there’s an exception to that? tracy roberts murray state university

There’s An Exception to That?TRACY ROBERTSMURRAY STATE UNIVERSITY

How many times in a semester are you asked for an exception to a policy?

Rarely

Once

Are you kidding me? – Weekly!

Things to consider

When a policy exception is requested, what questions do you ask?

What questions SHOULD you ask?

Who decides if an exception is granted?

When does the exception become the rule?

HOW DO YOU TRACK EXCEPTION REQUESTS??

Discussion Topics

Problem Goal

Solution Tracking & Reports

Maintenance

Things to know

Examples used were from within the Office of the Registrar, but this presentation is applicable for other offices as well.

We found the difference between an exception request and a complaint to often be indistinguishable.

Our solution tackles both exceptions and complaints.

The Problem

• People were asking for exceptions and we had no way to track them.• Sometimes the exceptions were rare.

• Have we ever granted that exception before?• Has this student been granted an exception already?

• Which policy exceptions will NEVER be granted?• Have we notified all the right people of an exception or complaint?

What was our goal?

Consistent Decision Making

Document for

historical purposes

SACS Accreditati

on & Assessmen

t

Look for patterns

Solution

Created a Microsoft Application with an Access back-end database to store all policy exceptions and complaints from students, faculty, staff, and parents.

The application is stored on one of our servers, so it is backed up nightly and accessible from any computer with remote desktop connection.

It took approximately 1-2 weeks to build and test the initial model.

Solution

Brought online around August 2013; now have 366 entries.

Access to the application is controlled by folder rights and University Active Directory permissions. Only permanent employees in our office have access to it.

As part of the application, there is a folder to store supporting documentation.

What is tracked?

Student Info• ID• Name• Semester• Date of initial contact

Issue Type• Exception• Complaint• Hold

Initiator• Student• Faculty/Advisor• Staff• Parent/Guardian• Other

Office Unit• Degree Audit• Graduation• Records• Registration• Transcripts

Category• Hours in Residency

• Course Level Restriction

• Upper Level Hours

Special Offices Involved• Public Safety• IDEA/OEO• Provost’s Office• President’s Office

What is tracked?

Description of Issue• Summarizes issue

• Appears on certain reports

Actions Taken• Date of action• Action desc.• Employee ID• Type of

notification• Action

Final Resolution• Approved• Denied• Discussed• In Progress

Others Involved• Instructor• Advisor• Administrator• Staff

Tags/Key Words• Grade appeal• Falsification• Course repeat

Other Info• Attachments

Robust Search Feature

Almost every item in the application is searchable or filtered.

How many exceptions have been granted for that student?

Has an exception been granted for a particular request?

How many complaints were referred to Public Safety?

How many exceptions were requested and/or granted during a time range?

Reports

Policy Exception Summary Report Print for a single student,

semester, or office unit

SACSCOC Student Complaint Log Date range

Policy Exception or Complaint Detail Report Expanded screen print showing

all data entered for this one record

DEMONSTRATION

Maintenance

Adding reports or searchable fields as needed

Updating validation (lookup) tables with new data

Changes & Considerations

Action steps are locked down to a specific userid, so if that employee leaves, only the administrator can update/delete his/her records.

We have changed some fields to be mandatory to prevent incomplete records.

Getting employees in the habit of documenting exceptions or complaints at the time it happens.

How do you determine if a complaint needs to be documented?

Contact Info

Tracy RobertsUniversity RegistrarMurray State Universitytroberts@murraystate.edu270.809.3380