There are some things in life that are just better to do right the first time rather than have to go back and try to fix them later. A few things come to mind: filing an honest tax form rather than working through an audit later on; teaching your toddlers that bodily function noises are NOT funny rather than trying to deal with it when they are in middle school; brushing your teeth regularly rather than living with dentures; moderating your caloric intake before your scale registers at ‘what happened?!’. The list goes on and on.
Let’s segue this into inputting the last date of attendance (LDA) into Banner whenever you give a student a “W” or an “F” grade. The last date of attendance is very important to the financial aid people and to the college auditors. In SIS we weren’t able to easily capture this data but in Banner we can. It is important that when you enter a “W” or an “F” grade you also include the student’s last date of attendance. The field for LDA is right on your class list where you input attendance information and grades. Just go across the line after the grade column and there it is. Easy!
What is NOT easy (see paragraph 1) is when you fail to input the LDA when you give the student a “W” or an “F”. Once the grades are rolled, the student’s information is frozen. You cannot go back out to your class list and input the LDA. Now is when the hassle starts for both you and for us.
We have to run a report that lists all the students who are missing a last date of attendance. Then we have to distribute the appropriate student’s names to the appropriate people. Then you have to email us with a list of the LDAs for all the students on the list we sent you. Then we have to manually input the LDA on each individual student’s record through Internet Native Banner. It closely resembles a tax audit.
The last day to give a student a “W” for the spring semester is April 27. That means the next month there will be numerous “W” grades input through Banner Self Service. Please remember to also input the last date of attendance for every “W” grade. There are some things in life that are just better to do right the first time rather than have to go back and try to fix them later.
Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
03/19/2007 |