Website simplifies deferment
USU has developed a new leave of absence website to make deferring admissions possible for students in a few steps.
The website, www.usu.edu/loa, has been in the works for months, but because of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s October announcement about changes in age requirements for missionaries, the project has become a top priority, said John Mortensen, the assistant vice president for Enrollment Services and Retention.
“After the announcement by the church it became more urgent to get this website done,” he said.
According to James Morales, the vice president for Student Services, after the announcement that men can serve LDS missions at age 18 and women can serve at 19, mission applications increased by 471 percent.
Morales said last year USU lost about 210 students in spring semester. This year, through information collected by a special task force, Morales is projecting USU will lose about 750 students for spring semester.
Mortensen said with so many students sending in their mission papers, students should go ahead and register even if they are not sure they will be at USU for spring semester.
“Don’t drop out of school until you know when your departure date is going to be,” Mortensen said. “Apply now and then defer your admission later.”
Mortensen said students can drop up until January 28 and get a 100 percent refund.
Mortensen said students should apply for scholarships and financial aid by Dec. 1 and put them on hold when deferring admissions.
“It’s just so much easier to get it taken care of before they go,” Mortensen said. “All the information is being collected in one place so the student is not doing the run around.”
Mortensen said as of Nov. 20, almost three times the number of women intending to serve missions have filled out a leave of absence as last year.
Liz Martinez, a senior english major and peer advisor, said the new website could not have come at a better time due to the announcement made by the LDS church.
Martinez said with so many students deferring admission, the simplicity of the new website is important.
“It is so easy to use,” Martinez said. “All you need t
o do is log in with your A-Number and password just like you would with any other account and all the work is done for you. We’ve made it really easy to take a leave.”
In fall 2011, the USU Advising office hired Martinez. Shortly after starting her new job, Martinez was asked to evaluate the leave of absence website.
“I found it was confusing for a student,” Martinez said. “There was a barrier between the administration and students.”
Martinez proposed a new website be created. Several drafts and around a year later, a new and simpler website was up for students use.
Mortensen said several weeks prior to the missionary age change announcement made by the LDS church, Enrollment Services started working with USU Information Technology to finalize the website.
“With the new mission rule, this site is being used as an advertising tool,” Martinez said.
Mortensen said another benefit of this new website is that USU will be able to track students better and help them make transitions in and out of college life.
“What we are doing is trying to find out what students’ intentions are and help them with that transition,” Mortensen said, “We are just trying to collect as much information as we can from as many sources as we can.”
Mortensen said the leave of absence website is an excellent source for collecting information because the people who go through the website are current students who will be leaving for up to two and a half years. The leave of absence website will also make these students’ return dates accurate and make it possible to track them through their leave.
“Up-to-date, there has not been a system in place where we could really track these students,” Martinez said. “The hope for this website is that we can better track students who are on their leave and make sure that they know that USU wants them back. We love our students and we always want them to return.”
– jerawood@aggiemail.usu.edu