MyU Web Portal For over a decade OFYP has used the MyU web portal to communicate directly with incoming freshmen and transfer students during their transition to campus life. Even before receiving notification of this resource, newly confirmed students find the MyU link at the top of all U of M web pages, log in with their University Internet ID and password, and discover content that is timely and relevant to their experience. By promoting time lines, events, and resources, U of M new students see what is expected of them at any given point in time during their transition. With the launch of the new MyU Portal in Spring 2015, we look forward to the continuation of this inclusive and intuitive student experience. To learn more about the new portal, which is part of the larger Upgrade project, visit upgrade.umn.edu. The charts on pages 38-39 demonstrate that incoming students utilize MyU during their transition, between the point of confirmation through Welcome Week. The New Student Checklists were improved in 2014, which made it easier for students to understand their progress throughout the transition. This improvement meant that students did not need to return to MyU as often, which may account for the dwindling numbers of freshmen between Weeks 35 through 40 (in comparison to previous years). For incoming transfer students we saw a change in behavior for MyU usage, which is still a bit of a mystery. It is possible that college-specific content for transfers was not updated as much as incoming students preferred and so they tended to return less frequently. We also linked transfer students directly to their New Student Checklists in email communication, instead of routing them through MyU, which probably also contributed to the drop in visits between Week 25 through 36. Overall MyU usage was strong and telling of an engaged audience, and OFYP will continue to utilize portal technology to reach our students.
38