When you are a hired word slinger you have no control over what you are required to write. It is one thing to try to get Banner information out to the college community but it’s entirely different when you are asked to make it entertaining and even funny. I charge extra for that. (I thought I made that clear but I have yet to be paid.)
OK. Today’s hilarious topic is RDEs (Registration Demographic Entry) and it’s a real side splitter! We collect demographic information on students and the college receives funding on the information that is retrieved. Funding is good therefore we want a lot of it and therefore we need a lot of demographic information, aka RDEs. Previously this information has been collected on the back of registration form and then little elves have input the information at night after we’ve all gone home to watch hockey and forensic shows.
In Banner students will be registering through Self Service and starting this Monday there will be a mandatory survey of demographic information, titled Federal Reporting Requirement, which they MUST complete prior to accessing the Registration Menu. This mandatory survey will take about three minutes. If students try to enter the Registration Menu without first filling out the survey, a screen will appear with a link to the survey on it.
Now you may wonder how this affects you. If you advise and register students through Banner Self Service you may do so in two different ways, each of which has it advantages and disadvantages.
Way #1 Logging onto Self Service through your faculty or advisor account.
If you register a student through your account you will bypass the RDE survey (and save three minutes). BUT if you print the student’s schedule for them it will have your ID on it, your “M” number. When you register students through your account you should NOT print off their schedule. Tell them they will need to access their own account to get a hardcopy. Students will have to fill out the RDE survey when they log onto their own accounts so this information will not be missed, just postponed.
Way #2 Logging into Self Service through the student’s account.
If the student is registering through her own account you will need to wait while she completes the three minute RDE survey. The student can have a print out of their schedule as soon as they register.
If you are like me, and that is a scary thought, you have a whole list of things that you can do in three minutes while the student is completing the RDE survey….drink a 12 oz can of diet coke, eat a package of peanut butter M&Ms, move somebody’s fall class out of a smart classroom just to see if they will notice, check the American Idol chat room, order some wild parrot socks from the Animal Rescue site, send your child an “are you still alive?” email, or just stare at the wall and pretend you are having deep thoughts. Bingo! Student has completed the survey and is ready to register.
Deborah Benjamin
Registration and Records
04/14/2006 |