How the SMC Email address is updated in Colleague

Hint:  It's MAGIC!!!

Email accounts are generated for faculty, staff and students automatically on a twice-daily basis. Twice daily, a file with all current accounts is delivered to Colleague, and twice daily Colleague updates student, faculty and staff records with the Saint Mary's email address. New addresses are added, and any addresses that are no longer valid are removed.

The Saint Mary's College email address is flagged in Colleague with a type of "LO" = "Local". The account name (the part before "@stmarys-ca.edu") can be seen in the header of most person-related forms in Colleague.

Because Colleague is updated directly from the email system, no one should ever add or remove an email address with a type of "LO".  This is reserved for automatic processes.

REGISTRATION arrives AGAIN

Believe it or not, next week (November 15-18, 2010) is another week of Undergraduate Online Registration. You will receive emails with reminders, but for now, here are the three guidelines for Good Digital Citizens:

1.  Limit your login time - log out if you aren't actively using Colleague
2.  Restrict reporting - save large queries for times when resources are not at a premium
3.  Release records - remember that students need to be able to access their records to register.

The most critical times for student registration are around 1:00PM and after 3:45PM 

SAVEDLISTS and HOLD files

AIS, with input from some of our Power Users, has established guidelines for deletion and retention of SAVEDLISTS and HOLD files.

SAVEDLISTS:  retained for 45 days. Any SAVEDLIST over 45 days old will be deleted on the 6th of each month, with exception of any savedlist that begins with "XSMC". 

HOLD files:  retained for 100 days, any HOLD file over 100 days old will be deleted on the 6th of each month. If you need to keep a file longer than 100 days, you may save to your PC, or contact AIS to have it moved to an archived Colleague folder. (HOLD files are created when you send a report to "HOLD" instead of a printer or email.)

How YOU Can Help Make Registration Easier for Students

October 18-21 is Jan Term registration for undergraduates

Students register for classes through GaelXpress, which connects them directly to the Colleague database. Because you, at your desktop, are also connecting to Colleague, the way that you work in Colleague can affect the student experience, either negatively or positively.

How can you help students register with fewer problems?

1.  Log out when you are not actively using Colleague. This is absolutely critical in the hours between 12:30 and 2:00PM, and again from 3:30 to the end of the work day. All  desktop logins use software licenses, and students registering also use software licenses. If administrative staff use up all the licenses, there won't be enough for students.  PLEASE LOG OUT. 

2.  Keep out of student records as much as possible. Adding information or changing a record actually locks up the records, so that others cannot change the record at the same time. When you lock the record of a student, the student cannot register (because the record is locked!).  If you need to work on a record, open it, do your work quickly, and finish out. While you are in the record, what the student sees is an hourglass, and they think "the system is down", when really, it is just that their record is in use.

These two modifications to the way you use Colleague during registration week can have a huge impact on how quickly students are able to register.



Questions?  Email AIS@stmarys-ca.edu

What is a FRIEND? A brief explanation of Source Codes

When looking up a PERSON in Colleague, you might occasionally see "Alumni", "Parent" or "Friend".  These are source codes, and are assigned by Development.  Below is an example of three people, each with a different source code. 

Source codes identify a primary relationship with the college, with the most common codes being

1 - Alumni - this indicates a person who is either a former student, or, at certain times of the year, an undergraduate senior who is about to graduate. 

2 - Parent - the parent of a current or former student 

3 - Friend - a person who is not an alum nor a parent

6 - Corporation

CS - Current Student

These codes are used for federal fundraising reporting. They should not be changed, except by Development.

If you have a question about a source code, or believe it might be wrong, contact Joan Goularte, goularte@stmarys-ca.edu (X4344) directly.

CORE Team forms Subcommittee

The CORE Committee has formed a subcommittee to look at addresses, address types, guidelines for maintenance of addresses, and any other issues that might relate to addresses for applicants, students, alumni, donors, vendors and employees. 

Members have been notified of the date of the first meeting. If you would like to be included, contact Joan Goularte at X4434, or call AIS at X4375.

Informer Conference, October 11-12, 2010

The first annual Informer conference, ICON, will be held October 11-12, 2010 in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina. Conference attendees with have an opportunity to enhance their Informer knowledge and learn about plans for the future of Informer. 

Interested in attending? Register at the conference website.  Registration is limited to 200 participants, so you will want to register soon.

For more information about our Informer report-writing tool, go to http://www.entrinsik.com - and, feel free to call AIS if you have questions.