Minnesota State Colleges and Universities

ACADEMIC & STUDENT AFFAIRS NEWSLETTER

An Electronic Communication

NOVEMBER 2003

http:www.academicaffairs.mnscu.edu/

 

CONGRATULATIONS

 

Laurie Tralle, director of the Course Applicability System, was elected to a three-year term to lead the Upper Midwest Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers at the 70th Annual Meeting in October, 2003. She will serve as president-elect, president and past-president over the three years.

 

UMACRAO is a professional organization that provides professional development, networking and resources for admissions and registrar staff in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. The national organization for this group is the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. Tralle will attend an AACRAO-sponsored national meeting in Washington D.C. of all the state and regional presidents December 5 to 7, 2003.

 

Many Minnesota State Colleges and Universities campus staff are serving in leadership and committee positions in UMACRAO, including the group’s current treasurer, David Gjerde, registrar at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The Web site is: www.umacrao.org

 

HIGHER LEARNING COMMISSION VISIT

 

Representatives from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) visited Minnesota on Monday and Tuesday, November 17

and 18, and conducted a review of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities' request to serve as the HLC's proxy in determining institutional readiness to offer programs and degrees in an e-learning format.  Trustee Lew Moran, Chancellor McCormick, Minnesota OnLine Council members and members of the Office of the Chancellor's staff participated in the on-site review.  The system's request, according to the team's chair, Dr. Judith Powell, is "bold and innovative."  No other state in the Commission's 19-state region has made such a request.

 

Sr. Vice Chancellor Linda Baer and Minnesota Online Council Chair Kathy Nelson announced on November 18, 2003 the HLC team indicated it would recommend to the Commission that the system's request be approved.  This recommendation will be forthcoming in the team's official report to the Higher Learning Commission.  Once received, the Commission will move the recommendation through three additional approval steps:  reading by consultant-evaluator reviewers, action by the Institutional Actions Council, and approval by the HLC's Board of Trustees.  Final approval is anticipated near the end of February or the first of March.

 

Details of the team's recommendation, including their praise for our creative vision, any concerns they had about the sustainability of our enterprise, and their advice regarding our future endeavors will be reviewed with system leaders and trustees during the December Leadership Council and Board of Trustees meetings.

 

Thank you to those who have made this recommendation possible.  Special thanks go to Lynette Olson who headed up our Accreditation Project, to Shelly Heller, for excellent logistical support and all the campus faculty, students and administrators and Office of the Chancellor staff that have participated in the development of Minnesota Online. 

 

MnLINK IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE

 

Mentoring is continuing as St. John’s University hosted six people from Gustavus Adolphus College, giving them an opportunity to shadow staff as they used the Aleph system. The visitors spent a good part of the day working one-on-one with the Technical staff and watching how Aleph works in a real environment. Tess Kasling, Director of Technical Services at St. John’s University, also visited Minnesota State UniversityMankato to talk with the migration team and meet with the staff.

 

Minnesota Law Library has also hosted members from the Minnesota Historical Society and the Legislative Reference Library. During their visits, librarians have been looking at circulation, cataloging, and administrative procedures and addressing questions relating to use in the special library setting. Barb Golden has extended her ongoing assistance to the libraries as they run into questions.  The Minnesota Law Library is reporting experiences at CALCO meetings and fielding questions from stage agency librarians. During one such discussion they offered a quick demonstration to librarians from the Department of Employment and Economic Development.

 

All of the beta libraries, St. Cloud State University, St. John’s University/St. Benedicts College, and the Minnesota Law Library continue to extend their assistance to interested libraries. If your library staff would like to visit and do some shadowing with the different functional areas, please make an appointment so that appropriate visitors/staff needs can be arranged.

 

MnPALS staff members continue to move toward the next migration and Becky Bell is meeting regularly with Chris Meyer, of the University of Minnesota, and MnLINK staff to work toward a shared view of outstanding issues to be addressed during contract renegotiations. Authorized by Policy Advisory Council, Ken Behringer will be entering into a formal discussion with ExLibris to revise contractual agreements in accordance with recent meetings.

 

Booking and Interlibrary Loan – Recent Meetings and Updates

The MnLINK Booking Development Group met for another full day of discussions with developers from ExLibris. At this meeting ExLibris presented a PowerPoint discussion along with written specifications for the Booking module. Several key points were clarified and agreement was made that ExLibris should continue moving forward on development.

 

Interlibrary loan is also moving forward with agreements made that the module will be ready, including identified Priority 1 concerns and specified development issues, by December 1, 2003. Additional ILL functions will be included in the next release, including Priority 2 and subsequent development issues. Focus is also turning toward developing full integration allowing Aleph to Fretwell-Downing communication.

 

Ongoing Contract Implications

During the last development meeting teams discussed alternate, accelerated schedules for access to new versions of Aleph. Participants discussed the possibility of bringing both MnPALS and the University of Minnesota libraries on to version 16.03 by the fall of 2004. This version is expected to have full Booking, ILL, and specification items, along with some added product development in electronic resource management.

 

WHAT’S NEW WITH TRANSFER

 

Fall 2003 Transfer Specialists’Conference

On November 6, 2003, approximately 120 transfer staff came together at the University of Minnesota, St. Paul Student Center, to network and share information.  Conference evaluations show that the breakout sessions were well received and informative.  Suggestions for the next fall’s conference were the following:  brainstorm topics on each campus and send us the ideas for topics; have a 1 ½ or 2 day conference; breakout session with the Transfer Oversight Committee; private college transfer issues; update on MnTC; transfer of technical college credits; legislative action affecting transfer; prior learning assessments; and many more suggestions.  Let us know if you have ideas for conference topics.  Contact kathy.deshane@so.mnscu.edu

 

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Minnesota State University Moorhead sponsors Transfer Preview Day

MSU Moorhead will be sponsoring a Transfer Preview Day on Monday, February 16, 2004.  The program will provide prospective transfer students an opportunity to meet with faculty in various majors, hear from current MSUM transfer students, tour the campus, and have lunch in the Student Union.  If you would like more information on the Transfer Preview Day, please contact MSUM Transfer Specialist Jim Anderson at 1-800-593-7246 (Ext 1).

 

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Article on Transfer Benefits

“Reader shares benefits of transferring within the system,” an article written by Bruce Smith, Associate Dean of Marketing and Enrollment Services, Alexandria Technical College, was published in the MSCSA Newsletter, September, 2003.  Go to http://www.mscsa.org/Sept03_06.pdf to read the article. 

 

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Course Equivalency Tables can be produced using DARS

A new process of using DARS to send course equivalency tables reduces the need to keep two independent databases for transfer rules.  Once your transfer articulation rules have been completed and tested, you can send them to, Gina Boeckermann, MnTransfer.org to be posted in “Courses:  How do they transfer?” The table on the web site will include institution name, source course identity, course memo and target course.  Contact your campus DARS encoder to arrange for these tables.  To view samples of a table, go to http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/HibbingCC/uwsuperior2002_04.pdf or http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/Century/bethel_sept03.pdf

 

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Report on H.R. 3311 – Affordability in Higher Education Act of 2003

At the UMACRAO Annual Conference, October 2003, Barmark Nassirian, a representative of AACRAO, presented a legislative/government issues update.  He shared information on proposed legislation which has compelling implications for transfer.  To read more, go to MnTransfer.org at http://www.mntransfer.org/TSInfo/HR3311.html

 

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New Questions and Answers in Transfer Specialists FAQs

Credit for Prior Learning http://www.mntransfer.org/TSInfo/faqs_a.html#creditprior

Credit by Exam – Excelsior College http://www.mntransfer.org/TSInfo/faqs_a.html#cbeexcelsior

Minnesota Transfer Curriculum http://www.mntransfer.org/TSInfo/faqs_a.html#mntc

CLEP Policy http://www.mntransfer.org/TSInfo/faqs_a.html#cleppolicy

Foreign Nursing Credentials http://www.mntransfer.org/TSInfo/faqs_a.html#foreignnursing

 

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Automotive Technology Project Information Updated on MnTransfer.org

New and updated information has been added to the Automotive Technology pages.  To read, go to http://www.mntransfer.org/automotive/autoindex.html

 

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Catalog/Curriculum changes for Hibbing Community College on MnTransfer.org

To view these changes, go to MnTransfer.org at http://www.mntransfer.org/Catalog_Curr/template.html

 

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BAS Degree, Four-year Transfer Degrees, and MnSCU/U of M Degrees information updated

To view this information, go to MnTransfer.org at http://www.mntransfer.org/Educators/AppliedBachelors/appbacindex.html

 

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Course Equivalency Tables Updated on MnTransfer.org

Hibbing Community College – credits from College of St. Scholastica; North Hennepin; University of Minnesota Duluth; University of Wisconsin, Superior)

http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/HibbingCC/Hibbing.html

 

Inver Hills Community College – credits from Bemidji; Concordia; Fergus Falls; Fond du Lac; Hamline; MSU, Mankato; Ridgewater; Rochester; St. Cloud SU; U of M Duluth; Vermilion; and Winona.  http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/inverhills/inverhillsindex.html

 

Normandale Community College – credits from Anoka-Ramsey; Bemidji; Century;  Hennepin TC; Inver Hills; Metropolitan SU; Minneapolis; North Hennepin; St. Cloud TC; St. Paul College; South Central; and U of M Duluth

http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/Normandale/NormandaleIndex.html

 

University of St. Thomas – credits from MSU Moorhead http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/StThomas/StThomas.html

 

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Transfer Guides updated on MnTransfer.org

Normandale Community College – for Augsburg; Bethel College; University of Minnesota, Dental Hygiene, Carlson School of Management, College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences, College of Human Ecology, Medical Technology, Mortuary Science, School of Nursing,  Pre-Occupational Therapy, Pre-Pharmacy;

http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/Normandale/guides/guideindex.html

 

Bethel College – for Central Lakes; Century; Minnesota State CTC; North Hennepin; Normandale; Ridgewater; Riverland

http://www.mntransfer.org/Tables/bethel/guides/guideindex.html

 

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Articulation Agreements updated on MnTransfer.org

Alexandria Technical College – with Capella University in Accounting, Business Administration, Computer Information Systems, Marketing; Southwest MSU in Accounting, Business Administration, Computer Information Systems, Marketing

http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/ATC.html

 

Hennepin Technical College – with U of M Crookston in Landscape Design & Construction, Landscape/Horticulture, and Manufacturing.

http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/HTC.html

 

Inver Hills Community College – with Metropolitan SU in Air Traffic Control, Aviation, Business Aviation

http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/IHCC.html

 

Metropolitan State University – with Minneapolis CTC in Child Development; St. Paul College in Health Unit Coordinator, Medical Lab Tech, Respiratory Therapist/Practitioner; Dakota County TC in Child Development, Early Childhood Studies

http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/MetroSU.html

 

North Hennepin Community College – with Augsburg;  Bemidji SU; Cardinal Stritch; St. Catherine; St. Scholastica; Concordia; Hamline; Metropolitan SU; MSU, Mankato; MSU Moorhead; St. Cloud SU; U of M, Crookston, Twin Cities; University of North Dakota; U of Wisconsin-Stout. See What’s New for more detail on specific agreements at http://www.mntransfer.org/whatsnew.html or go to http://www.mntransfer.org/Agreements/Institution/NHCC.html

 

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Contact Kathy DeShane at  kathy.deshane@so.mnscu.edu for further information.

 

THE SOURCE

 

The latest issue of The SOURCE is now available on the ITS web site.

www.its.mnscu.edu/newsletters/index.html

 

This issue contains information on the upcoming 2003 ISRS User Conference and on the Desire2Learn Software selection and implementation.

 

DESIRE2LEARN

 

Desire2Learn Wins Instructional Management System Contract

After an exhaustive and inclusive process, the Information Technology Services division has announced that a contract has been signed with Desire2Learn. The campus representatives involved in the evaluation process expressed their enthusiasm for this product, which they said will provide faculty and students better tools than they currently have for developing Web-enhanced course materials. Along with offering more features and better functionality, the evaluators found that “D2L” also provides an ease of use that will be universally welcomed. The division is eager to begin the implementation process, and several campuses are interested in getting an early start with this promising product.

 

The initial term of the Software License Agreement began Oct. 1 and ends Aug. 31, 2008, with an option to renew the agreement for five additional one-year terms.  The contract includes many innovative and flexible options, including adding other entities (e.g., K-12 and other educational institutions) to the contract, which could lower costs per user along with the potential to earn revenue by making the software available, at a cost, to others. More information is available at http://www.oit.mnscu.edu/ims/IMSQA.htm

 

UPCOMING MEETINGS CONFERENCES

DECEMBER
December 2, 2003 Leadership Council
December 12, 2003 Minnesota Online
December 16-17, 2003 Board of Trustees
December 18, 2003 E-Student Services WG

DIVISION OF

ACADEMIC & STUDENT AFFAIRS

 

Sr. Vice Chancellor for Academic & Student Affairs, Linda L. Baer

651-282-5515, linda.baer@so.mnscu.edu

 

Academic Programs, Gary Langer

651-649-5772, gary.langer@so.mnscu.edu

 

Academic Resources, Deena Allen

651-296-8113, deena.allen@so.mnscu.edu

 

Research and Planning, Leslie Mercer

651-282-2547, leslie.mercer@so.mnscu.edu

 

Strategic Partnerships, Michael Murphy

651-282-5516, michael.murphy@so.mnscu.edu

 

Student Affairs, Mike López

651-296-0447, mike.lopez@so.mnscu.edu