March 3, 2006
Student Academic Management (SAM) Team

Meets every Friday 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Attendance: Jean Roberts (Team Leader), Bea Halvorson, Terri Jourden, Kathy Krentz, Chris Nowak, Cindy Panici, Darlene Peklar, Pat Werly, Lynne Wood
Absent: Judy Eistedt, Vilene Rodgers

Minutes:
The minutes of the February 24, 2006 meeting had not been distributed, so they will be reviewed at the next meeting.

Reminders:
• On-site Consulting April 11-12.
• Schedule practice sessions (contact A.J. or Stacey, tell them how many attending)

Announcements:
• Business Process Training for Team Leads next week
• Julie Weller is working on the new FIT Website – watch for the transition. Minutes will be posted (Kathy will probably receive training).
• The Implementation Oversight Committee will receive “Conversion Consulting” next Monday afternoon.
• Since the recent training we received was covered by a replacement trainer at the last minute, and therefore not very well-organized, we may receive an extra two hour telephone consultation session with Mike Brubaker (consultant originally scheduled here).

Student System Decision Workbook:
Jean asked for a volunteer to record final SAM Team recommendations in this (Excel) workbook as decisions are made by this group. Lynne Wood volunteered. Jean will get more direction from Perry next week regarding this process.

Delta College Visit:
Jean asked for a report from each person that went to Delta on Tuesday. She would also like everyone to write some notes and forward them to Kathy for compilation by March 8.

Chris – Very interesting and beneficial: saw degree audit and was told it’s not pretty but it is “functional”. It was started in 1999, took six months to get ready and was a lot of work to build. However, after that, not difficult to maintain as a lot of information can be “rolled over” each year. They use Transfer Wizard, are MI compliant with the Cherry Commission, and students can “shop” in degree audit for other degrees.
Darlene – Admissions, Records and Financial Aid personnel were in the same area; most of these employees weren’t employed during Colleague implementation. She was impressed with the communications management feature and the use of templates. She was told that the MUG (Michigan Users Group) is very helpful, orientation is mandatory at Delta, and they don’t process SB-CEU’s.
Terri – Met with the Assistant Director of Registration who was very helpful. Registration is predominantly via the web and students register in order of credit hours completed. She would have liked more time to see processes.
Jean – Learned a lot. Saw STAC screen, microfilm available on screens (via CD), discussed CE courses, social security number issues, and query reporting. Jean had copies of some CE forms for Cindy, including: class schedule (professional and work force only, no enrichment), brochures, and a non-credit registration form. Registration activity is 80% web, 10% touch-tone phone (which they hope to eliminate), and 10% in person (requiring a signed form). Delta has an impressive (computer) testing area, utilizing COMPASS and requiring an ACT English score of 20 and 19 on Math. When any employee signs on, a FERPA statement is displayed. Employee acknowledgement of FERPA regulations was discussed. Pat said we will need to decide on a procedure, either on-line or paper. Jean said GRCC employees must take an on-line test once a year as a refresher.
Bea – Although her counterpart wasn’t available, she enjoyed the visit and talked to Duff Zube (Director of Admissions, Records and Assessment) regarding faculty entered grades and grade verification by faculty. This system works pretty well even though some problems always surface. She was also impressed with the microfilmed records on CD allowing quick and easy access.
Kathy – Made some very good contacts that were very helpful and open to any further questions we may have. Discussed academic level and academic program codes, hierarchy issues, and tracking special populations. Both employees encouraged attendance at MUG for any end users, and strongly encouraged us to develop a “data dictionary” early.

Other:
• Jean noted that the Datatel training room (1300) is booked for the next two weeks. She is checking to see if there’s any way more computer stations can be set up elsewhere for practice. Also, if the room is reserved for practice, check with the reserving group to see if all ten computers will be used or if there may be room to join them. It’s very important to get some practice in before our next consulting date.
• Cindy expressed concern about getting CE class rosters indicating which students still owe for the session. It is assumed that this can be accomplished, probably through the financial services module.
• Surveys and certificates have been e-mailed to each team member from Datatel. Be sure to complete the survey. Let Jean know if you haven’t received it.

Assignments and Next Steps:

„« Send written summary of Delta visit to Kathy by March 8.

„« Jean will review the workbook and assignment sheets with Perry next week to determine the best approach for completing these tasks.

„« Jean asked that members review all three training manuals, as well as the assignment sheet from Mary Hanson. Jean noted that it may be more productive to separate our group into several focus areas like: transcripts, curriculum, registration, etc. This will be addressed at the next meeting.

„« Schedule practice time! Familiarize yourself with various screens. Complete the exercises listed on Mary’s assignment sheet noted above, set up students, assign academic and program levels, and register students. Look at catalog and reporting elements (i.e.: curriculum codes).

Next Student Academic Management Meeting
Friday, March 10, 2006 (Rm. 1300)