University Business - December 2012 - (Page 47)

District ADmission office registrAr’s office Streamlined Graduation Five years ago, Polk State College (Fla.) struggled to manually process 800 graduation applications each year. Students first completed a paper graduation application. This was followed by a 30-minute meeting with an advisor who entered the application into a database, which was then reviewed by the graduation coordinator for confirmation before approval. The graduation coordinator position grew into a full-time job as the number of graduates increased, supported by an additional 600 hours of clerical assistance and as many as 1,600 advising hours a year. In total, support costs exceeded $33,000 a year. As the college began experiencing massive growth, the existing process and support staff size was no longer sufficient. “It became very evident that a change was needed,” says Kathy Bucklew, director of student enrollment services and registrar. “We couldn’t afford more staff or advisors, but I knew we weren’t using our existing system adequately.” Technology and business process changes were needed. The existing technology consisted of a homegrown database that couldn’t be modified. Bucklew decided to expand the homegrown system by exporting data to a different technology. A consultant helped design and program a system in Microsoft Access for a one-time cost of $8,000. It took less than a month to build. The new database was easier, more efficient for staff. Fully utilizing the existing student web portal made the graduation application more accessible for students, who get email updates on their application’s progress. Staff can run reports and easily query the data to spot errors or confirm information. No longer is graduation prep a time-consuming process requiring one-on-one meetings and duplicate data entry into spreadsheets and the existing system, but an efficient online application that takes minutes to finalize and submit and then download to manage. Polk State College HOnOreeS 2012 winter Simpler for graduating students, the new process is also a moneysaver. Bucklew and her team also took a hard look at the business process and noticed frequent duplication of effort. “We didn’t realize how much time was being spent on advising,” she says. With the more flexible technological system in place, advisors weren’t required to meet with students and monitor each application’s process. She reallocated the advisors—taking them completely out of the graduation loop—to spend more time with incoming students, who frequently need true advising on course loads and degree plans. “We can give them much better service, even with less staff,” says Bucklew. Besides needing to spend less time completing the graduation application, students can also now graduate more quickly. “We began to graduate students as soon as they meet degree requirements,” explains Bucklew, “rather than only three times a year,” as in the past. Graduating sooner means that students can then take licensure exams more quickly and enter the workforce almost immediately. This year, Polk will graduate more than 3,000 students. “It’s a good thing we changed our process,” she says, “because we could not have handled so many the old way.” —Marcia Layton Turner Services, Inc. was selected for its GlobalCORE + File Review product and, in July 2011, began work on implementation at DCCCD. Campus officials selected an offthe-shelf system but made enhancements for their particular needs. Today, the financial aid process looks nothing like its manual former self. Students can access their financial aid records through an online student portal branded to their institution. In 15 minutes, they can complete an online form, which increases filing accuracy, and click to request IRS documents be forwarded to their college directly. If information entered conuniversitybusiness.com Students selected for financial aid verification can be done in five days rather than eight weeks, and staff can now devote more time to student counseling. flicts with what they previously reported, they are notified in real-time. The entire process is paperless. The compliance review portion of the process was also out- sourced, with results compiled and communicated to DCCCD daily. As a result of these changes, the file review time for students selected for verification has been reduced from eight weeks to five days. More importantly, staff members can now devote themselves to student counseling rather than paperwork review, which allows them to help more first-time students, who typically need more advising. “We were having to spend so much time on the paperwork aspect” when file review was done manually, “and now we can spend more time helping students one-on-one,” says Blackman. —M.L.T. December 2012 | 47 http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - December 2012

University Business - December 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Money Matters
Independent Outlook
5 Reasons Flipped Classrooms Work
Test Driving Mobile
Open Source Myth Busters
Models of Efficiency
1st Annual Readers’ Choice Awards
Education Innovators
Viewpoint
Endowments: New Questions
End Note

University Business - December 2012