Office of the Registrar Projects

The University of Arizona does not currently have a traditional academic catalog for the students, staff and faculty. The current catalog contains links to various internal sites to present the information to campus constituents. The Office of the Registrar is developing a new academic catalog that will provide all academic curriculum, courses and descriptions; academic policies; academic calendars, ADVIPS, and all other standard catalog features. The catalog will solve inefficient curriculum management workflows and be in full compliance with federal reporting. Staff and faculty training, resource guides, business processes and workflows will be developed for the project.

• Priority Grade: A
• Project Approval Date: 2/25/2021
• Project Owner: Abbie Sorg

The University can be a difficult place to navigate​. To complete transactional requests, a student often must utilize multiple systems to identify which document to download and the correct person or office to email a completed form​. The Office of the Registrar is providing a solution that streamlines the experience for students and makes it possible to efficiently implement and support existing and changing academic policies and procedures​.

The SURPASS eForms project takes existing 'fill in the blank' formats on free-standing, digitized paper forms and customizes the process with on-line forms that streamline the experience for students and make it possible to efficiently implement and support existing and changing academic policies and procedures. Read more about the Surpass eForm project. 

• Priority Grade:  A
• Project Approval Date:  11/04/2021
• Project Owner: Alex Underwood

To train the staff who enroll students via UAccess at the college and department level, the Office of the Registrar has conducted one-on-one video trainings and provided a pdf handbook. This new on-demand, self-paced training in EDGE will provide consistent and accessible training for departments and college enrollers that includes best practices and an overview of the underlying policy and student record implications. It will be a more accurate, efficient, and accessible program that will allow us to better serve our campus partners. 

• Priority Grade: D
• Project Approval Date: 6/29/2021
• Project Owner: Michael Davenport 

The University process for scheduling and maintaining the Schedule of Classes relies on manual data entry by Department Schedulers during Open Scheduling and by using a Section Form during Closed Scheduling. The process has limited logic built in, has no communication with UAccess, and data entry is cumbersome for both the department scheduler and RCS staff. The goal of this project is to streamline the process of creating a Schedule of Classes for the Winter/Spring and Summer/Fall enrollment cycles. The completed process will pull information directly from UAccess, have system push information, and include built in logic with ability to control logic within the form. 

• Priority Grade: A
• Project Approval Date: 6/3/2021
• Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor

The Managing the Schedule of Classes training is being created for faculty and staff who manage the Schedule of Classes for their department. Department schedulers add, cancel and adjust classes in preparation for the publishing of the bi-annual Schedule of Classes by the Office of the Registrar. 
Offered in EDGE Learning, this new training program is offered in EDGE Learning and will be available to staff on-demand in advance of receiving UAccess provisioning and will ensure that all department schedulers receive the same, comprehensive training required to complete their work.  

• Priority Grade:  B
• Project Approval Date:  5/01/2021
• Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor 

While all employees need to be well-versed in FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) compliance, some employees who have access to and use large sets of student data need additional training on the procedures and responsibilities that come with having elevated access. This new, elevated access training will help us prevent unintentional privacy breaches and ensure the appropriate use of student educational records. Importantly, failure to comply with FERPA requires federal reporting and may result in a loss of federal funding for the University.

This elevated access FERPA training is one part of a larger project to modernize the FERPA training for many different University employee groups: faculty and instructors, researchers, staff, student workers, etc.

• Priority Grade:  A
• Project Approval Date:  3/18/2021
• Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

The Office of the Registrar currently completes the process of conferring and awarding degrees manually. This has resulted in an approximate 4-8 week wait at the end of each semester for all degrees to be posted. This project will allow for automating the process for undergraduate, single-degree programs, which make up the bulk of degrees awarded.

By automating the process for these degrees, staff can target efforts towards the more complicated cases. Automation reduces manual errors and will allow for quicker and more concise communications to the student to identify what requirements have not been satisfied and options for degree and certificate awards. Most degrees will be awarded within one week after the end of the semester, and all degrees are expected to be awarded within three weeks.

• Priority Grade:  A
• Project Approval Date:  9/30/2020
• Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

Passed in the fall of 2022, Arizona Proposition 308 states that a qualifying non-citizen student who was physically present and attended an Arizona public, private, or home high school for a minimum of two years and graduated from this public, private, or home high school or earned a GED is eligible to receive in-state tuition regardless of immigration status or current domicile in Arizona. Additionally, state funded financial aid will not be withheld from students who are without lawful immigration status, providing they meet all other standard aid criteria.

The passing of Prop 308 makes the existing process to Verify Legal Presence unnecessary. The VLP will be decommissioned in processes of the Office of the Registrar/residency classification, Admissions/Next Steps Center, and Financial Aid.

• Priority Grade:  B
• Project Approval Date:  2/1/2023
• Project Owner: Michael Davenport

The Office of the Registrar currently manages a process to ensure the accuracy of student records who did not attend and or participate in classes for a term. We will review and evaluate the current process to determine the appropriate way to manage student records with no attendance/participation. We plan to ensure the validity of our student’s records with a standard application for review by the Office of the Registrar.

Priority Grade: D 
Approval Date: 06/14/2022
Project Owner: Michael Davenport