Office of the Registrar Projects

The complete withdrawal process has been streamlined with the introduction of an online form, improving the student experience and providing better support for staff during the review and approval stages. This updated process facilitates withdrawals for the current term, with a future phase planned to assist students leaving the university indefinitely. The redesign of the Complete Withdrawal from Term webpage, along with new student help guides and staff resource guides, ensures a more transparent and efficient process for students. Additionally, with the complete withdrawal data now available in analytics, Academic Advisors and others in the university community can view student's reasons for withdrawal and plans for returning to their studies to inform tailored outreach for enrollment and retention. Staff now face fewer administrative barriers and have improved resources to assist students effectively. This project is part of the SURPASS Initiative. 

Priority Grade: B
Project Approval Date: 4/2023
Project Completion Date: 5/2025
Project Owner: Maggie Ramirez

This project conducted a comprehensive review of the existing inventory of PDF forms used by students, faculty, and staff to ensure the Office of the Registrar maintained an accurate and up-to-date collection. All form updates were completed to meet university ADA compliance requirements, and an annual review process of the inventory was established to ensure ongoing updates aligned with new university policies and requirements.

Priority Grade: A
Project Approval Date: 4/23/2024
Project Completion Date: 5/14/2024
Project Owner: Kris Peabody

The Practice and Policy Alignment project allowed the Office of the Registrar to create consistency across all departmental Business Process Guides (BPGs) by establishing standardized templates and guidelines, linking to existing BPGs to avoid duplication, and aligning practices with university policies. Each BPG now includes relevant policy links for clarity. A structured maintenance plan was implemented to ensure annual reviews for accuracy. Additionally, a centralized SharePoint inventory was created for tracking and maintaining BPGs.  

Priority Grade: A
Project Approval Date: 08/2023
Completion: 04/2025
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

To enhance efficiency for both students and administrative units, the International Direct campus has been transitioned into the Arizona Online campus. As part of this transition, the International Direct campus will be dissolved, with all fall 2024 and future term classes previously coded as International Direct now designated as Arizona Online. Key campus partners, including Arizona International, Arizona Online, Bursar, Curricular Affairs, Enrollment Management, and the Office of the Registrar will collaborate to ensure a smooth transition, particularly regarding billing rates and student support services. 

Priority Grade: B
Approved Date: 06/2024 
Completion Date: 03/2025 
Project Owner: Alex Underwood

The Office of the Registrar collaborated with Study Abroad to create a consistent scheduling practice for study abroad class sections that supports tracking data appropriately. Class attributes and class notes are now used to identify study-abroad classes instead of campus location. This helps track university credit for class sections taught by University of Arizona faculty, and those taught by non-University of Arizona faculty that do not count towards university credit. Because this information is available in the Schedule of Classes, students know at the time of enrollment which classes count toward university credit.

Priority Grade:  D
Project Approval Date: 10/03/2023
Project Completion Date 03/07/2025
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

This project has successfully automated portions of the degree awarding process, significantly reducing the total time to process undergraduate degrees from six weeks to three weeks. Previously, the Office of the Registrar manually completed the degree conferral process, resulting in a four- to eight-week wait at the end of each semester. With automation now in place for undergraduate degrees — staff can focus on more complex cases, increasing accuracy and improving efficiency. Additionally, students will receive timely communications regarding their degree conferral status. Most degrees will now be awarded within one week after the semester ends, with all degrees expected to be processed within three weeks.

Priority Grade:  A
Project Approval Date: 09/30/2020
Project Completion Date 03/07/2025
Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

System improvements and communication in support of amendments made to the Undergraduate Use of Multiple Courses and the Undergraduate Certificate Policies. Several updates clarify existing policy language and remove restrictive language, allowing the updated policy to be inclusive of courses worth more than 3 units of credit and permitting the multiple use of course credit instead of limiting the use to two applications. 

Priority Grade: D
Project Approval Date: 01/22/2023
Project Owner: Abbie Sorg

The Office of the Registrar in collaboration with Campus Health developed a new simplified process for students to provide medical documentation to support their retroactive medical withdrawal. The new Medical Provider form allows students to have their withdrawal supported by a health provider in a way that does not share protected personal health information. The implementation of this form has allowed The Office of the Registrar to streamline the review and approval process for retroactive medical withdrawals which created a more efficient experience for students and campus partners involved in this process.  

• Priority Grade:  B
• Project Approval Date: 08/21/2024
• Project Completion Date 09/16/2024
• Project Owner: Maggie Ramirez

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

Amendments to the policies include updates to clarify requirements, consolidate information, and eliminate restrictive rules like unit and timing constraints for sequential degrees. These changes support timely graduation and help students make informed decisions aligned with their academic goals by aligning standards across all pathways and reducing administrative complexities.    

Priority Grade: C
Approved Date: 11/2024
Completion Date: 5/2025
Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

In support of the revised Undergraduate Transfer Credit Policy, key operational changes have been completed to implement the policy, and improve the student and advisor experience. The 64-unit limit on community college credit was removed by adding an effective-dated row in the advisement report for students with a career start term of fall 2024 or later. For students with a prior bachelor’s degree and a career start term of spring 2025 or later, a new process now identifies and assigns them a student group that exempts them from all General Education requirements, with corresponding updates made to advisement report logic. Advisors were notified of these changes through coordinated communications to ensure consistent advising practices across the university. 

Priority Grade: C
Approved Date: 11/2024
Completion Date: 5/2025
Project Owner: Amanda Gluski

Priority Grade: A
Project Approval Date: 2/27/2024
Completion Date: 09/5/2024
Project Owner:  Michael Davenport

Priority Grade: D
Approved Date: 11/01/2023
Completion Date: 07/30/2024
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

The Office of the Registrar has streamlined the use of dynamic (DYN) date rules in the system by reducing their number and standardizing their application for courses. This has resulted in a simpler and more efficient scheduling process for dynamically dated classes. With fewer courses being scheduled as dynamically dated, more classes now align with standard sessions, providing a more consistent experience for students in terms of class dates and deadlines. 

Priority Grade: D 
Approval Date: 05/02/2022 
Completion Date: 07/30/2024
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

System improvements and communication in support of amendments made to the Grades and Grading System policy. Several substantive changes and minor clarifications to the existing policy include removing the 18-unit withdrawal maximum and eligibility restrictions on using the Pass/Fail option for undergraduates, the creation of an MG (missing grade) notation for a student transcript, and new documentation for issuing an incomplete grade.

Priority Grade: D
Approved Date: 06/13/2023
Completion Date: 05/23/2024
Project Owner: Michael Davenport

The Office of the Registrar collaborated with UITS to implement an automatic process for generating grade rosters the day after a class ends. With this automation in place, the distribution of the grade roster is no longer impacted by external factors such as university holidays and staff availability. 

Priority Grade: B
Approved Date: 10/03/2023
Completion Date: 05/23/2024
Project Owner: Maggie Ramirez

Priority Grade: C 
Approval Date: 06/14/2022
Completion Date: 01/29/2024
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:  5/23/2023
• 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