record - National Student Clearinghouse

RECORD
T HE C LEARINGHOUSE
SPRING 2006
www.studentclearinghouse.org
Inside:
Simplifying Transfer
Monitoring
Preparing for Enrollment
Audits
Clearinghouse Advisory
Committee Update
Utah to Track High School
& College Students
New Database Standard
for Education
New Regional
Director Named
Write for
The Record
If you or a colleague is
interested in submitting
an article for publication
in The Record, contact
Kathleen Dugan at
703-742-4208.
703.742.4200
New Orleans Colleges Use
Clearinghouse Services to Aid
Hurricane Katrina Recovery
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane
Katrina struck New Orleans and the
Gulf States region. Katrina's 125 mph
winds caused a major storm surge
that breached two New Orleans
levees, flooding 80% of the city. By the
time Katrina passed through the Gulf
States early Tuesday morning, it had
become one of the most expensive
and deadliest hurricanes in history.
“We needed to verify
degrees. We needed to
provide transcripts.”
Among others coping with Katrina's
unprecedented destruction were
the registrar staffs at Louisiana State
University-Health Sciences Center
(LSUHSC) and the University of New
Orleans (UNO).When the colleges closed on the
Friday before Katrina hit, there was minor concern
that a storm headed for the Florida Keys could
cause heavy winds and rain in the city. Before the
weekend was over, the storm had become a category 4 hurricane and a citywide, mandatory evacuation was ordered.The schools had only one day to
prepare for a major hurricane.
Extensive Hurricane Damage at LSUHSC
On Saturday, LSUHSC staff secured its paper
and microfiche records and computer equipment. Two hundred
emergency personnel remained
behind to ride
out the hurricane
at the campus;
they were evacu
evacuated days later by
helicopter. The
building where
LSUHSC's first floor
registrar's office was
located was flooded.
Post-Katrina views outside
the University of New Orleans
Three to four feet of water remained in the
building for two weeks causing massive water
and mold damage. More distressing, every member of the registrar staff lost their homes.
One month after Katrina, administration staff
reentered the building and assessed the damage.
“Every piece of furniture, every wall, every surface had mold growing on it,” said Bryant Faust,
LSUHSC's acting registrar. The school contracted
with a document recovery firm to salvage its
paper and microfiche records.“The documents
were freeze-dried, sanitized, cleaned and irradiated. Even documents that weren't under water
got contaminated and had to be restored,” he
continued. Older paper records located offsite
were lost when the warehouse where they were
stored was destroyed. "They were nothing but
mush once we got to them," he added.
Within days of the hurricane, the school opened a
command post in the LSU systems office in Baton
Rouge. Bryant returned to work one week after
the hurricane, the only student services staff person able to make it to Baton Rouge immediately.
continued on page 2
Services You Need. People You Trust.
continued from cover
For several weeks, until other personnel were able to join him,
he handled all student services calls by himself. Other student
services staff worked remotely via email. On October 14, the
school's temporary administration offices opened (two doublewide trailers on top of a parking garage at nearby Pennington
Biomedical Research Center), allowing the registrar office to
offer in-person service for the first time since Katrina.
New Levels of Stress for UNO Staff
Incredibly, minutes away, UNO’s registrar office was undamaged. Its southwest location and high windows helped shelter
it from Katrina’s winds. Two and a half weeks after the storm,
registrar Kathy Plante and associate registrar Janet Davis were
allowed to enter the building. “It was just like we had left it.
Not a piece of paper was disturbed,” observed Janet.
The pair's four-hour journey took them through armed
National Guard checkpoints and across a 10-foot high narrow
gravel road, built by the Army Corps of Engineers, which overlooked the rooftops of flooded homes. The trip was, recalled
Janet, “harrowing.” Once inside, they had just 30 minutes to
gather the materials on their “shopping list,” including transcript paper, the university seal and letterhead.
“...using Clearinghouse services was
the only way we had to do some things.”
From mid-September until October 10, when the registrar's office
reopened on a UNO satellite campus, the staff worked remotely. Said
Janet, who processed transcripts 10 hours a day from her home,
“People worked virtually wherever they were.”At the same time, everyone struggled with the pressures caused by the hurricane’s aftermath.
"There was a lot of stress on staff that they never had before," Janet
noted. Because some staff member's homes were lost or damaged,
they were living elsewhere. "They had to deal with insurance companies and FEMA … get the city to inspect their houses so the power
could get turned back on," she continued, "in addition, everybody's
doing three jobs ... and everybody's commuting problems have escalated. Add all that up and the stress has been the biggest problem."
Transcript Requests Skyrocket
Both UNO and LSUHSC turned to the Clearinghouse to help provide
essential services to their students and alumni after the hurricane. "I
didn't think for a second about not using our Clearinghouse relationship to help us get our office back and running," said Janet. UNO's
participation in the Clearinghouse's online Transcript Ordering,
DegreeVerify and EnrollmentVerify services "... helped us get our office
back together, even if it was operating 500 miles apart," she added.
The demand for records-based services skyrocketed after the hurricane. Students and alumni were desperate to obtain transcripts
and/or verify their attendance and degrees in order to enroll in
other colleges or apply for jobs. UNO's transcript request volume
increased 23-fold from September 2005 through January 2006
versus the same period the previous year. Ironically, the number
of transcript requests it received (nearly 8,300) exceeded the total
enrollment (5,700) of its abbreviated fall term. "It seemed like we
were drowning in transcript requests," recalled Janet.
Until the staff moved back onto the UNO campus on January 27,
Transcript Ordering was the only way it had to accept transcript
requests. During the early recovery stages, the office was closed
and phones and faxes didn't work. Mail service in Katrina-impactPage 2
UNO's Registrar's Office (top
right) and Chancellor's Office
(above) during reconstruction.
Part-time UNO staffer,
Al Thibodeaux (right), at work.
ed areas was unreliable
or non-existent. At the
temporary location,
students couldn't order
transcripts in person
because the staff couldn't take
money or credit cards. “We have a credit card machine, but
none of us are trained to use it because the transcript clerk is not
here anymore” noted Janet.
"...we were drowning in transcript requests"
At LSUHSC, the situation was just as dire.“We were inundated with
requests. Phone calls and faxes requesting records came in to anybody who had a phone number,” according to Bryant, "Knowing that
it was going to be several weeks before I would have any staff to
actually start processing transcript orders, I needed a place to start
queuing the requests, verifying that they were valid, and taking care
of the authorization to release the records."
One of the reasons that demand was so great at LSUHSC is that it
trains 70% of all healthcare professionals in Louisiana. “Everyone
who was applying for a new job or moving out-of-state and trying to get recertified in their new state needed records. No matter
when they graduated," said Bryant, “We needed to verify degrees.
We needed to provide transcripts.”
On September 14, Bryant called the Clearinghouse,“I said we're
swamped here, what services do you have to help me out of this
mess?”The Clearinghouse brought the school's Transcript Ordering
service up the same day. Prior to Katrina, LSUHSC had signed up for
Transcript Ordering but not yet completed implementation. Suddenly,
observed Bryant,“A nice-to-have service became a must-have service.”
Degree Verification Demand Increases
LSUHSC also signed up for DegreeVerify, which went live later
continued on page 3
www.studentclearinghouse.org
Simplify Transfer
Monitoring With
StudentTracker
Student
Preparing for
Enrollment Audits
More and more financial aid directors are relying on the
Clearinghouse’s educational research service, StudentTracker, to
streamline their transfer monitoring.That’s because StudentTracker
offers a quick and reliable way to identify mid-year transfer
students and maintain compliance with federal regulations.
What are the regulatory reporting requirements for
enrollment audits?
a. You must complete and return Student Status Confirmation
Reports (SSCRs) within 30 days of receipt (§ 682.610(c)(1)). Once
you designate the Clearinghouse as your servicer with ED, we will
do this for you and report your enrollment information according
to your Clearinghouse transmission schedule.
StudentTracker enables you to submit a file of incoming financial aid applicants for a specific award year. The Clearinghouse
searches its nationwide enrollment database for students in
your file who have attended any other school during the award
year you named (e.g., July 1, 2005 to June 30, 2006). Our database contains updated student records from more than 2,800
institutions representing over 91% of US college enrollment.
b.You must report students who are no longer enrolled at least half-time
directly to loan holders within 30 days, unless your school plans to submit its next SSCR within 60 days (§ 682.610(c)(2)).The Clearinghouse
reports enrollment information automatically to our participating loan
holders for you after you report your enrollment data to us.
Your school is provided with a response file containing all the
student records in our database that matched the data you
submitted. Using this information, you can easily determine the
prior college attendance of mid-year transfer students who have
applied for financial aid and report them to NSLDS. This provides NSLDS with the list of students you need it to monitor,
fulfilling the requirements for the “INFORM” phase of their
Transfer Monitoring Process.
StudentTracker is a particularly valuable transfer monitoring
tool if your school holds open enrollment or your admissions
office does not have complete information on your transfer-in
student population. StudentTracker can also help you overcome
issues like spotty data quality or poor self-reporting by students.
To subscribe to StudentTracker or learn more, contact us at
703-742-4200 or studenttracker@studentclearinghouse.org.
What about students who don't return after summer break?
If a student notifies you that he or she will not return, you should
report the student’s last date of at least half-time attendance (probably the end date of the previous term) to the Clearinghouse as
soon as possible. If the student does not ‘show’ for the fall term,
we’ll determine his or her last date of attendance based on the last
data you reported for the student. You should provide us with your
first-of-term report within three weeks after the term has started
in order to comply with § 682.605(a).
Is compliance for retroactive status changes determined by
the status change effective date or the certification date?
When a status change is discovered after it has occurred, compliance is determined based on the date you identify the status
change, aka “date of determination” (§ 682.605 and § 668.22).
If you have questions regarding enrollment audits, contact us at
703-742-4200 or service@studentclearinghouse.org.
Free Clearinghouse 101 Workshops are held regularly throughout
the country.Watch for your invitation when we come to your area.
continued from page 2
that fall. "Being able to refer people to DegreeVerify and not
have them call us has been great," said Bryant. He also noted that
many requestors prefer to obtain verifications online. According
to Bryant, “Requestors often hang up as soon as hear that
DegreeVerify is an option. They don't want to tell us anything if
they can go through the Clearinghouse.”
Unlike LSUHSC, UNO was already a DegreeVerify participant. “That
was a really good thing,” said Janet, “because using Clearinghouse
services was the only way we had to do some things.” In addition
to legitimate degree verification requests, the number of fraudulent ones UNO received also rose. In the five month period after
Katrina, the number of verifications for which no student record
was found increased 350% compared to the same time last year.
“They thought ‘the school is under water so they can't verify
that I didn't go to school there and get this degree’,” said Janet.
Fortunately, as a DegreeVerify participant, it was easy for UNO to
handle bogus requests. “I take great pleasure in clicking the no
records found link,” she added.
Page 3
Life After Katrina
Like other hurricane survivors, the staffs at both LSUHSC and
UNO are adjusting to the changes in their lives after Katrina. Said
Janet, “Normal is something that changes every day here.” Damage
estimates of $100 to $150 million at each school have resulted in
major budget and staffing cuts. UNO’s “already understaffed” office
dropped from 14 to eight staff members; LSUHSC’s registrar staff
was reduced from seven to four. “With reduced staff, we'll have to
rely more on online services and let students handle more of the
data entry for us," said Bryant. LSUHSC is already working with the
Clearinghouse to implement its free Student Self-Service program.
Recently, Janet shared her lessons learned during a presentation
on disaster recovery at the SACRAO conference. A copy of her
presentation is available at www.studentclearinghouse. org/
articles/DisasterPlanning.pdf. To learn how you can integrate
Clearinghouse services into your disaster recovery plans, contact
your regional director or 703-742-4200.
www.studentclearinghouse.org
Clearinghouse Advisory
Committee Update
The Clearinghouse is pleased to welcome our
newest Clearinghouse Advisory Committee
member, Dr. Vincent (Van) Novack.
Van was recently appointed the assistant
vice president of Institutional Research
and Analysis at California State University,
Long Beach (CSULB). He began his career at
Dr. Vincent Novack
CSULB six years ago as a research analyst and
later served as its director of Institutional Research. He also lectures on research methods at the university’s Graduate Center
for Public Policy and Administration. Prior to joining CSULB,
Van was a research specialist at the University of La Verne and
a research associate at Claremont Graduate University, where
he previously served as manager of Student Accounts.
Van is an active member of the Association for the Study of Higher
Education (ASHE), the Association of Institutional Research (AIR),
the California Association of Institutional Research (CAIR), and the
National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA).
Van has a PhD and an MA in Higher Education Administration
from Claremont Graduate University and a BA in Organizational
Studies from Pitzer College.
Have You
Seen This Ad?
Ruth McGehee did and now she works at the Clearinghouse —
and you can too! We regularly have positions available for those
with college administration experience. The Clearinghouse
offers competitive compensation and an excellent benefits package. If you are moving to the metropolitan Washington area and
are interested in a position with the Clearinghouse, send an
email to jobs@studentclearinghouse.org.
The Clearinghouse Advisory Committee
Current Members
Vincent A. (Van) Novack,*
Past Members
Angela Anderson,
AVP, Institutional Research & Analysis,
California State Univ. – Long Beach
Richard Backes, Sr.,
Asst. Vice Chancellor & Registrar,
East Carolina University
Calvin D. Coleman,
Associate Registrar,
North Carolina Central University
Anita Cotter,
Associate Registrar,
University of California Los Angeles
William R. Haid,
Executive Director Enrollment
Services, Colorado State University
Kathleen M. Jones,
AVP for Enrollment & Registrar,
Iowa State University
James F. Murphy,
AVP Enrollment,
CUNY Bernard M. Baruch College
Anders M. Nilsen,
Director of Financial Aid,
Manatee Community College
Ron Pennington,
Director of Institutional Research,
St. Charles Co. Community College
Patrick Perry,
Dean of Information Systems,
CA Community College System
Brenda Selman,
Registrar,
University of Missouri-Columbia
Howard Shanken,
Registrar,
Grand Rapids Community College
J. James Wager,
Asst. Vice Provost & Registrar,
Pennsylvania State University
W. W. “Tim” Washburn,
AVP of Enrollment Services,
University of Washington
Washington State University
Associate Registrar,
Washington State University
Carolyn Parham, Registrar,
Joseph R. DeCristoforo,
Gail Stephens,
AVP & University Registrar,
University of Texas-San Antonio
Senior Associate Registrar,
Univ. of South Carolina-Columbia
Robert Dunning,
Jeff Tanner, former Assoc.
former Registrar,
Sam Houston State University
Dean of Admissions & Records,
Brigham Young University
Suzanne Dmytrenko,
Jan Williamson, Registrar,
Registrar,
San Francisco State University
Indiana University Southeast
Peter S. Fong,
Univ. of North Carolina-Charlotte
University of South Alabama
Richard L. Yount, Registrar,
Dean Admissions & Records,
Fullerton College
Kathryn Forbes,
Associate Registrar,
University of New Hampshire
Gary Gibson, Registrar,
Vanderbilt University
David S. Yeh (Chairman),
AVP & University Registrar,
Cornell University
Page 4
David Guzman, Registrar,
* New member
www.studentclearinghouse.org
Utah to Track Its High School & College Students
The state of Utah has contracted with the Clearinghouse to
use StudentTracker to track its
high school and college students through college graduation. The state’s guaranty agency, the Utah Higher Education
Assistance Authority (UHEAA),
is sponsoring StudentTracker and providing it free of charge to all
high schools and colleges, public and private, located in Utah.
Through StudentTracker, schools can match their student records
against the Clearinghouse’s nationwide database of 75 million
records on current and former students. The data is updated regularly by more than 2,800 participating institutions that enroll over
91% of all US college students.
StudentTracker "…provides a window into
what's really going on in our colleges…"
Utah’s education leaders are looking to StudentTracker to help
remove the “guesswork” from their analyses by enabling them
to follow individual high school students through their college
careers, including graduation. Educators will be able to discover
which students have enrolled in college and where, including
in-state and out-of-state institutions.
cess,” said Dave Feitz, deputy executive director for Policy and
Development at UHEAA, “It provides a window into what’s really
going on in our colleges: who graduated and who didn’t, who
transferred, who dropped out and more.”
UHEAA launched its StudentTracker program with a presentation to high schools and college administrators in early February.
Among the ways it expects the schools to use their StudentTracker
data results are to:
• Track the success of students taking advanced
placement courses
• Assess and improve outreach efforts to minority students
• Evaluate the ability of standardized test scores to predict
college success
• Find out where transfer-out students and accepted, but
unenrolled applicants went
• Learn how long it takes students to get a college degree
and find out the bottlenecks to completing a degree
“Uncovering the true enrollment and graduation patterns in our
institutions allows us to act on the information to better prepare
Utah’s students for higher education and, ultimately, their careers
after college,” added Feitz.
To learn more about StudentTracker, contact 703-742-4200 or
studenttracker@studentclearinghouse.org.
“Access to the Clearinghouse database allows us to objectively
assess our ability to prepare Utah’s students for college suc-
Clearinghouse Leads Design of New XML-Based
Standard to Help Schools Exchange Data
The Clearinghouse is spearheading the development of a new
standard for exchanging data electronically, which will enable
schools to more easily transmit and receive transcript requests.
The new standard, the Transcript Request and Response, is now in
the final stages of development. It utilizes the widely-used XML
protocol to provide a common format for sending a transcript
request and providing a response to indicate the request status.
The XML schemas and required documentation are being finalized
for submission to the Postsecondary Electronic Standards Council
(PESC) Change Control Board for its review.
A member of PESC since 2004, the Clearinghouse has worked
closely with the council and its XML Forum for Education to
define requirements for the new XML standard and refine its
design, which is based on PESC standards. Upon acceptance by
the Change Control Board, the new standard will be released for
public comment, followed by a PESC membership vote for ratification, expected later this year.
According to Doug Falk, chief information officer for the
Clearinghouse, who serves on the PESC board of directors, “The
advantage to institutions of using an XML-based standard is the
Page 5
ability to use the Web to seamlessly and instantly exchange
information for the benefit of
their students. Global adoption
of the new standard throughout the educational community
will ensure interoperability and
foster collaboration.”
PESC is a non-profit association
comprised of representatives
from colleges and universities,
commercial organizations, technology providers, and government agencies. Its mission is to
help establish and advance the
use of data exchange standards
in education to enable institutions and other entities that
share electronic student information to conduct business
more efficiently.
What Is
XML?
XML stands for eXtensible
Markup Language. It is a
universal programming language for describing data that
enables different computer
systems to “talk” to one another and share information via
the Internet. XML improves
the functionality of the Web
by allowing organizations to
identify their information in
a more accurate, flexible, and
adaptable way.
XML
www.studentclearinghouse.org
G. Frost Johnson Joins Clearinghouse
As Regional Director
The Clearinghouse named G. Frost Johnson as
regional director in December for colleges, universities and high schools located in California
and Oregon. "I'm very proud to be joining the
Clearinghouse team. This is a wonderful opportunity to share my years of experience as a
technician, project leader, manager, and administrator with my peers.”
"Frost has worked successfully both within the college environment and, as a consultant to higher education, the private sector,"
said Jeff Tanner, vice president of Higher Education Development
at the Clearinghouse, "I think that combination of experience will
prove quite valuable to the high schools and collegiate institutions he will work with in California and Oregon.”
G. Frost Johnson
Frost has more than 25 years of experience in college registration
and enrollment management. Prior to joining the Clearinghouse,
he was director of Enrollment Services at Portland Community
College. There, he was responsible for overseeing the school's
admissions, records and other enrollment-related programs.
Previous to that, he held a number of administrative positions, including associate registrar, during his long tenure at the
University of New Mexico. Frost was also a student systems consultant for several years at SungardSCT, the leading provider of
information technology for higher education.
See You at
AACRAO 2006!
Frost recently completed a term as the vice president and president of
the Pacific Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers
(PACRAO) and has served as its vice president for Publications and
Information Technology. He has also been an active, long-time member of
the Oregon Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers
(OrACRAO) and is a past member of the Rocky Mountain Association of
Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (RMACRAO). In addition,
Frost has served as the committee chair on Community College Issues for
the Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO).
Frost can be reached at johnson@studentclearinghouse.org
or 503-892-8760.
If you’re going to AACRAO’s annual meeting in San Diego
on April 17-20, make sure you stop by the Clearinghouse
booth #309 to learn about our wide range of FREE services
for colleges. Plus, register to win an iPod with video playback!
Record
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