Not long ago incoming undergraduate students received a uniqname and access to U-M computing services when they attended an orientation session or prepared to register the first time for classes. Graduate students received notification directly from their admitting office, Rackham, often just weeks before their first term on campus.

Thanks to the efforts of leaders in student service offices across campus, a new process is in place that automates and centralizes what used to be a labor-intensive, expensive process.

Representatives from many admitting and student services offices joined staff from IT Central Services (ITCS) and Michigan Administrative Information Services (MAIS) last year to design a better process.

“We identified two emerging needs—to provide students with more online services and to educate students that the University will officially work with them electronically,” says Ann Hower, director of New Student Programs.

The result was an automated process in Wolverine Access that recognizes a student as officially matriculated as soon as the enrollment deposit or admissions offer is recorded. A first official welcome e-mail sent to new students provides a one-time password to use with their UMID number, and directs them to a Web page
(http://www.itd.umich.edu/uniqname). The student completes a series of steps, including agreeing to abide by the U-M Proper Use Policy
(http://www.itd.umich.edu/security/policies.html), to create a uniqname and UMICH (Kerberos) password. Once completed, they can begin using their @umich.edu e-mail account.

“New students are enthusiastic about using their U-M e-mail account as soon as they can, and they jump at the chance to become an active member of the University’s computing community,” says Sally Lindsley, senior associate director of admissions. Using e-mail to communicate directly to new students also benefits the University, since student service offices can e-mail official information. For instance, about 3,800 students submit their Advanced Placement scores. The Admissions Office can e-mail students with instructions to look at their academic report on Wolverine Access to see if they have been credited correctly. “Having that @umich.edu e-mail service is a fabulous vehicle for communication with students—we know they’ll read e-mail from U-M,” Lindsley says.

University Housing recognized last year that it could improve service to students significantly with a real-time, online application. Ninety-eight percent of first year students choose to live in a residence hall, and it was expensive and laborious to mail printed information, process paper applications and assign rooms using the manual process.

“We wanted to take advantage of existing technology and align the housing application process with other student business already online,” says Alan Levy, director of public affairs and information for University Housing. To protect personal information contained in the application and make it easy for students to find, MAIS added the My Housing link to Wolverine Access. Students can complete their Housing application now as soon as they have their uniqname.

While the admissions and orientation process is different for graduate and undergraduate students, they still benefit in the same way. With the standardized process, all students receive the welcome message, and graduate admitting offices can point new students to the same resources that provide consistent directions on how to access and use online services. Monique Washington, director of admissions at Rackham, says staff members formerly responsible for managing the weekly distribution of uniqnames now are available to help students with their more serious issues.

“This group of admitting and student service offices succeeded in leveraging available technology to reduce work effort in about 20 University offices by automating and centralizing what was an inefficient process,” Washington says. “Everyone benefits from it, and it’s a better experience for students and staff.”

Ruth Addis, director of ITCS User Services, agrees that the process was ripe for centralization. She notes that the decision to put the uniqname process on the Web several years ago positioned the University to support student service offices better today.

“Now that the welcome e-mail is automatic and standardized and sent to the student’s hotmail or yahoo.com account very early in the process, ITCS consultants at (76)4-HELP and the Accounts Office can help new students from the beginning of their U-M computing experience, and that frees up time in the student service offices.”

Working together to design a new process required coordination and compromise between the different University offices. “Working with Admissions, ONSP, Rackham, ITCS and MAIS on this process improvement is a great example of multi-department cooperation,” says Levy. “We’re very appreciative to the IT organizations who worked with us to orchestrate and implement this automated process.”