Meeting Minutes: Regents Advisory Committee on Records and Admissions (RACRA)
Thursday, October 9, 2003
Macon State College
- Call to order at 10:05 a.m. by Walter Peacock, Chair.
- First order of business was the introduction of new members.
- Minutes from the last meeting were approved.
- Bonnie Stevens, West Georgia College and State University, provided a summary of the events of the SIRS meeting held at GA Summit. A copy of the committee's minutes will be distributed to the RACRA listserv.
- Walter Peacock announced this was the last RACRA meeting for Gary Moore, UGA, Jerry Wright, Valdosta State University, and Ben Allen, Atlanta Metropolitan College.
- Thanks were given to Donald Avery and John Brown for their hard work with RACRA this past year.
Technology Update - Randall Thursby from OIIT
- Banner will be the authoritative accounts receivable source for information in People Soft. To insure accuracy of data for reporting Banner to People Soft feeds must be done regularly (daily to every other day).
- Two institutions, Georgia Tech and Kennesaw, have been approved to convert from Social Security numbers to a generic student identifier. The System Office is preparing an on-line guide on "How to Migrate from the Social Security Number to a Generic Student Identifier" using information from both GIT and KSU. The guidelines will be on the web by the end of November. No deadline has been set for when institutions must stop using the SSN as the unique identifier. Registrars are encouraged to identify where on campus, including servers, the SSN is being used and/or stored.
- Best Practices winners were announced at the October Board of Regents meeting. Georgia Tech and Kennesaw State were congratulated on their efforts with the KSU Web Tool Box and the GIT Web Bill. Information on the wining entries may be reviewed at www.usg.edu/bestpractices/
- At the September meeting of the Board of Regents, the Committee on Information Technology authorized the University System Office to conduct a study on the feasibility of moving Banner into a hosted environment. Other applications hosted by the System are GALIEO, VISTA and People Soft.
- Electronic Transmission of Student Records
- The ability for a student to order transcripts via the web was released in a recent version of Banner.
- OIIT has explored the option of using EDI to electronically share
student records but found the host server in Texas not to be secure.
Other solutions being considered:
- XML
- Host secure server in Georgia
The Regents Academic Committee on Records and Admissions (RACRA) made the following motion in reference to the implementation of EDI (electronic transmittal of transcripts) at the October 9 meeting.
RACRA Motion on EDI:
RACRA request that the electronic transmission of student records be assigned
top priority and provided the technical resources and funding necessary for
implementation. The scope of this project, developed in phases, should include
the electronic transmission of transcripts to and from USG institutions,
DTAE institutions, other institutions in and out-of-state, and from Georgia
high schools to USG institutions.
Justification
This motion meets the System's Vision, Mission, and Goals statements set forth
by the Board of Regents for the University System of Georgia by seeking the
most efficient, effective, and technologically sound best practice for service
to students. The concept of electronically sharing student record information
is part of the Multi-Institutional Functionality Project.
The electronic transfer of student records would:
- Reduce costs associated with printing and mailing official transcripts. Security paper averages six cent per page in addition to the cost of the envelope, postage and staff time to fold and stuff the envelope
- Facilitate ease of students transferring between USG institutions.
- Improve institutional response time on determination of transfer credits for students entering from USG and DTAE institutions using functionality defined in MIF.
- Improve the delivery time from institution to institution ultimately reducing the admissions decision response time for prospective students.
Department of Education is moving to single identifier for all K-12
The University System has agreed to store the DOE single identifier but the
University System will not use the same identifying number to track students
across the System. DOE is looking at developing a uniform transcript and
the ability to electronically send transcripts. There is no target timeframe
for implementation.
University System Issues Update - Tonya Lam, Student Services, Cathie Hudson, Strategic Research and Analysis and Lori Jarrard, OIIT
MIF update
The Multi-Institutional Functionality (MIF) project will focus on streamlining the many processes that institutions undertake to facilitate students taking courses from more than one institution. The solution will include a System catalog and a System schedule that students can use to identify courses and programs available across the state.
The project is in the functional design phase and RACRA members are encouraged to send comments and suggestions to Tonya Lam. A scenario template is available at the Sitcap website. A goal for this project is to have SCT put the functionality developed for MIF put into Banner baseline.
Sitcap website - ww.usg.edu/usgweb/sitcap
ID and password should be = guest
GA Easy Update
GA-Easy has a new look. This is the first change since the system went live
in 1999.
New buttons have been added:
- Selecting a College. A sort option has been added so students can select their college by type, major, location, etc. The sort is limited to only USG institutions. The sort is maintained by GCIS. As of October 8 th there have been 6,807 hits on the sort.
- Parents. The Parent section provides parents with information about CPC, GPA's, volunteering, etc.
A GA-EASY brochure will be added to the site as a pdf file so guidance counselors can download it as a handout for students and parents.
At the September Board of Regents meeting, the Regents approved a motion that the institutions in the System use a common on-line application. Presidents were asked to appoint a representative to represent their institution. Tonya Lam will chair the committee to look at common data elements and design a format for the single application.
House Bill 521
The 2003 legislature passed a bill, effective January 2004, requiring all Georgia
public and private colleges with students residing in on-campus housing (or
required off campus housing for athletes) to collect documentation from the
student confirming they have been vaccinated for meningitis or they have
read information provided by the institution on the seriousness of the disease.
The information collected from the student must be retained and accessible.
Information on meningitis can be found at http://www.usg.edu/student_affairs/faq/immun/
Immunization Policy 408
Policy 408, Immunization was modified at the October Board of Regents meeting.
The amendment made it possible for institutions to continue sharing immunization
information reported on the student's transcript
Guidelines for the new policy state that the Office of Student Services of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia will coordinate with the Division of Public Health of the Georgia Department of Human Resources, yearly and inform the institutions of changes to the immunization requirements and recommendations for new immunizations. It is likely that chicken pox and tetnus/dipteria will be added to the list of required immunizations.
CAPP
CAPP is a critical component for future development of the student record system.
Institutions are encouraged to inform the University System Office of Student
Services about staffing situations in relation to the CAPP deadline. Deadline
for CAPP full implementation at all Banner institutions is December 2004.
HOPE Information
OPB projections show that HOPE expenditures will exceed its revenues by 2006-2008.
There is a need to have $250-$300 million in savings by 2006. The following
options to increase revenue and limit expenditures were shared:
- Eligibility
- Standard high school GPA
- Using the SAT
- Reviewing all core classes
- Counting attempted classes
- Tightening residency - third draft for residency policy mirrors BOR policy. Current rule for HOPE and residency has a first enrollment requirement. This has been changed in the new draft and will be voted on in December at the Legislative meeting. (Special thanks to Kim West for serving on the HOPE Residency Committee)
- Eliminating books
- Eliminating various "add-on's"
- Flat grant proposals (eliminating multiple grants for DTAE institutions)
- Eight semester limit
- Full-time status
- Revised checkpoints to avoid the "gaming" of HOPE
- Eliminate payment of Learning Support
- Eliminating fees
Open Records Request
Individual student records without name or identification numbers have been
requested of several institutions. The information being sought includes
HOPE money received and parent contribution. Releasing this information is
not allowed under FERPA and the request will probably go on to the courts.
Data Warehousing
- First extraction occurred in early September
- Focusing on performance
- USG 123 listserv provides help and information
- Will clean up errors more frequently prior to the opening of SIRS
- Add more functionality
- Newsletter will be coming out with more details to start in couple of
weeks
Phase One
- Pull all data related to transfer
- Pull waiver codes
- Pull waiver codes
- Pull residency codes
- Test type NA or LO
School To College Transition Committee
- Mission of the committee is communication between the two agencies and the public.
- Applied geometry is an acceptable course in DOE course catalog, but it does not satisfy the USG CPC math requirement.
- At this time there are no plans to change PSO policy or funding.
- There will be a joint committee of representatives from DOE, USG, guidance counselors and information technology specialists to look at developing a standard Georgia high school transcript. The focus of the discussion will be on sharing transcripts electronically
Other Issues
Residency Manual
- were reminded there is a System practice that prohibits weighing the high school GPA when calculating the admission GPA.
GED Index
- Tabled until further discussions.
EDI motion was passed.
Next Meeting
Tonya Lam suggested that RACRA include a presentation on digital signatures
at the next meeting. The spring RACRA meeting will possibly be held in late
March at Georgia Tech. Deborah Smith will check on the availability of the
Georgia Technology Center and let everyone know.
Meeting was adjourned.