Note: This proposal is subject to change due to the forthcoming Oracle PeopleSoft system upgrade from version 8.0 to 8.9.
Since 1996, Cornell students have been able to pre-enroll for classes through an on-line application called “CoursEnroll.” Since that time, faculty advisors have been able to control the pre-enrollment submissions of students by providing them with an advisor code (also referred to as a PIN), which represents the advisor’s sign-off on the selected pre-enrollments. This advisor code must be entered to validate a student’s preenrollment requests.
Over the years, the “advisor code distribution” system has proven to be tedious to administer. Before each pre-enrollment period, unique advisor codes have had to be created for each student, and then distributed to the proper college, department, and advisor. Eventually, the code also has had to be distributed to the individual student. More recently, CoursEnroll was updated to provide students with the opportunity to add, drop, and modify classes on-line. At that time, it was determined that advisors still needed a mechanism for controlling students’ access to making enrollment changes to ensure that each advisor met with his or her advisees. CoursEnroll was also updated to include an “enrollment permission flag.” This flag, which is set based on requirements specific to the college, is accessible via Faculty Advisor in Bear Access. The setting of this flag determines whether or not a student is able to make any changes to their classes. Advisors are able to change this flag setting at any time during pre-enrollment and the add/drop period.
The PS SAS (PeopleSoft Student Administration System), as delivered, emulates the current “enrollment permission flag” functionality. Advisors will have access to prevent or grant enrollment eligibility to each of their advisees.
In PS, we will no longer be constrained to operating on one semester at a time as our current information system has been designed to do. The new system will allow advisors to make decisions on multiple semesters and to set their advisees’ eligibility accordingly. The use of advisor codes will become more difficult to administer in the new system because multiple semesters will be available for enrollment (through either preenrollment or add/drop). In order to support multiple semesters, advisor codes for all students would have to be created for all possible semesters and then to be conveyed to the advisors in a meaningful way so that each individual advisor code was identifiable to the proper semester and student.
In order to make advising both manageable and enforceable, we propose to eliminate the older “advisor code distribution” system and to implement an “eligible to enroll flag” system, which is similar to the “enrollment permission flag” system currently used during add/drop. This feature would continue to be available to advisors through Faculty Advisor and administrative access. The permission flag can be defined for students based upon their program.
In order for any student to enroll in a class they must first be term activated. There is a batch process delivered that will be used to activate students. The process will create student terms prior to any pre-enrollment period. Students can be activated by career, and within career, they can be activated by Program and Plan. During this process the Eligible to Enroll flag is populated.
Once the Term Activation process sets the Eligible to Enroll flag, there are two ways to change the field. Authorized staff in the college registrar offices will have access to the administrative system. They will have the ability to change the setting on a student-by-student basis.
The other option is available for those with self-service advising access. Advisors will have the ability to change the setting for their advisees on a student-by-student basis and, in addition, they will have the capability to set all the flags to “on” or “off” for all their advisees.
The ability to change all the flags for all advisees’ students via self-service is a customization to the delivered advisor application. However, it was felt that this would be the best way for advisers to manage their students with the least amount of work regardless of how their college sets the Eligible to Enroll flag.