Degree audit helps students to graduate
Starting in fall 2003, there will be a program to help students plan for graduation.
Krystin Deschamps, program leader, said the degree audit is a system that has been around for more than five years. Utah State University just got the funding to start working on it.
“The main goal of this program is to serve the students and help them progress towards graduation,” she said.
The degree audit is an online resouce that allows students to track their progress to graduation.
There are two main reasons USU implemented the audit. The primary reason is to assist students and advisers in seeing what they need to complete their requirements. The second reason is to do away with the time it takes to fill out a graduation application.
As of now, there is a 10- to 12-step application process. Even after the application is finished, it usually needs to be
corrected.
“Most likely, students will get the application back due to mistakes,” Deschamps said. “The audit will help eliminate that problem because it is all done on a computer.”
All the funding comes from the Registrar’s Office, without which the degree audit would not be possible, she said.
Deschamps hopes to have the audit finished by February 2003. However, it probably won’t be available to students until next year, because she wants to make sure it is built correctly, she said.
“The degree audit will revolutionize the graduation process and will empower the students to be partners in their advising system,” Deschamps said.
Laura Cox, a senior studying special education and early childhood development, said she is feeling pretty good about graduation this spring.
“It would be really helpful, though, if I could use the degree audit,” Cox said.
Cox is currently filling out the graduation application and said it takes a lot of work.
She said the audit will probably be helpful to transfer students and incoming freshmen, because there are often USU requirements new students don’t know about until it is too late.
“If I had access to the audit, I would use it to see what classes I’m lacking and to cut down the time to meet with my adviser,” Cox said.
Suzanne Poindexter, a senior studying public health, said she didn’t start looking at the requirements she needed until her sophomore year. She will now have to go one more year before graduating.
Poindexter agrees the audit will be helpful to freshmen and transfers.
“If I would have known what I needed, I would be graduating this spring,” she said. “It will help students graduate sooner.”
Poindexter is excited about the audit being available next year.
“I will probably use it to plan out the rest of my college career and to help fill out my graduation application,” she said.
Sarah Warrick, a sophomore in mechanical aerospace engineering, said she doesn’t have a lot of free time to plan her graduation, even though the engineering department is helpful. It is difficult to plan a minor, she said.
Warrick said the degree audit will help her figure out a minor that will be good for her. Also, it will help her plan her breadth requirements.
“It is a good idea,” she said. “For engineering students, it will help them see different classes they could take.”
Deschamps said the degree audit team is working really hard on weeding out the bugs to make this program the best for students. They plan to run some experiments before submitting it to the students, she said.
The degree audit will not eliminate advising, but it will be used as a tool to help students, Deschamps said.
“I would like to thank the students and the provost department who helped get the program started,” she said. “Without them, it would not be possible.”
-bbnichols@cc.usu.edu