Kathy Steiner-Lang and Stephanie Brelsford are enthusiastic about the changes to advising and curriculum management coming with our transition to Workday Student and how these changes will impact students, faculty and staff.
As a previous four-year advisor in Arts & Sciences with additional experience in the Office for International Students and Scholars, Kathy Steiner-Lang, Student Sunrise advising functional lead, is particularly interested in what systems, data and structures create the best advising environment for students and those who support them.
“There are new tools within Workday that will greatly improve the way students and advisors collaborate,” said Kathy. “These tools will help students explore academic offerings, plan coursework for upcoming semesters, and ensure they are on track to complete their programs.”
Students can use academic plans in Workday to map out how they intend to complete their academic requirements over their time at WashU. Advisors can see students’ academic plans and track their progress toward program completion through the Academic Progress Report in Workday.
From a student support lens, shared notes that are visible to all advisors who support a student (academic advisor, faculty advisor, career advisor, TRIO advisor, etc.) will provide advisors with a more complete picture of a student and their needs. Along with clear advisor roles and more accessible reporting in Workday, shared notes can help identify students who may need more support inside and outside the classroom.
Like Kathy, Stephanie Brelsford, Student Sunrise curriculum functional lead, has spent much of her career supporting students and staff at WashU with over 16 years of experience in the School of Medicine’s Registrar’s Office. She looks forward to the way Workday will reduce the need for some manual processes and improve the student experience.
“Many of us have worked for a very long time in multiple student systems, which duplicate much of the same information, and have worked hard to ensure that data aligns across systems,” Stephanie said. “I’ve been excited to see how many of our processes will now require less manual work, which in turn will provide a better experience for all of us at WashU.”
A big win for Stephanie is that Workday will automatically enforce pre- and co-requisites at the time of registration. This will help students more easily understand what courses they are eligible for before registering and will eliminate the need for administrators to manually enforce requisites after registration. Additionally, all of WashU’s courses have been renumbered, which will provide a more organized structure that is simpler for students and others to understand.
“Everyone we’ve worked with to design Workday’s curriculum functionality, while maybe a little apprehensive about some things, has been willing to change for the improvement of our entire community,” Stephanie said. “And while we all may have done things slightly differently in the past, the one constant I’ve seen across all the schools is that the absolute number one priority for all of us is our students.”