BLOG: Don’t Wait in Line, Go Online
In the “Three things I wish every USU student knew” series of weekly blog posts, members of the USU community share their wisdom and vent their frustration. This week’s post was submitted by Roland Squire, associate registrar at Utah State University.
The Registrar’s Office provides many services to students including registration, transcripts, receiving fee payments and processing graduation applications. NOTE: Admissions handles
residency questions.
3 Things we wish every USU student knew:
1. We wish every USU student knew that most of the services provided by the Registrar’s Office can be done conveniently online. Let us serve you online instead of in line.
<Picture of online (in an easy chair by the refrigerator)
and a picture of in line.>
2. We wish that every USU student knew that we love our USU students and so suggest that you take
advantage of our online services but then also drop by our office and visit our friendly, entertaining and
exciting staff during slower times.
<Picture of our staff at the windows; As many of our staff that we can.>
3. We wish that every USU student knew that if you do not shower or brush your teeth, people do
notice.
<Picture of a line with one person being avoided by the other people in the line.>
<Conclusion: >Our goal is to have students visit us because they want to and not because they have to.
We have students wait in line to pay their tuition and fees and they pay by check. Students can pay by check online and there are no additional fees associated with it.
We have students pay large sums of money in cash. It would be more fiscally responsible to pay by check online rather than carrying around large sums of cash. Several banks offer free checking for students.
Credit card payments can only be accepted online. We cannot process credit card payments in the Registrar’s Office. The Tuition Installment Plans (TIP) are also only available online.
Transcripts cost less if they are ordered online instead of at the Registrar’s Office. All transcripts cost $5 at the Registrar’s Office or if ordered by mail. One transcript ordered online only costs $4. There are real saving if you order more than one transcript sent to the same address. For example if you order 5 transcripts to be sent to a single address at the Registrar’s Office the cost is $5 times the 5 transcripts which equals $25. If you order 5 transcripts online that are sent to the same address the cost is $4 for the first one and just $1.75 for each additional transcript sent to the same address (that would be only $11 compared to the $25).
Students can get Enrollment Verifications online. These are available by using ACCESS Banner. Selecting this option connects you to the National Student Clearinghouse. We send updates to the Clearinghouse on a regular basis but it could be at the first of a semester that they may not have that current semester yet and so you will need to contact the Registrar’s Office for that verification.
Many students come to the Registrar’s Office with Course Authorizations of various types such as waiving prerequisites or instructor permission required. The advisors and many of the staff assistance and instructors have the ability to authorize the course for the students in Banner and then the students can register for the course online.
We emphasize the point that we in the Registrar’s Office love our USU students and we are happy to assist in any way that we can. The idea is that as much as students can take advantage of the online services it will allow us to spend more time helping students that need our help beyond the day to day type of transactions.
, USU associate Registrar