Caucus night

Tuesday, February 25, 2020 is caucus night. Per Board of Regents resolution, the University may schedule classes or events on caucus night with the Board’s authorization, however students and/or instructors are permitted to attend their party’s caucus night if they wish. Students must notify their instructor in advance, and instructors are expected to accommodate their requests. If enough students indicate that they will be attending their caucus so that holding class becomes impractical, instructors may cancel the class or make alternative arrangements.

Additionally, the Minnesota Presidential Primary will take place on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. However, voting in a regional, state, or national election is not an unavoidable or legitimate absence. If students wish to vote in the Minnesota Presidential Primary, they must vote outside of scheduled class time.

Final exam scheduling for spring 2020 (1203)

Final exam scheduling will begin shortly.

• If a class will hold its final exam as indicated on the University final exam schedule in its regular general purpose classroom, there is no need for you to contact us. Your final exam will be scheduled centrally.


• If a class is not holding an in-person exam during finals week (Thursday, May 7 – Wednesday, May 13, 2020), please email ocmsched@umn.edu by February 14, 2020.
• Use the subject line “Spring 2020 Final Exam”
• Include the designator/section number(s) in the email text
• Due to the high demand for larger classrooms for finals week, it is especially helpful to know when a large class will not need a classroom for a final exam.


• If a class is requesting a change to the date and time of an exam, or to change or add a location to an exam, submit a Final Exam Change Request form by February 18. You will automatically receive a copy of your final exam change request; and when final exam scheduling is completed, you will receive an email confirmation of the outcome. While the Office of Classroom Management (OCM) does its best to accommodate special requests, there is a possibility that your request may not be fulfilled. Finals may not be scheduled on Spring 2020 Study Days, which are May 5,6 and 10.


• Special clarification on the Thursday-Wednesday final exam week.
• The first day of spring 2020 final exams is Thursday, May 7.
• All classes that meet on Thursdays at 4:00 p.m or later in a general purpose classroom (GPC) will be scheduled for a final exam on Thursday, May 7, 2020.
• This includes classes that meet multiple days of the week, such as Tuesday/Thursday classes, Monday/Thursday classes, and Monday-Thursday classes.

Reminders:

• If a class is on the pre-approved Common Exams list for the semester, a Final Exam Change Request form must still be submitted in order to assign appropriate classrooms.
• Event requests for classrooms during finals week are not scheduled until after the completion of official final exam scheduling. Submitting an event request through Astra Schedule for a classroom needed for a final exam does NOT increase the likelihood that the room will be available for you.

Final exam resources:

• ASR final exam information
• One Stop final exam times
• Final exam change request form
• Scheduling Examinations, Final Examinations, and Study Days policy

Make final changes to May/summer 2020 (1205) classes prior to registration starts

It is imperative to make final changes to summer 2020 classes prior to registration. For degree-seeking students, summer 2020 registration opens February 27, 2020. Changes made after registration may have a detrimental effect on students.

Submit the following changes directly through ECAS:

• Credit changes
• Grading base changes of any kind
• Drop consent required
• Career changes
• Repeat allowance updates
• Component changes
• Adding topics courses

To make the following changes, email ocmsched@umn.edu:

• Change the number of credits for which a class is offered, from a variable number to a set number within the range

Meeting pattern, requested room feature, instructor, and enrollment capacity changes should all continue to be made in CCS.

For classes that are not planned to be offered, cancellations should be made directly in CCS. If a cancellation needs to occur after students have enrolled, email ocmsched@umn.edu. ASR formally reviews class changes made post-enrollment. Many changes are not able to be accommodated after students are enrolled.

Fall 2020 (1209) scheduling is in progress

CCS Open Initial Build for fall 2020 (1209) closes February 22, 2020, so we can make central room assignments. Please make any changes by the end of the day Friday, February 21, 2020.

Prior to CCS closing, make sure to do the following:

1. Work with your faculty and instructors to obtain updated information for the term.
2. Update class information using the CCS pages in PeopleSoft:
• Cancel class sections that will not be offered this term.
• Set realistic enrollment limits and requested room capacities (+/- 10% of last year’s enrollments).
• Input instructor information and grade access in CCS.
• Adjust non-standard class meeting times to a standard time.
• Review classes outside of the Regular Session to make sure it is in the appropriate academic session (remember that classes in the extended regular session are typically not financial aid eligible).
• Indicate the required room characteristics (technology, seating styles, etc.) needed to facilitate teaching and learning by using the room characteristic codes accessible in the meeting pattern page of CCS.
• Email ocmsched@umn.edu to add facility ROOM000TBA or NOROOMREQD to all class meeting patterns that will not require any room assignment or that will meet in a small office space.
• Use Astra Schedule to assign departmental classrooms and labs directly to class sections.
3. Review the Class Scheduling Distribution Summary Report to assess department/college compliance with distribution of meeting times (no more than 3% in any standard time block) and distribution of meeting patterns (no more than 50% meeting on Tuesday/Thursday).
4. Avoid scheduling class sections in high demand periods/days.

Canceling class sections for Fall 2020

Classes that will not be offered in an upcoming semester must be canceled on the Enrollment Control tab by selecting a Class Status of “Cancelled.” A classroom will not get assigned to a canceled section, which allows the Office of Classroom Management to effectively use their general purpose classroom space.

As a reminder, unchecking the "Schedule Print" box on the Basic Data tab does not cancel a class. Unchecking the box only hides the class from the class schedule, which still allows students to enroll. Astra then assigns a classroom to the class, which will go unused. If you have any questions, please contact ocmsoftwarehelp@umn.edu.

Updated Session Dates page

The Office of Classroom Management (OCM) updated the Session Dates page on their website with a new layout and functionality. The information on the page has remained the same; but now you can select the term you want to see from a drop-down list, and the page will update with that term’s information.

As a reminder, CCS schedulers can use the page to correctly determine which session most narrowly fits a class’ meeting dates. Session selection can impact financial aid, student finance, and registration. If you have any questions or feedback, contact ocmsoftwarehelp@umn.edu.

Astra Schedule Academics

Astra Schedule Academics is available to add departmental spaces directly to your classes for the following terms:

• May/summer 2020 and Fall 2020
  For May/summer 2020 and fall 2020, room assignments made in Astra Schedule will be reflected in the Class Schedule the same day.


• Spring 2021 (will be available on March 9, 2020)
  Please note that Spring 2021 classrooms and labs assigned to classes in Astra Schedule will not be reflected in the Class Schedule until the following day. Likewise, class changes made in CCS will not be reflected in Astra Schedule until the following day.

Housekeeping tip for Astra event schedulers

Events in Astra Schedule must have an event status of “Scheduled” in order for them to appear on the Astra calendars. Events with a status of “Incomplete” (i.e., those missing Event Type, Customer, Customer Contact, or a room assignment on any meeting) will not display on the calendars, making the room appear available. Therefore, if you attempt to book that room for another event, you will find the room is actually unavailable because the “Incomplete” event is holding the room.

When creating events, schedulers should take a moment to ensure the event record status is “Scheduled,” and the event displays on the calendars. Additionally, schedulers can proactively find and resolve“Incomplete” events they may have unintentionally created by filtering for “Incomplete” events. Instructions for how to find incomplete events in Astra are available at the Astra iCoP website.

Class Schedule Summary Report will display class credits

The number of credits a class is being offered for will be added to the Class Schedule Summary Report by mid-February. This report is found in the Report Center:

1. Log into myu.umn.edu
2. Click Key Links
3. Click Reporting Center
• Find Student Services
• Click the arrow next to Course Scheduling
• Click the Class Schedule Summary Report
• Enter the information you want to see
• You can download the report to Excel by clicking the Excel icon at the top of your search results.

This report has class section information for each scheduled class, which makes it especially useful for schedulers to make decisions about what should and should not be offered for an upcoming semester because they can review it following the roll forward.

You can also easily identify the classes that are variable credits and have them adjusted to a set number of credits if needed. If you need to request a set credit amount, email ocmsched@umn.edu.