DES NEWSLETTER The Division of Enrollment Services Newsletter Southern Methodist University An Electronic Newsletter of Undergraduate

Some of our VIPs this month are:

Thomas Frazier, Mark Gomez, and Cindy Detgen - went out of their way to finish an over-awarded report so that the Undergraduate Student Loans could be disbursed into student accounts in a timely manner.

John Hall - In the Financial Aid Staff Meeting minutes a question was posed regarding informing students that their invoice did not reflect all of their Financial Aid because it had yet to be disbursed. In researching the question, it was determined that until the en eBilling system is put into place, a note cannot be put on an eInvoice explaining how to determine a student's Financial Aid award. John took the initiative to ask his staff: "Can you give this some thought and see what ideas you can come up with that might help reduce the negative impact of this situation that we could recommend to FA/SFS. Two ideas that strike me are to place an announcement on ACCESS.SMU explaining the general status of FA or send a follow-up e-mail to students who just enrolled explaining general status of FA and what to do if it is missing on their invoice." This is a wonderful example of shared purpose and effort.

Winn Perdue - went out of her way to resolve budget/overaward problems on the 30th and 31st. This effort was made to insure that loan funds arriving on and before January 3 could flow into the student's accounts without a delay.

James Swenson - provided excellent service. He was professional, courteous, and well informed. - I have come to Jame on serveral occasions and each time he has been very courteous and extra friendly. He makes the experience of coming better.

Winn, June H, Deveron, Tiffany, and Teresa - are an example of working together to address a customer service issue. Winn discovered that loans that were received by paper check where not being picked up in the Refund process. June took the concern to Deveron who researched to find that these checks were not captured in the Refund report. After talking with Tiffany, it was agreed that the Student Account staff would process a refund request at the time the student signed the Loan check. Tiffany is designing a reminder that will be stapled to each Loan check that is received -- Teresa's contribution. Now students will receive their refund from a paper check automatically -- well sort of!

Catherine Hadnot - has always been friendly, courteous, and helpful. She provides friendly service. Job well done!

Damon Wilkins - thank you for making sure our tummies are full during cancellations.

2003 Big Year in Enrollment Services

The 2003 calendar year will bring two long awaited things to Enrollment Services -- the upgrade of PeopleSoft to version 8.0 and the opening of the Blanton Student Services Building. An update on the Blanton Building will be provided at the February Division Meeting.

SMU IS TAKING A V8.0
INTO FALL SEMESTER

You may have begun to hear more discussion of the upgrade of SMU's Student Administration System PeopleSoft's version 8.0. The DES and ITS technical staff has been living with the conversion project for a number of months . . . or is it already over a year?

Originally planned for February ’03, the Go Live date to implement version 8.0 was deferred to June ’03. Version 8.0 of PeopleSoft is a browser-based system that students, faculty, and staff will access through the world wide web. The primary difference in this version will be in the look and feel and no major changes to existing functionality. You will navigate as you would a web page.

The modules are completing the Fit/Gap analysis and reapplication of customizations in preparation of moving the testing stage. Unit testing (testing within a module) is scheduled to begin the end of January and Integrated testing (testing between modules) for the beginning of March. As you can imagine, the period of time that testing is underway will be intense and steady for the DES Technology staff. At times they may call upon other staff to test specific processes and work with them on tasks. Each module has worked to structure staffing to support production in 7.6 while testing version 8.0; however, staff should be sensitive to the demands on the Technology team. There may be times when the Technology staff only will be able to respond to emergencies and may need to ask if you can wait to obtain their assistance.

During the testing period, a Project Room will be available in Bradfield Computer Center with 16 workstations. This primarily will be used to troubleshoot problems that need the combined support of DES module staff and ITS staff. As we get closer to the Go Live date, it may also provide space for training.

Go Live is scheduled for June 22nd (or possibly June 15th). There will be a window of no longer than nine days before the Go Live date during which the database will be converted from 7.6 to 8.0. During those days, staff may work in 7.6 as a Legacy System. Any data that is updated in 7.6 during those days will have to be entered into 8.0 after we go live. There also may be short periods during the 9 day window that the system is not available. ACCESS.SMU most likely will be available during this time, but a final decision is pending. If ACCESS.SMU is available, it will be in read only mode.

This is an exciting next step in the growth of SMU's Student Administration System. Hats off to the Technology staff for all of their work on this project.

December Graduation

The December graduation ceremony was a huge success. 704 degrees were awarded -- 358 graduate and professional and 346 undergraduate degrees.

The weather was wonderful and many guests came to enjoy the ceremonies. In fact, so many guests came out to watch the undergraduate ceremony that some had to be turned away because even the standing room was being used!

We had a special treat for the undergraduate Rotunda Recessional. The students’ procession was led by a bag piper who piped them to Dallas Hall and then onto the reception in Hughes-Trigg. This was this first time this had been done and it was really exciting to hear!

As always, the registrar’s office staff did a terrific job and contributed greatly to the overall success of the evening. A special thanks to Damon Wilkins and June Williams for volunteering that evening, it is very much appreciated!