M. Blumenauer, M. Braz
• Work with the "Improve Dartmouth" team, particularly on the "Improve Banner" and "Student Access to Course Assessment" initiatives; M. Braz

Additional initiatives, outcomes and collaborations:

• Hosted the Ivy-Plus Registrar's Annual Meeting at Dartmouth, October 2014; M. Blumenauer coordinator
• Ongoing review and enhancement of the Special Community High School Program, including enhanced tracking and reporting abilities and business process analysis and change; A. Ager, M. Blumenauer, M. Braz, P. Latimer
• Ongoing support of the Curricular Review Committee, including support for the new class schedule and other coming initiatives; M. Braz, entire office
• Reviewed ORC editorial and publication process to streamline the process, following the launch of DCARS and the New Course Supplement.
• Assisted with the NCAA audit of Dartmouth College; M. Blumenauer, M. Braz
• Passed a VA veteran's certification audit; J. Sinclair
• With the assistance of our work-study students, completed the following projects:
  
  • Continued to backfill citation data into Banner (data is complete back through the class of 1995 - an additional 1,828 citations were entered in 2014-15)
• Offered ongoing training sessions to department/program administrators, chairs, and faculty on new systems that improved relationships with the Registrar's Office, enhanced workflows, and improved staff and faculty's technical abilities.
• Continued to enhance and expand our selection of online Guides with the DCARS and New Course Supplement projects.