The Student Sunrise project recently closed out the two-year design and configuration stage of its Workday Student implementation and is now focused on testing WashU’s new student information system. During the two years we were configuring the new system, we made many decisions large and small.
The most complex and far-reaching decisions went through the project’s governance process. The Sunrise steering committee, which includes representatives from all schools and major units that serve students, served – and continues to serve – as the main decision-making body for the implementation. If needed, decisions were elevated to the executive committee, which also includes executive-level leadership, including our project sponsor, Provost Beverly Wendland.
While making these decisions, we kept in mind the principles that have guided our work, including creating an improved experience for students, faculty and academic staff; while looking for ways to adopt common practices, automate work to reduce administrative workloads, and increase transparency.
Here are some of the top decisions. View all decisions in this report or find additional details on the top decisions through the links below. If you have questions about any of the decisions, please reach out to your steering committee member, your school or unit’s change manager, or send us a question.
Academic programs and courses
- WashU will adopt consistent definitions for types of programs of study.
- WashU’s “multi-defined” programs will be dual programs involving two separate programs of study that share some common curricular elements and may allow a specified amount of double counting.
- We will adopt a universal, four-digit approach to course numbering and institute a process for how course numbers are created, to ensure data integrity and a coherent record of the curriculum.
- We will no longer need to cross-list courses.
- WashU will develop a public course listings website to ensure prospective students are able to see comprehensive academic offerings before gaining access to Workday. This website, which will be part of a new website for the Office of the University Registrar, will replace the current website, courses.wustl.edu.
Registration and advising
- Workday Student will be WashU’s official advising platform, replacing the advising systems used today.
- We will implement a schedule finalization period during the fall and spring terms of the academic year. The schedule finalization period will be one week in length and will occur after the initial registration period closes and before the open registration period begins.
- We will configure registration waitlists with a 72-hour expiration. This means that students will have 72 hours to determine if they want to take the course for which they are waitlisted.
- See Financials below for decisions on registration holds for past due balances.
Learn more about registration in Workday »
Learn more about advising in Workday »
Academics and grading
- Academic standing will be configured and calculated for students within Workday and will be displayed in the Academic History section of their profile.
- Schools will no longer exclude courses from counting toward GPA and/or earned units.
- Undergraduate course retake policies will be aligned in Workday Student.
- Grading elements will be aligned, including the elimination or discontinuation of multiple grade elements.
- For schools following our semester calendar, there will be one deadline to edit the grading basis.
- All students enrolling in credit-bearing classes or in a program that grants a credential will be admitted through one of WashU’s central admissions systems: Slate, Admission Pros, or AMP.
Financials
- We will discontinue transcript holds for past due balances, but past due balance holds will continue to prevent a student from registering.
- WashU will adopt a university-wide policy on when a past due balance registration hold can be overridden to allow a student to register.
- We will add a Financial Responsibility Agreement (FRA) to the student onboarding process in Workday.
- Students will be able to add contact information for emergency contacts, parents/family and others through Workday Student’s Friends and Family functionality. Students may also designate these individuals to have access to certain information like tuition charges.
- We will offer student payment plans through Workday Student and administer those student payment plans within Workday. We will temporarily use CASHNet for Friends and Family payment plans.
Learn more about Student Financials & Financial Aid in Workday »