Rice University Office of the Registrar 2021-2022 Annual Report

A word from the University registrar

Dear Rice University Friends and Colleagues,

This annual report highlights some of the major activities of the Office of the Registrar over the past year. Our goal has been to support the educational mission of the university by working with the Rice community to maintain the accuracy and integrity of its educational records, provide quality service, and support innovative systems that enhance academic support. As you review the following pages,

it is my hope that you will see our accomplishments in light of that goal.

As we move forward into a new academic year that presents its own opportunities in a changing higher education landscape, we plan on continuing to build on our successes with “no upper limit” to what we may be able to achieve.

David A. Tenney University Registrar

Meet the 2021-22 acadeMic year Otr staff

Student RecoRdS, RegiStRation, and gRaduation

EllEn EvErEtt Sr. ASSociAtE rEgiStrAr

rAchEl clAy AcAdEmic curriculum mAnAgEr

mAritzA SAlinAS ASSiStAnt rEgiStrAr

ShAr-lEE ShAndErA

StudEnt rEcordS AnAlySt

AliciA BrAdlEy

StudEnt rEcordS AnAlySt

AnA cArrASco trAnScript & vErificAtion AnAlySt

SArA dickEnS

StudEnt rEcordS SpEciAliSt

dArlEnE Judd rEgiStrAtion ASSiStAnt

cynthiA chAvEz

StAff ASSiStAnt for cuStomEr SErvicE

dAvid tEnnEy univErSity rEgiStrAr

Armi cAhoy ExEcutivE ASSiStAnt

JuStin SchilkE Sr. ASSoicAtE rEgiStrAr

tBn ASSiStAnt rEgiStrAr

chriS higginS clASSroom & SchEduling mAnAgEr

John mArtinEz cAtAlog & SchEduling ASSiStAnt

AngEl forwArd progrAm mAnAgEr

A-Level Credit Processing and Posting

Academic Calendar

Academic Plan Changes - Graduate Students

Academic Standing, Probation & Suspension

AP Test Credit Processing and Posting

Athletic Eligibility

B-On-Time Loan Forgiveness

Classroom Renovations

Classroom Scheduling

Commencement

CourseLeaf CAT, CIM, CLSS

Course Catalog Updates

Course Descriptions and/or Information

Course Evaluations

Course Rosters

Course Schedule Build

Curriculum Review

Data Requests

Declarations (Major, Minor, & Certificates)

Dean Verifications

Degree Certification/Degree Audits

Degree Verifications

Degree Works

Degree Conferral & Transcript Updates

Email Notices & Communication

Enrollment Verifications

Facsimile Diplomas

Fee Waivers

FERPA Compliance

Final Exam Scheduling

General Announcements

Grade Processing

...supporting rice’s educational mission.

Grade Rosters

Graduation Application - Graduate

Graduation Application - Undergraduate

IB Credit Processing and Posting

Instructor Evaluations

Inter-Institutional Agreements and Registration

International Certifications

Latin Honors Calculation

National Student Clearinghouse Submissions

NCAA Compliance

New Student Orientation/Registration

OnBase Document Management

OTR Fees

President’s Honor Roll

Registration/Enrollment Troubleshooting

Replacement Diploma Processing

Report to the President

Residential College Updates

Student Records Access

Student Registration Actions

Student Status Changes

Study Abroad

Subpoenas

Summer Sessions

Transcript Processing

Transfer Credit Processing/Posting

VA Processing

Visiting Post-Baccalaureate

Visiting Students

Waitlist Management

...in the Rice community

Academic Restart Committee

Academic Technologies Subcommittee

Administrative Technologies Subcommittee

Classroom Task Force

Classroom Quality Management Team

College Associates

College Roadtrips

Committee on Examinations and Standing

Committee on Teaching

Committee on Undergraduate Curriculum

Crisis Management Team

Data Stewards

EAB Navigate Implementation

Faculty Senate

FERPA Brown Bag

Graduate Council

ImagineOne (iO) Project (Labor Distribution)

Inclusivity in Student Records Working Group

IT Academic Technology Committee

IT Administrative Technology Committee

Phi Beta Kappa

Student Insurance Committee

Student Services Collaboration

Tableau Users Group

Training Presentations (Degree Works, CLSS, CIM)

...impacting others positively.

...at the State/Regional leVel

National Student Clearinghouse Academy

South East Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (SETACRAO)

Southern Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (SACRAO)

Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (TACRAO)

Texas Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (TACRAO) Executive Committee

Texas Association of Collegiate Veteran Program Officials (TACVPO)

Western Association of Veterans Education Specialist (WAVES)

...at the national leVel

Ad Astra Aspire

American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)

American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) Mentorship Working Group

Association of American Universities (AAU) Registrars

CourseLeaf Executive Forum

Degree Works Forum

Ellucian Live

Slate Innovation Festival

academic yeaR 2021-22 mileStone map

The 2021-22 Academic Year began in what appeared to be a more “normal” academic year fashion. A number of challenges, however, presented themselves throughout the year, including a number of academic accommodations approved by the Academic Restart Committee, data integration challenges with iO, and expectations from the Rice community regarding data and system performance.

Each semester during the 2021-22 academic year included significant and last minute changes to the deadlines for registration, Add/Drop, and Pass/Fail

declarations. Those changes were approved by the university administration and required the OTR to alter a number of registration processes multiple times during each semester. A full-detailed list of the changes, including the history of all changes and the associated documentation for the approval, is located on the OTR page for History of Academic Changes Due to Rice’s COVID-19 Response.

In July 2021, Rice launched iO, a new ERP for Finance and Human Resources. This required collaboration between the OTR and the iO implementation team

to ensure student data would be available in iO for departments to pay students for work, as well as being able to use employee/faculty data inside of Banner. Over time, the integrations were improved, and a number of data checks have been implemented to streamline data being loaded into Banner, iO, and the Identity Access Management (IAM) software. The OTR also provided significant resources to aid Payroll in labor distribution changes.

The OTR also focused on improving the Rice community’s ability to utilize existing data and used existing

...a rapidly evolving academic year.

data to improve business processes. Included in this effort was adding name pronunciations to course rosters, adding new reports to each Report to the President, creating a way to predict enrollment due to the increased admissions rate, and revising the final exam process to further minimize student and instructor conflicts.

Note: For purposes of this report, we have used data from August 1, 2021, to July 31, 2022, to be the 2021-22 academic year. While this doesn’t correspond perfectly to the academic year, many actions taken for the 2021-22 academic year occurred during this time.

criSiS mAnAgEmEnt tEAm ASSiStAncE/involvEmEnt

While the OTR has always maintained a presence on the Crisis Management Team, assistance during the COVID-19 response was slightly different than that in the past. Management staff were involved in a number of CMT groups and projects, including leading the academic student services group, coordinating visitor guidance documentation, editing the website, and assisting with data requests and testing capabilities.

AcAdEmic rEStArt committEE ASSiStAncE/involvEmEnt

The Academic Restart Committee (ARC) was an advisory group responsible for determining what the Fall Semester 2020 (and beyond) would look like for students and instructors. During these discussions the University Registrar was an advisory member, and the OTR provided different data points to assist ARC in developing responses for certain situations into the 2021-22 academic year. The OTR helped departments and community members implement guidance from ARC, and the OTR also maintained a complete set of guidance in a central location for community members to reference, which is available here.

AcAdEmic rEliEf procESSing

A number of academic relief accomodations were approved by Faculty Senate for students. These included an extended drop date and allowance of additional Pass/Fails. The OTR worked to implement these decisions with the Office of Information Technology (OIT) so that the student experience for utilizing these provisions was as seemless as possible given the condensed time period. Some provisions will continue to have effects on students and their academic history for several years to come, and the OTR will need to continue to take actions to allow those provisions to continue to be implemented. A summary of those accomodations is available here.

courSE SchEdulE And clASSroom ASSignmEntS

Despite the 2021-22 academic year looking more “normal,” a fair amount of leeway was available to instructors to switch instructional methods (e.g., from face-to-face to online). The OTR was involved in processing those change requests, which often involved much manual intervention and assistance from OIT. Additionally, the OTR developed and edited automated reports for the Office of International Students and Scholars to ensure students were in compliance with their visa requirements and helped departments understand the effect of changing an instructional method of a course on the enrolled international students.

Additionally, the OTR provided testing space for the Crisis Management Team from the OTR scheduled classroom inventory, which took a normally well-utilized classroom offline for almost two years. That room is returning to use as a classroom in Fall 2022.

Student RecoRdS

...maintaining the accuracy and integrity of rice’s education records.

rEgiStrAtion “hEAd StArt” pilot

At the March 23, 2022, meeting of the Faculty Senate, a pilot program for student-athlete course registration was announced. The OTR has colloquially named this a “Head Start” for the student-athlete population, as the pilot program amended the normal Registration Priority Groups schema in which students were separated by matriculation term and added a sub-group within each group for student-athletes. The goal was to allow student-athletes a “head start” of 10 credit hours and process registration requests for them prior to other students in their priority group. After the “head start” is processed, all students in that specific priority group are randomized to process registration requests up to the maximum number of hours an undergraduate student may register for.

The data show that the pilot had some positive impact on student-athlete registration. Student-athletes got in to more courses during the Course Registration Request Period under Head Start than without it; similarly, they had fewer denials during Head Start than under the previous method. Student-athletes were registered, on average, for a full-time course load, while under the previous method, they fell slightly under full-time.

ElEctronic courSE ovErridES

The OTR implemented electronic course overrides beginning with Fall 2017. This allows a primary instructor of a course to grant permission for a student to register for a course without the use of a paper Special Registration Form. COVID-19 provided an environment for use of the electronic overrides to far surpass previous usage, with the Fall Semester 2020 seeing almost double the number of overrides submitted compared to Spring Semester 2020. For the 2020-21 academic year, OTR also began to only issue overrides and no longer manually register students, which increased student registration speed. By Fall 2021, over 4,000 electronic overrides were submitted by instructors.

trAnSfEr crEdit

The OTR reviews requests from Office of Admission for transfer credit for transfer admission admitted students. During the 2021-22 academic year, the OTR reviewed 139 applicants. The analysis of the transfer credit for each of these was then sent to the applicant for review as they were considering to accept admission to Rice.

In addition to transfer admission reviews, the OTR also processes all transfer credit. During the 202122 academic year, OTR reviewed 4,568 courses from other institutions for transfer credit; additionally, 9,731 courses were reviewed for credit from AP, A Level, or IB credit. (A percentage of those numbers are due to data clean-up from older pre-Banner records.)

did you know?

Rice has a more complicated Latin Honors calculation process than many schools. Instead of simply having set GPA cutoffs, a specific percentage of graduating students within each school are awarded summa cum laude (top 5%), magna cum laude (next 10%), and cum laude (next 15%).

Because some students have multiple majors across different schools but only one degree, it is often a very time-consuming practice to correctly identify the GPAs needed for each honor range in each school. This process was done by hand until recently, when an electronic process and report was written to calculate honors more precisely in approximately a tenth of the time it previously took.

trAnScript

grAdE chAngES procESSEd

2,146 of which 866 were inStrUctor chAnGeS

dEgrEE workS pEtitionS AppliEd UG StUdentS: 4,145 Gr StUdentS: 4,756

72% of All trAnScriptS iSSUed in 2021-22 were electronic trAnScriptS

StudEnt withdrAwAlS procESSEd

659

rE-AdmittEd StudEntS procESSEd 225

EnrollmEnt And dEgrEE vErificAtion hiStory

ElEctronic courSE ovErridES By inStructorS

...enabling rice to make data-driven decisions.

rEportS to thE prESidEnt in tABlEAu EnhAncEmEntS

The Reports to the President are reports that provide summary data regarding Rice enrollment and academic program completion. While these reports were moved to Tableau several years ago, some additional enhancements were made over the past year, including: implementing Rice’s dashboard style guide, detailed student registration by major and matriculation term, cross-referencing of registration in one course with another course, and other credentials earned by a student in a given major/minor/ university certificate.

Solomon AmEndmEnt rEquEStS

An automated report has been created to handle requests for recruiting information under the Solomon Amendment to FERPA. This has improved consistency of data being released and has decreased the turnaround time so that it can be released to recruiters within one business day.

improvEd SEcurity rEquESt procESS

The OTR worked with OIT to streamline security agreement requests and the indexing of those requests. Security requests that are only requesting access to student data can be initiated by the OTR and then processed according to the normal workflow; however, a step near the end directs the request automatically back to the OTR, which prevents the need for OIT to first review the requests before sending it to the OTR, saving both offices time. Once processed, it is sent to OIT for processing. After processing, an auto-indexing process was also set up so that the PDF could be quickly indexed to OnBase rather than manually imported, saving time during heavy request periods.

clASSroom dAShBoArd EnhAncEmEntS

The OTR added a few new reports to the Classroom Dashboard, which shows data usage for OTR scheduled classrooms. The added reports show heatmaps based on room capacity ranges. The goal of these added reports was to determine: 1) where high demand exists and 2) what types of classrooms are heavily used. This data could then be used to determine what types of new classrooms would be added to the classroom inventory (e.g., during the creation of a new building) or during a classroom renovation that may lend itself to a change in classroom capacity.

couRSe catalog and Scheduling

...supporting the pedagodical needs of rice instructors.

finAl ExAm chAngES

The OTR assigns all undergraduate courses in the schedule of course offerings into these final exam slots and creates the exam schedule in consideration of several goals, ranked in order of priority:

1. Provide the exam schedule to the university by the start of the seventh week of classes

2. Assign each section to one exam time slot

3. Place reasonable time buffers between exams (“not too close together or too far apart”)

4. Place exams as early as possible within the exam period (“not too long from start to finish”)

5. Minimize the number of “conflicts” (occurrences of students with two simultaneous exams)

6. Minimize the number of students who have more than 2 scheduled final exams in 2 consecutive days

Over the past academic year, the OTR revamped the process by which the final exam schedule is mapped out for a given semester by focusing on using different technology tools than previously used. The result was a significant reduction in the amount of time spent creating the schedule. Moreover, the changes allowed OTR to incorporate other desirable attributes into the scheduling process which effectively reduced the amount of time spent to assign classrooms to those final exams.

courSElEAf cim chAngES

In Spring 2022, the OTR met with individual schools to determine what needs, if any, had changed since the CourseLeaf CIM implementation several years ago. As a result of that conversation, work has been occurring to make several changes to the course approval process to collect information needed by schools to adequately review proposals. The added data elements should reduce the length of time proposals spend in the approval workflows and reduce the need for follow-up outside of CourseLeaf.

These changes are expected to go live for the Fall 22 semester.

did you know?

The Academic Calendar drives much of the course schedule process, along with other OTR activities.

At the January 2008 meeting, the Faculty Senate approved a calendar formula generation system that is based on specific formulas and number of days from specific dates. Beginning with the 2009-10 academic year, the Academic Calendar follows that methodology since that time, although two Faculty Senate Working Groups have tweaked the formula slightly over the years.

Additionally, all Academic Calendars are approved two years in advance.

The OTR provides a Google Calendar for the Academic Calendar as well, and you can subscribe to it by clicking here.

fAll 2021 SEction count 4,111

fAll 2021 rEgiStrAtionS 41,148

fAll 2021 crEdit hourS

106,544

courSE cAtAlog rEquEStS

Spring 2022 SEction count 4,013

Spring 2022 rEgiStrAtionS 37,898

Spring 2022 crEdit hourS 102,063

SyllABuS

SyllABuS

claSSRoomS

...maintaining and effectively utilizing rice’s learning environments.

clASSroom AdviSorytASk forcE

In late Fall 2021, then-Provost DesRoches commissioned the Classroom Advisory Task Force to advise on the state of Rice’s classroom scheduling landscape and to build upon the work of the Classroom Task Force of 2010 and the Space Task Force of 2013. The 2021-2022 Task Force included faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines, experiences, and areas of expertise, and was co-chaired by Mahmoud El-Gamal and Justin Schilke.

The task force looked into the current state, reviewed the historical and projected instructional space demand, and analyzed peer practices. A final report was presented to the President and Provost with recommendations on how to more efficiently utilize Rice’s instructional spaces without building new classrooms, with recommendations focused on course scheduling, collaboration of enrollment growth plans, and sharing of available resources.

pRoject highlight: ad aStRa landing page

Some routinely asked questions the OTR receives are, “Where is my assigned room and what technology is available in it?” In order to better address these questions, the OTR enhanced the Ad Astra landing page (classrooms.rice.edu). The landing page now contains direct links to building location and information regarding the technology each room and how to use it.

claSSRoomS in ay 2021-22 - by the numbeRS

totAl EvEnt (non-clASS) mEEtingS in otr SchEdulEd roomS (8/1/21 - 7/31/22)

8,630

numBEr of hourS hErzStEin AmphithEAtEr wAS

“in uSE” BEtwEEn 8Am And 5pm in Spring 22 457 (76% of the time)

cuStomeR SeRVice

...providing for the needs of the community in a professional manner.

viSiting StudEnt ApplicAtionS movEd to SlAtE

Over the past several years, the OTR has made significant strides in improving the visiting student application experience. A few years ago, individuals seeking to be a visiting student had to submit a paper application that was processed manually by an OTR staff member. Gradual improvements were made, and Rice now has nearly all visiting student applications that run through the OTR processed in Slate.

For those applications that are not inititated in Slate, it is largely due to the population of the student. These applicants, however, are able to use fully accessible electronic forms outside of Adobe Sign to complete the application process.

cAmpuS trAiningS

With dependence on technology also comes a need to know how to use that technology. Each year, OTR hosts trainings for Degree Works, CourseLeaf CLSS, and CourseLeaf CIM, with a sizable attendance at each of the trainings. Additionally, the OTR provides one-on-one trainings as needed for new users who begin to use that software in between training sessions.

In conjunction with the Office of General Counsel, the OTR co-hosts a FERPA Brown Bag each September, with attendance from across many different units on campus. Topics specifically relevant to the Rice community are discussed along with the appropriate action in compliance to FERPA.

gEnErAl AnnouncEmEntS

The OTR utilizes CourseLeaf CAT to generate the General Announcements (GA) website. This site contains the official curriculum of Rice University and is revised each year in a three round process. All of the over 900 unique pages are reviewed thoroughly by the campus community, departments, and programs. Changes to curriculum are shepherded by the Office of the Registrar, in conjunction with changes to policies and procedures, overseen by the Office of the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (VPAA). The GA has been enhanced from earlier years in its digital presentation and the workflow editing process behind the scenes. It provides users an experience that allows them to quickly and easily find the information they need.

did you know?

Rice offers Certified Electronic Diplomas and Certified Electronic Certificates and was one of the first universities in the nation to do so?

The service is free for all students who graduated beginning with the 201314 academic year, and students who graduated before then can special order them.

Since launching the program, Rice has provided 19,124 Certified Electronic Diplomas and Certificates to graduates.

rEquESt trAckEr tickEtS rEcEivEd And rESolvEd

29,522

totAl viSitorS to otr wEBSitE

242,791

totAl viSitorS to gEnErAl AnnouncEmEntS

367,263

totAl pAgEviEwS of otr wEBSitE

805,417

totAl pAgEviEwS of gEnErAl AnnouncEmEntS

1,713,089

AvErAgE timE SpEnt on otr wEBSitE 1 minute 26 seconds

AvErAgE timE SpEnt on gEnErAl AnnouncEmEntS 2 minutes 41 seconds

uniquE viSiting StudEntS of All typES procESSEd By otr in 21-22 AcAdEmic yEAr

457

pRoject highlight: ViSiting Student WebSite

Information for visiting students has always been available on the OTR website and General Announcements, but information wasn’t always easy to digest and was, at times, scattered. Additionally, since visiting students have different application instructions and accessible resources, it was often confusing for applicants and Rice community members to navigate.

The OTR Program Coordinator (now Manager) for visiting students oversaw the design and implementation of visitingstudents.rice.edu. The website streamlines information for visiting students and provides more information to them quickly so that they can be members of the Rice community.

office of the reGiStrAr

contact infoRmation

contAct

Phone: 713.348.4999

Fax: 713.348.5921

Email: registrar@rice.edu

Website: registrar.rice.edu

phySicAl locAtion

The Office of the Registrar is located in Allen Center Room 116. Allen Center is Building #33 on the Rice Map

mAiling AddrESS

Rice University

Office of the Registrar - MS 57

P.O. Box 1892

Houston, TX 77251-1892

officE hourS

The Office of the Registrar (OTR) business hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. In-person and front desk lobby hours 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The above days and times may change, and the most up-to-date information can be found here.

Our staff are also available from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. via registrar@rice.edu to assist and answer questions as needed.

StAff dirEctory And tASk liSting

If you need to contact a specific person, a Staff Directory is available here. Individual staff responsibilities are outlined on the Staff Task Listing page.