Campus Engagement

Leading through change: School Registrars Mike Donlan and Sarah Hellin

Our first Workday Student go-live is imminent. Mike Donlan, six-year registrar at the School of Medicine, and Sarah Hellin, six-and-a-half-year registrar at the School of Law, are actively gearing up to navigate the challenges and changes that Workday Student will introduce.

Addressing current challenges

Mike Donlan, registrar at School of Medicine
Mike Donlan, registrar at School of Medicine

As registrars, Donlan and Hellin encounter several challenges in their current roles, and they believe that Workday Student will help address many of them.

“The big issue is WashU, especially the School of Medicine, has a lot of different systems to support the work that we do. Those systems don’t always integrate seamlessly, resulting in complex day-to-day activities for things that should be straightforward, like the process to change a student’s status,” Donlan said. “Using Workday will force us to consolidate our processes, which will definitely be an improvement from how things work today.”

Hellin echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the complexities associated with managing joint degree students, such as JD/MBA and JD/MSW students. Supporting and tracking students pursuing joint degrees often involves extensive coordination between schools, especially if the student’s primary academic unit (AU) or program of study is not the School of Law.

Anticipating new challenges

As the transition to Workday approaches, both Donlan and Hellin expect hurdles in adapting to the new system. Donlan’s major concern is ensuring that staff and faculty are adequately prepared to assist students with any issues or questions. Hellin anticipates that the School of Law will face difficulties adjusting to several aspects of the new registration process in Workday Student.

“I think the new registration process, specifically the waitlist process in Workday, will be a big cultural shift for our current students. They are used to being able to enroll in classes with time conflicts and have access to the course information in Canvas while they are waitlisted for those courses,” Hellin said. “This will be a challenge that we’ll deal with for a year or so, but we’ll get through it.”

“We need to think about problems that might arise, and how we can best assist the folks that will be interacting with Workday,” said Donlan. “This will be a challenge, especially in the beginning, but with the proper preparation we’ll be able to offer students the assistance and guidance they need in navigating Workday.” 

Preparing for transition to Workday Student

Both Donlan and Hellin emphasized active engagement in their school’s standing meetings as a key way to prepare for the transition and encouraged members of their communities to take advantage of these opportunities. They also believe this preparation process provides an opportunity for introspection, reassessing existing practices and identifying changes that can lead to improvement.

Sarah Hellin, registrar at School of Law
Sarah Hellin, registrar at School of Law

“Preparing for this transition is forcing us to do some soul searching and really think through how we do things and why we do things a certain way,” said Hellin. “We need to think about what changes we can and should compromise on.”

Donlan and Hellin emphasize how important it will be for staff, faculty and students to be patient during transition. They advise everyone to remember that while Workday Student may not be flawless at the outset, it will continue to evolve and improve. 

“Be patient. It’s not going to be perfect on day one, it’s going to take a lot of time to feel comfortable,” Donlan said. “But if you’ve put in the work in preparing, you know a lot more than you think you do, and we’ll get through this transition.”

Leveraging Student Sunrise resources and readiness events

Donlan and Hellin both expressed their appreciation for the valuable resources provided by the Student Sunrise project during this transitional period. They frequently refer to the Workday Student 101 webpage for answers to their questions and encourage others in their schools and units to do the same. Additionally, they have actively participated in readiness activities such as campus data verification and campus team testing, which they found beneficial.

“All readiness events have been valuable, but the data verification process was the most valuable for me,” said Donlan. “It was an opportunity to explore Workday and familiarize myself with its functionality.”

Hellin agreed that the campus teams testing and data validation events were valuable to her and staff at the School of Law. She also commended the change impact validation sessions hosted by the Student Sunrise change managers with each school and academic unit throughout the system design phase, even though they led to some slightly uncomfortable conversations.

“The change impact sessions have been totally necessary even though there were times we were hearing about changes that would not be ideal for us,” Hellin said. “They gave us the opportunity to have open and honest discussions about the changes. We were able to find ways to collaborate on most of the changes to ensure a smooth transition.”

Handling feedback regarding Workday Student

While the overall feedback regarding Workday Student has been positive, there are individuals within their schools and units who expressed concerns about the transition.

“People are resistant to change. It’s easy to doubt and question what you don’t know. As long as we have some effective communication regarding the changes Workday Student will bring and we stay positive about the transition, we can steer a lot of the anxiety that folks are dealing with,” Hellin said.