NEW STAFF
Meredith Dawson -
Financial Aid STAFF LEAVING
Cathy Smith - Financial Aid Cristina Coronado - Registrar
STAFF PROMOTIONS Birthdays
Darrah Rippy - Jan 5
Jaynell Dalby - Jan 28 Lorinda Lamb - 17 years! Monica Cordero - 14 years Marc
Peterson - 10 years in DES Shannon Grandberry - 8 years Nada
El-Sayed - 1 year Cristina Coronado - 1 year Myriah Garcia
- 1 year Melissa Stanford - 1 year
Orientation Registration on Access.SMU
Last year an O&M
sub-committee chaired by Barbara Mohrle proposed using Access.SMU to automate
AARO and Mustang Corral registration in an effort to enable departments involved
to operate more efficiently. Utilizing Access.SMU is particularly important for
AARO since it is the starting point for the advising and enrollment experience
for SMU’s new undergraduates.
The proposal was endorsed
by Dr. Tunks and Dr. White in August 2008. The implementation team was formed to
immediately begin the project. The implementation team, lead by Joe Papari,
includes Monica Cordero, Missy Bryant, Barbara Mohrle, Carol Porter, Ginger
Oravsky, Pam Fincher, Stephen Forrest, and Anel Reyna. The team began its work
by defining requirements and designing the system.
The newly developed system
will allow new students to use the Student Self-Service component of Access.SMU
to register for AARO and Mustang Coral starting mid-March. The system will take
the students through all the required steps to complete the registration
process. Through these steps, students must 1) provide updates to their
biographical, demographic, and emergency contact information; 2) sign the AARO/MC
waiver; 3) select an AARO session and select an Academic Advising Preference; 4)
register guests and request additional housing for AARO; and 5) select a
placement test to take and request any accommodations needed. Student may also
make changes to their selections up to 7 days prior to their AARO session begin
date.
The system’s administrative
process allows New Student Orientation and Student Support to do everything the
student can do and make any changes necessary including overriding the advising
assignments. The system has a process to check transfer students’ current
academic program plan prior to their advisor assignments, optimizing the
transfer students’ folder assignments to the schools.
The Mustang Coral processes
will import StrengthsQuest Survey
results, assign camp,
cabins, buses, and Spirit groups, and print name tag information. The system
will allow Faculty and Staff to self register to be Mustang Coral leaders with
the New Student Orientation and Student Support office making the final Mustang
Coral leader selections.
The system also provides an
audit log of students’ AARO registration history and provides a roster for
advisor assignments per AARO session. Enrollment Services Highlights Spring Enrollment Continues to Look Good SMU welcomed over 90 new first year and
transfer students to the university at January AARO. Students have until January 26 to complete
their enrollment for the spring term. With more than a week left to
register, enrollment is over 9800 - 5594 undergraduates and 4121
graduate/professional students. The payment plans offered for students this
spring continue to provide options for students. To date 1891 students and
families have selected one of the payment plans to assist with payment of
tuition and fees for the spring term. Please check the website below for reports
on enrollment. Enrollment Reports Website:
Anniversaries
enrollment_reporting.asp
First preliminary release: Jan. 20
Second preliminary release: Jan. 27
Census Date: Feb. 4
Release #1: Feb. 9
Release #2: Feb. 12
Blanton Holiday Luncheon
VIPs -
Very Important Ponies
Some of our VIPs this month are:
Student Accounts - I just had a parent to call me in tears. She just wanted to thank SMU for offering the various payment plan options. She has three kids in college and she just wanted to thank us for making things a little easier for her.
Cheryl Swift - Thank you sooooo much for your help. I know my mom explained the situation to you and it had become a source of stress for both of us. Your assistance is greatly appreciated and I can't thank you enough for going above and beyond the call of duty. It really helped me out and it was the final piece of my MSA application, so its nice to know I can relax and go about my internship. Thanks so much,Adam
Paley Wu – On behalf of the Student Records team I would like to thank Paley for being such a remarkable co-worker. We are in the process of updating our policies and procedures documentation and needed to get several up on the web as quickly as possible. Paley responded to all of my requests immediately and in no time had all of our updated material on the web. He is reliable, organized, and a pleasure to work with. Thank you Paley for being such an asset to our teamThank you, Melissa Stanford
Student Financial Operations - On January 5, 2009, SFO processed 547 refunds for a total amount of $3,318,524.68!!!! This was our highest total ever! A big THANK YOU to the SFO team for all of their hard work and dedication! Thanks.
Diploma Team - Sylvia Wiseman, Mary Compian, Myriah Garcia, Kim Scott, under the direction of Jackie Wilborn - thanks for the extra effort in getting the diplomas mailed for December Graduation. Your effort is greatly appreciated not only by SMU but by our graduates.
Student Financial Services - As we completed payment due date for the new term, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your extra work on collecting accounts for fall. Implementing a policy change dispensing with release of enrollment for non-payment of tuition and fees at the beginning of the collection process challenged all of us to find new ways to get students to resolve their accounts. I know that you have worked extra hours to expand your efforts to contact students and work with them to pay. We have been able to improve so many of our processes because of the Tech Team's sensitivity to our growing needs and the extraordinary work of the Student Financial Operations Team. Pat Woods Thank you, Pat. And congratulations and thanks to all who worked to make this happen. Tom Tunks
Information Processing Team and all involved in EA - Ginger, a special thank you to you and our Information Processing staff for a superb job. My thanks as well to all my admission, school based recruitment, and enrollment resources colleagues for an equally fine effort in making Early Action processing and decision making such a success. Our new niche in the marketplace has gotten so competitive, so complex, and so challenging that it quite simply takes us all. We are done and thank you to everyone. Ron Moss Please add my thanks to all for a job well done (and timely, too!) Tom Tunks
Information Systems Team - Thanks to you and the team for getting Comments up and started within Academic Records. This has been something we've wanted to do since before we went live in 2000. John Hall
All Who Helped with December Graduation - A huge toast of Christmas cheer to each of you for the outstanding effort Saturday. We had a huge crowd of graduates and guests, and because of you, they were provided with a lasting memory that proudly represents SMU. The evening was top notch. John Hall Please add my thanks for a job well done! Tom Tunks
SMU Committee to Address Identity Theft - Red Flag Rule
The Red Flags Rule was developed pursuant to the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act of 2003. Under the Rule, financial institutions and creditors with covered accounts must have identity theft prevention programs to identify, detect, and respond to patterns, practices, or specific activities that could indicate identity theft.
The Federal Trade Commission will suspend enforcement of the new “Red Flags Rule” until May 1, 2009, to give creditors and financial institutions additional time in which to develop and implement written identity theft prevention programs. Today’s announcement and the release of an Enforcement Policy Statement do not affect other federal agencies’ enforcement of the original November 1, 2008 deadline for institutions subject to their oversight to be in compliance.
SMU has charged the FTC Red Flags Committee with addressing compliance. The committee is composed of:
Chris Casey, Anita Ingram, Bill Detwiler, Basil Thomson, Martha Fleisher, John O'Connor, Pat Woods, Lorinda Lamb, Julie Wiksten, Mark Petersen, Susan Howe, George Finney
FTC Red Flags Subcommittee
George Finney (ITS), Martha Fleisher (OLA), Lorinda Lamb (DES), Laura Johnson (HR), Keith Fowler (Controller)
Charles Harper Recognized for 50 years of service to SMU w/ Judy Harper and Dr. Tom Tunks
Important Dates
Quotation of the Month
SMU Trivia
Question
Answer
Peterson takes on important role
I am pleased to share with you a very important development in the
Enrollment Services’ Office of Undergraduate Admission as we begin the New Year.
Effective January 1, Nancy Peterson assumed the position of Associate Dean of
Undergraduate Admission. As you are aware, Nancy progressively held numerous
positions during her 12 years in undergraduate admission which allowed her to
make critical contributions in a variety of ways to our enrollment successes.
Student recruiting is a far more competitive place than
the one we occupied even five years ago. Continuing our success requires even
greater new thinking and strategic planning in response to that which increasing
numbers of better and brighter students now considering SMU expect in their
recruitment and ultimately, in their undergraduate experiences. As the
Associate Dean, Nancy will focus intensely on the strategic and creative
challenges associated with further understanding the demographics, marketplace
dynamics, communication tools, and application/enrollment tendencies necessary
to keep us ahead of the curve. She will continue her important oversight of our data
management/information processing areas, athletic admissions, publications, and
the application and scholarship review/committee processes. Direct
oversight and management of daily
operations are in the capable hands of Byron Lewis and Ginger Oravsky, Associate
Directors, and Lori Atkinson, Courtney Barrett, Hilary McIlvain, and Sarah
Spooner, Assistant Directors. This restructuring of the undergraduate admission
staff is in order to best ensure realization of this critical university
initiative. I appreciate the way Dr. Tunks simply, yet so accurately characterizes SMU’s
new, highly competitive niche. Simply, he says, “we are fishing in deeper
waters.” It is our belief that the focus of this position along with the
excellence and continuing dedication of so many in the greater university
community, including my Enrollment Services colleagues and both the central
admission staff and the school based undergraduate recruitment officers, will
enable us to increasingly stay ahead of the curve and successfully fish in
deeper waters.
For information on the Academic Calendar, Course Catalogs, Confidentiality
of Education Records/FERPA, Forms Library and tutorials for Faculty & Staff
Look before you speak
Student may release their education records to specific people outside of the
university through ACCESS.SMU. Before you give any information on a student to a third party,
be sure you are familiar with the FERPA regulations for release of education
records and check if the student has
authorized the third party to have the information released to them. Go to
the FERPA Home page for more information.
http://smu.edu/registrar/ferpa/ .
Thursday is Monday
Note that Thursday, January 29 follows the Monday Class Schedule.
Pat Woods presenting Charles with his
University Service Award and acknowledging his many contributions to SMU.
February 4th
Division Meeting
Jan. 19 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
Jan. 20 - First day of class
Jan. 26 - Last Day to Enroll
Jan 29 - Follows Monday class
schedule
Feb. 16 - Mustang Monday
Mar 9-14 - Spring
Break
Mar 21 - Spring Fest
Mar 26-27 - Mustang Days
Apr 3-4 - Mustang Days
April 10 - Good Friday Holiday
Apr 8
- Last day to drop
May 4 - Last day of instruction
May 5 -
Reading Day
May 6-12 - Final Examinations
May 15 - Baccalaureate
May
16 - Commencement
May 25 - Memorial Day Holiday
The function of freedom is
to free somebody else.
Toni Morrison
The State, based upon Law; the Church, founded on Revelations; and the
University, upheld by Reason.
Brubaker and Rudy
in Higher Education in
Transition
Ron Moss, Dean of Admission
consult the Registrar's Home page at
http://www.smu.edu/registrar
.
