Online Parent/Guest Access to Student Records:

Putting Students in Charge

Angela LynnWestern Illinois University

2011 IACRAO Conference

Options for Accessing Student RecordsSTARS: Students access their University

records online using their WIU ID number and password.

Affidavit of Dependency: Taxpayer submits affidavit along with proof showing student was claimed as a dependent on most recent tax forms. Valid for one year.

Authorization to Release Information: Student identifies the information to be released and to whom it may be released. Student’s signature must be notarized.

Need for a Better OptionThere was a significant increase in the use

of the Student Authorization to Release Information Form.

University wanted a more user-friendly way for parents/guests to have access to authorized student records.

Major Goals• Students – To authorize access to their records.• Parents – To have access to the records in an

easy format.• University – To provide a mechanism for access

with limited intervention by officials.

Registrar’s Office coordinated with Billing and Receivables and Financial Aid to create a system that covered the primary screens of each office.

Access to the student’s records would be completely controlled by the student.

No administrative mechanism to allow offices to confirm whether or not the student had set up or activated an account.

Implemented in Summer 2007.

Development Process

Details of the SystemStudent may grant online access to records

to multiple guests (maximum of 5) by selecting Parent and Guest Account Management from the STARS menu.

Student may provide different levels of access to STARS account information for each guest.

Student identifies “name” for guest.

Details of the SystemWhen student creates a guest account, a

WIU ID Number and Password is assigned.The student is responsible for

communicating the login information to the guest.

Parent and Guest Access to STARS is the University’s preferred method for parents to access information about their students.

Problem StatementGrowing interest in tuition-and-fee stability

in an unpredictable economic environment, more colleges and universities are implementing cost guarantees (FinAid, 2007; Kim, 2004).

Concerns were expressed regarding the values and merits of a cost guarantee (Morphew, 2007).

No study has attempted to examine the impact of a cost guarantee.

Purpose of the StudyThe primary purpose of this study is to

investigate how the Cost Guarantee program impacts student enrollment, retention, and graduation in a comprehensive public university.

This study also examined how the Cost Guarantee influenced annual college attendance cost.

Purpose of the Study

Research Questions1. Did the Cost Guarantee policy make the

university competitive in attendance cost, compared to other public universities in the state?

2. Did the Cost Guarantee policy increase student enrollment?

3. Did the Cost Guarantee policy improve student outcomes, particularly retention and graduation rates?

MethodologyData Collection

◦ Secondary data set◦ Trends data for cost of attendance, new

freshmen enrollment, retention, and graduation rates of 12 Illinois public universities

◦ From IBHE Data Book and IPEDS Peer Analysis System and CSRDE reports

Data Analysis◦ Descriptive statistics

Did the Cost Guarantee policy make the university competitive in attendance cost,

compared to other public universities in the state?

Question 1.

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Table 1-2 Room & Board-Illinois Public Universities

FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 FY2007Univ. A

5700 5800 5826 5898 5856 6032 6212 6492Univ. B

4104 4500 4842 5106 5374 5750 6196 6660Univ. C

4248 4396 4758 5062 5414 5576 6054 6478Univ. D

4416 5542 5862 5990 6150 6380 6984 7488Univ. E

3872 4104 4367 4627 4886 5178 5560 6138Univ. F

4164 4598 4870 5016 6240 6544 6720 7460Univ. G

6894 6860 6758 6936 7138 7402 7678 8482Univ. H

5544 5828 6070 6360 6618 6848 7176 7706WIU 1st

4292 4506 4822 5062 5366 5768 6143 6446WIU 2nd

4292 4292 4506 4822 5062 5366 5768 6143WIU 3rd

4292 4292 4292 4506 4822 5062 5366 5768WIU 4th

4292 4292 4292 4292 4506 4822 5062 5366

FY2000 FY2001 FY2002 FY2003 FY2004 FY2005 FY2006 FY2007Univ. A 8851 9055 9300 9749 10407 12175 12838 13630Univ. B 8038 8667 9143 9754 10523 11531 12569 13729Univ. C 8458 8736 9244 10099 10944 11904 13145 14518Univ. D 8800 10125 10676 11165 11949 12997 14213 15359Univ. E 7808 8218 8621 9492 10407 11519 12391 13927Univ. F 6908 7605 8161 8725 10423 11403 11929 13398Univ. G 11542 11660 12378 13528 14096 15226 16176 18224Univ. H 10244 10822 11824 13064 13628 14792 15810 17588WIU1st 8128 8479 9104 9908 10797 11951 13042 13857WIU2nd 8128 8128 8479 9104 9908 10797 11951 13042WIU3rd 8128 8128 8128 8479 9104 9908 10797 11951WIU4th 8128 8128 8128 8128 8479 9104 9908 10797

Table 1-3 Total Tuition, Fees, Room & Board

Table 1-3 Total Tuition, Fees, Room & Board

Results and Findings: (Question 1)Results confirmed that the cost guarantee

program helped the university become more competitive in attendance cost compared to other public universities within the same state after the policy implementation.◦ FY2004 and FY2005, the university’s second,

third and fourth year students were paying the lowest tuition rates of Illinois public universities.

Did the Cost Guarantee policy increase student enrollment?

Question 2.

Additional Handouts

Table 2-1. Number of Enrollments at Illinois Public Universities: Fall 1992-Fall 2006 (in Handout)

Table 2-2. Annual Enrollment Change (%) (in Handout)

Table 2-3. Annual Enrollment Change Rank (in Handout)

There was a stronger demand for the system than expected. • In Fall 2007, there were 1,734 active guest accounts set up by 1,417 students. • By Fall 2010, there were 6,484 active guest accounts.

There are currently 8,443 active guest accounts for 6,740 students.Over 53% of our current student population has set up at least one guest account.

Lessons Learned

Offices could not verify if student had provided access to specific records and had no information on the guest. If there were problems with an account, we could not see a history of what occurred.The system was not as user-friendly as it could be, especially the add/update process.Parents thought they needed both STARS access and an authorization form signed by the student to speak with offices.

Lessons Learned

Lessons LearnedDespite the new system, there continued

to be an increase in the use of the Student Authorization to Release Information form.

Affidavit of Dependency Student Info Release Authorizations

Privacy Invoked0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

7

827

289

7

1034

293

8

1285

294

7

931

291

2008 - 2009

2009 - 2010

Fall 2010

Averages for 2008-09 and 2009-10

Determining RevisionsCoordinated with the same offices again. Decided to not create changes so significant that current users would be required to reactivate their guest accounts.Moved the “Add” function to the end of the screen selection process.Added a disclosure statement.Organized selections by functional area.Built in an audit trail.

Did the Cost Guarantee policy improve student outcomes, particularly retention

and graduation rates?

Question 3.

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Changes are in the programming queue.Goal is to implement by Summer 2012.Will notify users of changes through email,

news release, and message on STARS. Re-evaluate revisions again after the new

screen has been rolled out.

Conclusions