Extended weekend classroom hours during finals week (spring 2018)

Finals week for spring semester begins Saturday, May 5 with Study Day. The last day of exams is Saturday, May 12. Official University final exam schedules are available online.

• Study days: Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6
• Finals dates: Monday, May 7 through Saturday, May 12

General purpose classroom and computer lab hours will be extended on Saturday 5/5, Sunday 5/6, and Saturday 5/12, to meet the needs of students and faculty during finals week. Weekday hours remain unchanged during finals week (see standard operating hours).

Days with Extended Hours

• Saturday, May 5 (study day): 
• All general purpose classrooms and computer labs will be open from 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. to accommodate scheduled and ad hoc student study.
  
  
• Sunday, May 6 (study day):
• All general purpose classrooms and computer labs in weekend buildings will be open from 7:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. to accommodate students for official University study days. Weekend buildings include the following:
  
• East Bank: Bruininks Hall, Folwell Hall, Keller Hall, Nicholson Hall, Rapson Hall
• West Bank: Blegen Hall, CSOM, Hanson Hall, Humphrey Center
• Saint Paul: McNeal Hall, Peters Hall, Ruttan Hall
  
  
• Saturday, May 12 (last final exam day): 
• All general purpose classrooms and computer labs will be open from 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. to accommodate scheduled final exams and student study.

After final exams week, we will return to our standard operating hours. 

NOTE: Building hours may vary from standard classroom hours. Be sure to carry your U Card with you at all times. Some buildings will require your U Card for exterior building access.

Planned system maintenance April 21 and 22, 2018

Update: As of Friday, April 20, the PeopleSoft outage will NOT take place on April 21 and will be rescheduled. Updates to Ad Astra will continue as planned.

MyU will be unavailable for use on Saturday, April 21, 2018 for a planned database upgrade. This outage also includes all other PeopleSoft applications, including CCS and the Class Schedule. Ad Astra also plans to perform cloud server maintenance this weekend that will cause intermittent unavailability for Astra Schedule. During this time, users will still be able to access Moodle, Canvas, and University mail. For more information and progress updates, please visit the OIT Service Status page.

Planned PeopleSoft Database Upgrade (12 hours)
Saturday, April 21 at 12:00 p.m. (noon) to 11:59 p.m.

Planned Astra Cloud Maintenance (24 hours)
Saturday, April 21 from 10 p.m. to Sunday, April 22 at 10 p.m.

Making changes to variable credit/grading basis

With May/summer session nearing and fall registration underway, it is imperative to make final changes to classes requiring set credits and/or changes to grade basis. After financial aid has disbursed, the grading basis and the number of credits for a class cannot be altered.

If you need to change the number of credits for a class from a variable number to a set number, email ocmsched@umn.edu. If you need to make a change to the grading basis of a course, submit it directly through ECAS.

Make final changes to fall 2018 prior to registration

CCS is open for emergent changes to the class schedule for fall 2018 (1189). Department schedulers may update class information (cancel, add, or change) directly in CCS.

As a reminder, changes to meeting time(s) or to enrollment capacities greater than the current room capacity will result in loss of room assignment. If you make these changes, notify ocmsched@umn.edu to determine if a general purpose classroom will still be available.

NOTE: Mechanical Engineering will be offline for fall 2018, so classrooms in the capacity range of 85-120 on campus will experience a significant space crunch. This pushes classes further away from their home bases and into larger classrooms than typically required. Changes to meeting patterns of classes with an enrollment capacity of 75 or larger should always inquire about room availability prior to making the change. Pillsbury Hall’s availability for fall 2018 scheduling is still tentative, and an update will be provided once it is confirmed.

Queued registration for fall 2018 begins Thursday, April 12. To ensure the greatest success for students, please make sure to finalize the following information in the class schedule prior to registration:

• Confirm session dates are set to the most reflective session. For reference, view session dates by term here.
• If choosing a set number of credits for a variable credit class, make those changes before students register by emailing ocmsched@umn.edu.
• Confirm grading basis. If changes need to be made, submit changes through ECAS.
• All date, day, and time changes should be made before students register to make sure to minimize student conflicts. 

If any of the above needs to be changed after students have registered, email ocmsched@umn.edu to determine if changes may still be made.

CCS closes on April 25 for spring 2019 (1193)

We are currently in CCS Open Initial Build for spring 2019 (1193) until April 24, 2018. On April 25, we will close CCS to make central room assignments.

By the end of the day on April 24, please make sure to:

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 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. If you are not able to get these assignments made in Astra Schedule by the end of the day on April 24, please email ocmsched@umn.edu to make the assignments for you. This will ensure your class is not unnecessarily assigned a general purpose classroom.
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 course sections in high-demand periods/days.

All room requests sent to ocmsched@umn.edu will be queued until after the batch scheduling run for fall semester has been complete. They will be reviewed in mid-May, and we will try to accommodate as many requests as we can, but we cannot guarantee specific room requests.

Calendar changes for spring 2019

Starting with spring 2019 (1193), the spring term for Rochester and Twin Cities is changing from 74 instructional days to 70. This change means that fall and spring semesters will have the same length going forward, and there is room for an additional study day for students in the spring term. This presents a slight change for how the A term (session 009) and B term (session 010) are structured.

In 2019, the B term will start the Tuesday before spring break. The benefit to this is that both A and B terms will have seven meeting times for each day of the week. It does mean that there is a gap in instructional time after the first meeting for most classes.

• Academic session dates are available on the OCM website. 
• Full academic calendars for 2018-2022 are available on the University Senate page. 
• Spring 2019 (1193) session 001, 009, and 010 for UGRD dates are below.

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Spring 1183 final exams

The spring 2018 final exam schedule for general purpose classrooms is now available for review in Astra Schedule. Please forward room locations to instructors to ensure they know the location of their final exam.

Be sure to check your department's classes for accuracy. Email the Scheduling Unit at ocmsched@umn.edu as soon as possible if you notice any of the following:

• An exam scheduled for a class that does not require a room 
• An exam missing for a class that should have had one scheduled
• An exam scheduled at a time or place you did not expect

To review your department's final exams, please follow the steps below:

Sign into Astra Schedule with your University internet ID and password in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

1. Click on the “Academics” tab located in the top navigation menu.
2. Click on the “Sections” link at the top of the page.
3. Update the filters in the left column as follows:
• Is Exam = Yes
• Term = Spring 2018
• Subject = Select the subject(s) you schedule
• Campus = Mpls/St Paul
4. Click “Search” at the bottom of the filter column.
5. To save your filter selections for future use, click on the save button next to “Search” at the bottom of the filter column on the left.
6. Export the list to Excel by using the icon located in the middle of the bottom of the page.

Common exam room assignments are available to review separately.

Want a few extra tips and tricks for getting around in Astra Academics? Check out the resources available on ASR’s system support page under Astra Schedule. Still have questions on how to review your final exams? Contact ocmsched@umn.edu.

Final exam policy resources:

• Spring 2018 final exam regulations
• Spring 2018 final exam times
• Spring 2018 common exam times
• University final examination policy