Monday, July 22, 2002

New Banner Finance GroupWise List
Everyone who was set up in Banner for finance has been set up in a Banner Finance GroupWise list to help expedite communications.

Data Access Requests
Who has access to what data was and who grants the access was discussed.  Data custodians determine the kind of access users can have.  Historically, the data access policy at LCC has been informal.  The Data Standards group is looking at what other institutions are doing and attempting to formalize data standards college wide.  Data access will be discussed further in the Data Standards meeting at 4 p.m. today.

Extended Learning Update
The LASR Reports Task Team Draft was distributed.  The purpose of the team is to recommend a report writing tool that will meet the unique reporting needs of both internal and external reports and to develop a standard reporting strategy for the entire college.  Team members, Laura Loftus and Jennifer Knight will meet with areas of the college to determine what standard reports departments need and the kind of data that is needed and report back to the larger group.  Stephen Pruch will attend future Task Team meetings.   The next meeting is scheduled Wednesday, July 24, at 4:00 p.m., in the Boardroom.  The draft will be reworked for the next LIMT meeting.  The Reports Team will make a recommendation to LIMT. 

Finance Update
Staff were trained how to view information on eXpressLane and how to download the information into an Excel spreadsheet.   Approximately 125 staff completed Accounting Overview, Budgets and Expenditures and Native Banner Navigation.  About 100 staff have taken Purchasing 1 and 2.  Accounts Payable checks were printed using Evisions and mailed out and work is being done on approval queues for journal vouchers.  The Finance Team will identify a list of people for staff to call if they need assistance with Banner.  The list will be distributed to staff via e-mail and placed in the Daily and on the LASR Web page.  Finance will meet with Peer to Peer next month to answer questions.

Human Resources Update
The Human Resources team is using their two-hour office closure to become familiar with the Data Standards Document.  Linda Simmons met with the Board about the lag-payroll process.  The Board indicated its support of the process.  Human Resources will prepare To Whom It May Concern letters, as requested by employees, to be used for notifying creditors of the payroll change.

Student Update
Helen Garrett expressed her gratitude that Eileen Welch joined the Student Core Team.  A meeting is scheduled with Instructional and Student Services Managers July 23 to discuss course numbering.  Training this week will focus on how to enter the college catalog into Banner.  A meeting has been scheduled with Cheryl Roberts to discuss concerns about integrating credit and non-credit course listings in the catalog.  It is imperative that the executive level of the college is aware of this issue and will support LIMT as they work through this issue.

Financial Aid Update
Sub-teams meet twice a week to look at student tracking and ways to eliminate forms, streamline processes and to define a strategy to simplify the current student budget process.  The team made a decision to use electronic promissory notes for the direct loan program.  Students will be referred to the Department of Education Web site to apply for a loan and for pre-loan advising.

Other
The interface is locking up when staff use native Banner to process purchase orders.  Users need to pay attention to the Banner messages in the lower left corner of the screen.  Often, a message will identify an error in one of the steps taken by the user.  If staff encounter the malfunction this week, they should call the LASR Project Office.  Peer to Peer will be notified of the malfunction.

LIMT met with Manager’s Forum last Friday to talk about the Finance area, Series 25 and the course numbering plan.  A suggestion was made to involve large departments that use general purpose classrooms in the Series 25 planning discussions.

The Banner responsibility list for Computer Services assignments has been refined.   Computer Services has also begun discussing a policy regarding modifying or extending software.

The Computer Services Help Desk has received requests for Banner help that they do not know how to handle.   The Help Desk is working on identifying a list of appropriate referrals for different types of calls.  The project is also planning additional training for Help Desk staff.