May 2013, Issue 5
Dr. Joe DeCristoforo, Associate Vice President and University Registrar
Other Registrar Office Services
A variation of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's ageless poem, "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...” can be used as a take-off point theme for the Registrar's Office, "How can we serve thee, let us count the ways." Additionally, for the last several years the San Antonio Spurs fans have coined the phrase “The Big Three” which everyone here in San Antonio knows as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili. When you hear the name the Registrar's Office, you may immediately think of our “Big Three” core services: Registration, Grades, and Academic Transcripts – this is essentially our Student Records area. These are the foundation services of our office, that's for sure, but we are so much more than that. Therefore, the theme of this narrative will cover the many services we offer that, for the most part, are outside of our Big Three core services.
You’ve often heard of the expression, “Information is Power” and this can’t be any truer for the student information we provide to hundreds of staff and dozens of offices on campus via our Student Information System operations area. We run several hundred reports each term for colleges, academic departments, student affairs departments, and many other on-campus areas. We also train faculty and staff to be independent and write their own reports using a system we call “WEBI” or Web Intelligence.
Another area that can be found in the Registrar’s Office is Academic Publications and Classroom Scheduling. Academic Publications produces the undergraduate and graduate catalogs, the Information Bulletin, and the Class Schedule. We are in the process of automating the way our catalog information is collected and maintained and look forward to streamlining the process we use to put the catalogs and Information Bulletin together.
Classroom Scheduling is in charge of finding and matching the appropriate classroom to the departments’ class sections that are in need of space. This area encounters many challenges due to the lack of academic space on our campus as compared to many public higher education institutions across Texas who have far fewer students than we do and sometimes double or triple the classroom space.
Another service area we offer our students is our certification services. Sometimes students need to obtain proof that they are attending UTSA. In working with the National Student Clearinghouse, we provide students with a link on the Automated Student Access Program (ASAP) where they can obtain this information on their own via the web. The Enrollment Services Center also helps us produce on-the-spot certifications for students from Banner, our student record system. Our staff who certify student veterans has doubled from two to four in the last few years. UTSA has three certifying officials at the Main Campus and one certifying official at the Downtown Campus who assist our student veterans in obtaining their veteran benefit funds in order to attend college. We also have staff who review the academic eligibility of our student athletes to ensure we are abiding by National Collegiate Athletic Association rules and regulations.
Our Graduation Coordination staff help students navigate through the graduation maze. They work closely with students and various colleges and academic departments. They also perform a critical task at Commencement by supervising the line-up of graduating students so they process in an orderly manner as they take their seat during the Commencement Ceremony.
We also have residency staff who review out-of-state residency petitions to determine whether students can be reclassified as an in-state student for fee payment purposes. Because this type of service involves a substantial financial difference between out-of-state versus in-state tuition and fees, it is a very important service.
In addition, we also have administrative staff who provide important services to keep our office afloat financially and administratively with timesheets, budget balancing, human resource processes and questions, ordering supplies, making travel arrangements, and many other key services.
Lastly, we have two relatively new positions in our office when the Banner Security function transitioned from the Office of Information Technology to the Registrar’s Office a few years ago. In addition to giving access to various Banner forms and reporting data, they also serve as a Banner Help Desk, in a matter of speaking, when faculty or staff have questions related to the information in Banner.
So, as you can see, we have several services we offer students, faculty, and staff that are essentially outside of the Big Three areas of Registration, Grades, and Academic Transcripts, but, in their own right, just as important and essential to make sure we serve our customers in the best way possible.