Office of the Registrar Projects

The Office of the Registrar is constantly looking for ways to streamline and improve how we deliver and process information with our student, staff and faculty constituents. Below you will find lists of our current and recently completed projects. 

 

PRIORITIZATION GRAPHIC1

 

The prioritization of a project is given a status grade based on factors such as impact to students, risk and need for compliance, and benefits to cost and efficiency. 

A project is at grade A meets if it meets three or more requirements for both High Urgency and High Impact. Projects at a grade B are Low Impact and High Urgency. Projects at grade C are Low Urgency but with High Impact. Finally, projects at grade D have low impact and low urgency.

 

 
Projects receive a classification of River or Mesa based on the involvement of Office of Registrar staff and employees from outside departments, the need for an RFP process, the time frame of completion, and the coordination of software programs.
 

 

CLASSIFICATION GRAPHIC1

Current Sky Projects

Large scale River projects with significant impact to the campus community. 

New Catalog Software

The redesigned University of Arizona Catalog is now available in a modern format that is both efficient and easy to navigate. The catalog contains a comprehensive listing of academic policies, program descriptions, and degree requirements, and a full inventory of courses. With these elements, plus academic calendars, archived catalogs, and all other standard catalog features now housed in one unified location, users have a new level of convenience with this continuity of information. 

The next phase of work on the catalog will focus on moving current curriculum management workflows into the new curriculum system and developing staff and faculty training, resource guides, and business processes. This phase of work is in collaboration with the Office of Curricular Affairs and the Graduate College.

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

SURPASS eForms

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

Current River Projects

Conferral Cycle Refresh to Batch Awarding of Degrees

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

Creating Student Centric Dates & Deadlines

The Office of the Registrar is working with University Information Technology Services (UITS) to update the process for managing the Dates and Deadlines calendar. The goal is to ensure the data displayed to students and the campus community is accurate and accessible. Another goal is to provide timely information to students about the dates and deadlines specific to the classes they are enrolled in so they can make informed decisions about their class schedule and enrollment. 

Priority Grade: D 
Project Approval Date: 11/1/2023 
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

Reimaging Class Scheduling

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

Removing Barriers to Degree Completion Process

In preparation to apply for degree candidacy, students meet with their advisors to initiate the Degree Audit Worksheet (DAW) that identifies remaining coursework and the student’s plan to complete their final degree requirements. Currently a paper form, this project will integrate the students degree progression information to UAccess, providing greater access and clarity to the degree conferral process. 

Priority Grade: C 
Project Approval Date: 08/09/2023 
Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

Standardizing Study Abroad Enrollment and Class Setup Data

The Office of the Registrar will collaborate with campus partners to create a consistent scheduling practice for study abroad class sections that support tracking data appropriately. Class attributes will be used to identify study-abroad classes in lieu of campus location. This will help track University Credit for class sections taught by University of Arizona faculty and those sections taught by non-University of Arizona faculty. 

Priority Grade: D
Project Approval Date: 10/03/2023
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

Streamlining Residency Classification

The current process to determine Residency Classification for Tuition Purposes is to request student information upon enrollment using the SORC (Statement of Residency Classification), which is a custom web app developed by SASG. Due to ABOR and legislative changes, the questions asked in the SORC need to be revised, which gives an opportunity to wholistically review not only those questions, but the overall system of how we gather and process information for residency classification. This project will create a more streamlined and transparent student experience, increasing the efficiency of the residency classification process.  

Priority Grade: A
Project Approval Date: 06/13/2023
Project Owner: Maggie Ramirez

Streamlining the General Petition Process

This comprehensive review of the General Petition process explores ways to improve the student experience and efficiency of the petition process. This project will examine current workflows and determine the viability of having one point of entry where the student can enter the petition process. Once preliminary information is gathered from the student, documents are evaluated for application requirements and then routed to the appropriate college, department, and committee for review and action.

Priority Grade: B
Project Approval Date: 10/03/2023
Project Owner: Maggie Ramirez

Completed River Projects

The new UAccess Student: Managing the Schedule of Classes training is a comprehensive resource that is the primary tool for onboarding new department schedulers and academic administrators who request the department scheduling UAccess provisioning. Any employee requesting new access will need to complete this training before they can schedule classes for their department.

The training is assigned in EDGE Learning with each topic broken down into manageable modules to keep content focused. The self-paced course design allows for individual sections to be paused (with progress saved) until completed. Once the training is completed, it can be revisited for reference as needed. 

  • Priority Grade:  B
  • Project Approval Date: 05/11/2021
  • Project Completed Date:  01/31/2024
  • Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor 

While all employees need to be well-versed in FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) compliance, instructors, faculty, and support teams who have access to student data need specific training on the procedures and responsibilities unique to their position. 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.

The training will be assigned in EDGE Learning to new instructors at the beginning of each term. It should take 25-30 minutes to complete. 

  • Priority Grade:  A
  • Project Approval Date:  2/1/2023
  • 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 Office of the Registrar worked with UITS, Financial Aid, International Student Services, Admissions, Human Resources, Bursars Office, professional and graduate colleges and the access management team to remove VLP processes from existing university systems. Students are no longer required to complete VLP for residency classification or financial aid purposes as of Spring 2023. All information related to VLP has been removed from university websites and documentation. 

Priority Grade:  B

  • Project Approval Date:  2/1/2023
  • Project Completion Date: 7/15/2023
  • Project Owner: Michael Davenport

Through this project an inventory of the tasks performed by student workers was completed and tasks were categorized into Customer Service or Data processing tasks. The audit framework allows for the tracking and reporting of student work volume.

Department standards were created across all units to provide consistent outcomes and the criteria students are audited on are standard across all student worker areas. Consistent expectations and trainings have been created for things such as customer service, using trellis, etc. As students excel additional higher-level work will be assigned and the student works will have a clear path to increasing complex duties.

 

  • Priority Grade:  A
  • Project Approval Date:  03/02/2022
  • Project Goal End Date:  01/06/2022
  • Project Owner: Michael Davenport

The EDGE Learning program, UAccess Student: Enrolling Students, provides a consistent and interactive training module that takes users from student enrollment philosophy through the process of specific enrollment scenarios. The training can be accessed on-demand by campus users, and expanded resources are available on the Office of the Registrar website.

  • Priority Grade:  D
  • Project Approval Date:  06/29/2021
  • Project Completion Date:  08/01/2023
  • Project Owner: Michael Davenport

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 Completion Date 10/24/2023
  • Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

Current Mesa Projects

Automate Creation of Grade Rosters

The manual compilation of student enrollment data used to create the grade roster for each class is currently completed and distributed by the Office of the Registrar staff. This process is done periodically through the standard sessions and weekly for dynamically dated sessions to accurately capture updates due to withdrawals and new enrollments. Because the process is ‘hands-on,’ the distribution of the grade roster is dependent on outside factors such as university holidays and staff availability. The work for this project is to design processes that automatically build a class grading roster from the system data on a standardized schedule. Additionally, programmed communications will be sent to designated graders/instructors informing them that their current class roster is available, the date their grades are due, and links to other instructor resources.

Priority Grade: B
Project Approval Date: 10/03/2023
Project Owner: Maggie Ramirez

Implement Research Experience Attributes

The Schedule of Classes and the Course Catalog will receive a new course attribute field that lists the Course-Based Research Experiences for the class. Adding this course attribute will enhance search criteria and increase the opportunity for reporting on a student’s research experiences.  

Priority Grade: D
Approved Date: 07/05/2023
Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor

Optimize Automated Communications

Many communications are sent to students, staff and faculty that are automatically generated in response to specific situations such when a student withdraws from a class or applies for graduation. This project provides for an inventory of existing communications followed by content and formatting revisions to ensure information from UAccess is efficiently used to send timely and accurate information to students, faculty, and staff.   

Priority Grade: C 
Approval Date: 11/01/2021
Project Owner: Michael Davenport 

Practice and Policy Alignment

With changing University policy and personnel, there is a need to standardize our documentation in order to ensure equitable and consistent application of business practices and policies. Work will take place to review the accuracy of all existing internal business process guides and website information. Updates will be made to existing documentation and a long term maintenance plan will be created. 

Priority Grade: A
Project Approval Date: 09/05/2023
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

Refresh Instructor Center Interaction

Adjustments to the Instructor Center will prompt the current term to show as the default view. As it is set up now in UAccess, the term 'rolls' midway through to present the upcoming term as the default view because that is the term needed for the processes related to scheduling courses, instructors, and rooms for the upcoming term. This roll to the next term during the current term can cause confusion to current instructors accessing their information through Instructor Center and adds an extra step of reselecting the current term. This adjustment to shift the default view to the current term will allow for clearer interactions for faculty when using Instructor Center. 

Priority Grade: D
Approved Date: 06/13/2023
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

Simplify Academic Structure and Diploma Integration

Identifying ways to improve the integration of structures such as plans and programs, this project creates a collaboration with the University’s diploma vendor to simplify academic program name changes and updates as they relate to printing accurate diplomas.  

Priority Grade: D
Approved Date: 07/05/2023
Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

Study to Realign Dynamic Dates Rules

The project explores ways to create a single, dynamic date rule to be used for all terms. This rule would replace the multiple dynamic dating rules that currently exist for each term. In creating a single, dynamic dating rule (and eliminating the current method of manually updating the date field), business operating processes will increase in both efficiency and accuracy.  

Priority Grade: D 
Approval Date: 05/02/2022
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

Tracking Honors: Courses, Students & Requirements

The Office of the Registrar joins with the Honors College to explore processes and reporting mechanisms that will improve tracking that will streamline the tracking of honors courses and course sections, and improve the tracking of students, and their progress toward meeting honors graduation requirements. 

Priority Grade: B 
Project Approval Date: 09/28/2023 
Project Owner: Michael Davenport 

Update Plan Table for Expanded Master’s Categories

In collaboration with the Graduate College, the Office of The Registrar will be add new fields to the Plan Table in UAccess Student to better internally track and externally display information about Master’s degree programs to the public. Additional fields will include indicators for research and professional master’s programs, accelerated master’s programs, terminal master’s programs, and graduate certificates that can be stacked toward a master’s degree. 

  • Priority Grade: B 
  • Project Approval Date: 08/15/2023 
  • Project Owner: Abbie Sorg 

Transition of CTSrooms Website to Centrally Scheduled Classroom Website

In partnership with Classroom Technology Services (CTS), Enterprise Geographic Information System (EGIS), and Planning, Design & Construction (PDC) the Office of the Registrar is collaborating on a new, interactive map that will allow users to explore the full inventory and features of Centrally Scheduled Classrooms (CSC) available on the main campus. Interactive features of the map include the ability to search by building (number, name, and room), room classification (lecture hall, seminar, collaborative classroom, etc.), seating capacity, and equipment (adjustable teaching station, flat panel displays, etc.). Enhancing the user’s search experience, the new map locates the selected building, then shows the floor plan and location of the classroom in the building.  

Once completed, the Office of the Registrar will manage the interactive Centrally Scheduled Classrooms (CSC) inventory, with support from Classroom Technology Services (CTS) as technological equipment updates occur in classrooms. 

Priority Grade: B 
Project Approval Date: 01/30/2024 
Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor 

Completed Mesa Projects

The Room & Course Scheduling team implemented a solution utilizing Human Resources data to enhance the accuracy of instructor information in UAccess. A manual review process now confirms instructors' statuses and initiates department communication to determine their eligibility for the Schedule of Classes. Despite leaving the University, instructors are not automatically removed from the system, requiring department schedulers to manage their statuses within the Instructor/Advisor Table. The RCS team now supports this process with enhanced maintenance using HR employment data. Certain instructors or advisors may remain active post-departure due to factors like committee appointments or emeritus faculty status, which are also addressed in the review process. 

Priority Grade: C 
Approval Date: 06/14/2022
Completion Date: January 2024 
Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor

The Trellis Service Desk provides a suite of phone, live chat, and webform capabilities that help University service professionals support students and other constituents. The application is designed to help facilitate in-person and digital service case management with curated reporting and holistic views of constituent journeys – one that integrates with the rest of the Trellis CRM system. The Office of the Registrar uses chat, phone, and email in the Trellis platform. 

This project created a suite of resource guides and training materials for the onboarding of the Office of the Registrar to the Trellis platform. 

  • Priority Grade:  A
  • Project Approval Date:   9/20/2021
  • Project Goal End Date:   3/25/2021
  • Project Owner: Michael Davenport

The Office of The Registrar removed classroom locations from the public Class Search display and class details in the Schedule of Classes. Access to classroom locations now require login with a Net-ID and password. Classroom information continues to be available on individual student's schedules, the Instructor Center, UAccess Student Center Class Search, and UAccess Student.

  • Priority grade: D
  • Project Approval Date: 05/02/2023
  • Completion Date: 09/13/2023
  • Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor

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
Completion Date: 07/12/2023
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

The Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) degree is being renamed and restructured as the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies, with a new BIS degree type. Students completing this plan in 2222 or prior will be conferred with the BGS degree. Students completing in 2224 or beyond will be conferred with the BIS degree. Students graduating in the same semester will all receive the same degree type and degree name.

Scope of Project will include changes to UAccess academic structure tables to support student records changes such as new degree type, update to plan table. Student records were updated so no students are active with BGS degree by Aug 1, 2022. Communication was was given to campus stakeholders so that they understand change, and communicate with students about change. 

  • Priority Grade:  B
  • Project Approval Date:  5/4/2022
  • Project Goal End Date:  10/18/2022
  • Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

This project created one central phone number for all centrally scheduled classrooms as the contact point for any issues that may arise during instructional hours. A central number will allow instructors to express their concern and confirm that their concern will be triaged to the correct area for prompt resolution. Follow up will take place to be sure the problem was resolved.

  • Priority Grade:  A
  • Project Approval Date:   03/01/2021
  • Project Goal End Date:  02/17/2022
  • Project Owner: Debbie Milora

The annual curriculum update process was built for managing existing plans, but needed adjustments to also function as a repository for new plans and other substantial changes. Related updates to Degree Search and Learning Outcomes were added in 2020 by Curricular Affairs, but additional functionality was needed to work smoothly for departmental submitters and internal reviewers. 

  • Priority Grade:  B
  • Project Approval Date:  4/22/2021
  • Project Goal End Date:  5/23/202
  • Project Owner: Abbie Sorg 

Evolving system management required that storage, retention, tracking and access to General Petition information be migrated to Trellis Service Desk. Categories and subcategories created in Trellis allow for transparency and reporting processes to determine number of petitions, outcomes and policy impacted. 

  • Priority Grade:  D
  • Project Approval Date: 9/30/2021
  • Project End Date: 12/07/2021
  • Project Owner:  Michael Davenport

Many of the current processes and clean-up reports rely on staff to do manual enrollment updated based on known logic. This PeopleSoft modification will all for staff to update different enrollment transactions through a query across terms and students. Functions such as Add, Drop, and Normal Maintenance will be able to be updated in batch, for a better utilization of staff resources and record acuracy.  

  • Priority Grade: B
  • Project Approval Date: 6/3/2021
  • Project End Date: 3/8/2023
  • Project Owner: Michael Davenport

The Office of the Registrar often receives requests from campus partners for student and university data, when usually there are more fitting units that can meet the request. This project will develop a workflow and identify resources for Office the Registrar staff to manage these data requests. Working with University Analytics and Institutional Research (UAIR), this new workflow will advance our campus partnerships, resulting in a reduction of duplicate work and a more timely access to University data providers and resources.  

  • Priority Grade: D
  • Project Approval Date: 3/29/2022
  • Project Goal End Date: 3/15/2023
  • Project Owner: Cori Cashen

This project supported a true and accurate classroom schedule.  The release of unused classroom resources allows for additional scheduling and room use by the campus community. 

Priority Grade: C 
Approval Date: 09/17/2022
Completion Date: 11/16/2023
Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor

The Schedule of Classes now offers a Class Section Level Attribute that denotes the language of instruction if the course will be taught in a Language other than English. This attribute will only be applied to non-language courses. The use of this Class Attribute will inform students of the instructional language which helps set expectations for student success at the time of enrollment.

Priority Grade: B
Approved Date: 07/05/2023
Completion Date: 11/16/2023
Project Owner: Jaclyn Pryor