ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: April 10, 2024

To plan further ahead or find the latest learning opportunities, as well as notices of cancellation or schedule changes, see the complete calendar at the ctcLink Training page or on the SBCTC meetings and events calendar (apply filters).

 

PeopleTools 8.59.21 Upgrade

The PeopleTools 8.59.21 upgrade will be implemented in ctcLink on Saturday, April 27, 2024.

PeopleTools provides the underlying technology for PeopleSoft applications and PeopleSoft applications are built, deployed, and maintained using PeopleTools. 

A supporting document -- PeopleTools 8.59.21 Accessibility Update Overview - April 2024 – gives an overview of an accessibility change users will experience once the new version of PeopleTools goes live.

Please feel free to reach out to Joey Froehlich, SBCTC Application Services Test Coordinator, if you have any questions or concerns about the functionality included in the document.

End of Fiscal Year Prep Session will be Rescheduled

The All-Pillar: End of Fiscal Year Prep learning opportunity scheduled for Monday, April 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. has been cancelled.

The ctcLink Training team will update the College System & SBCTC Calendar and announce a rescheduled session day and time soon.

CS Core Learning Opportunities

End of Fiscal Year Prep Session will be Rescheduled

The All-Pillar: End of Fiscal Year Prep learning opportunity scheduled for Monday, April 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. has been cancelled.

The ctcLink Training team will update the College System & SBCTC Calendar and announce a rescheduled session day and time soon.

CS Core Training

CS Core Trainings, a valuable learning opportunity, are held on the third Wednesday of every month from 8:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. The dates may change, and notifications will be sent in advance. The CS Core training alternates between refreshers and different process approaches. We highly value your participation and welcome all end-users to attend these trainings. You can find details about upcoming meetings on the SBCTC Calendar, CS Core Weeklyish CORErespondence, and CS Core listserv. Please visit the QRG Campus Solutions Learning Opportunities Recordings for a list of previous recordings.

CS Core Training: Graduation Tracking

Wednesday, June 5, 2024, 8:30 – 10 a.m., Read more and join the session

We invite you to join us in reviewing the Graduation Processing process, with a focus on Graduation Tracking and Search functionality. Suppose your college allows students to apply for graduation online through ctcLink. In that case, the Graduation Tracking Search page will be the first resource credential evaluators access when looking for new graduation applications to review. Once accessed, evaluators can use the Graduation Tracking page to update statuses and add Graduation Notes.

Contact Tanjagay Martin, SBCTC Functional CS Core Trainer, with questions.

CS Core Work Sessions

Campus Solutions (CS) Core Work Sessions, open to ALL end users, are held the first Thursday of each month, from 1 to 3 p.m. The CS Functional Support team facilitates, alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with functional team support. Each meeting includes time for colleges to ask questions about other topics or service tickets.

Find details on the SBCTC Calendar and in the CS Core Weeklyish COREspondence (sent on Fridays to the CSSupport listserv).

Core Sessions: College System & SBCTC Calendar

Game, Set, MATCH! Understanding Search/Match

Thursday, May 2, 2024, 1-3 pm., Learn more and join the session

Module/s: Student Admissions, PeopleTools

Primary Audience: Admissions

References: Searching for Records (Using Search/Match)

One of the biggest differences between ctcLink and Legacy is that there is only ONE Person Record, and that one record is shared between pillars and between institutions. Colleges rely on each other to protect, and respect, data integrity. You know that running Search/Match will help prevent duplicates. Want to know more about why and how? This session will explore how Search/Match Rules work, give you insights into our current configuration, and share strategies for avoiding duplicates.

CS COREterly Open Q&A Sessions

• CS Core invites you to attend its quarterly Open Q&A sessions! While these sessions are for learning and problem-solving, we want to emphasize that these are also part of our efforts to support community building. 
• Thursday, May 16, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
• Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session
• Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

We want these sessions to provide an opportunity for college users to:

• Get assistance with any functionality they want to better understand or situation they are struggling to make work.
• Seek advice on anything they are trying to solve.
• Share best practices and lessons learned.
• Develop networks and build community.

To support the varied work areas of our users, each session will have a breakout room for each of the following modules:

• Records & Enrollment, which includes Student Program/Plan, Term Activation, Enrollment Appointments, Enrollment, Transfer-In Credit, Transcripts, Graduation and so on.
• Campus Community, which includes 3Cs, BioDemo, Service Indicators and so on.
• Curriculum Management, which includes class building, course catalog management, enrollment requirements and so on

Along with your colleagues who can share their real-life experiences and the solutions they have employed; CS Core team experts will be present in each room. We encourage you to submit your questions before the session (but doing so isn’t required). Enter your questions on the CS COREterly Question Submissions tab. Knowing your questions ahead of time just helps us to be prepared and allows us to help as many people as possible.

We hope you’ll join us even if you don’t have specific questions! We look forward to connecting with you and for you to connect with each other.

Stacking the Deck: Student Program/Plans

Thursday, June 6, 2024, 1-3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

Based on college feedback, this year we are creating more spaces for sharing lived experience.  I’m looking for a couple of colleges to join the party. Before you tell me you can’t because you’re still working things out, that’s fine! We just need folks willing to share what they are doing and how it’s going. If you’re up for it, please contact Michelle Kuwasaki.

Module/s: Records and Enrollment

Primary Audience: Admissions, Student Records

Related QRGs: Student Program and Information Chapter

Because the impact of the Student Program/Plan is wide, it is important to get them right! We’ll warm up with a quick review of the building blocks involved: effective-dating, adding rows, action reasons, and attributes. Then, make connections with term activation, tuition calculation, FA, the AAR and the transcript. Of course, we need to save time for common conundrums like when to start a NEW stack vs adding a change row not to mention everyone’s favorite, those certificates earned “along the way.”

Student Program/Plans also matter to QARS and NSC Reporting. We will cover general best practices for ensuring data accuracy which also conveniently reduces NSC and QARS errors. And we’ll close by strongly advocating for various maintenance activities such as keeping term activation tidy and minimizing the number of open Student Program/Plans.

FIN Learning Opportunities

FIN Training

End of Fiscal Year Prep Session will be Rescheduled

The All-Pillar: End of Fiscal Year Prep learning opportunity scheduled for Monday, April 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. has been cancelled.

The ctcLink Training team will update the College System & SBCTC Calendar and announce a rescheduled session day and time soon.

FIN Training: Budget Overview

Thursday, May 9, 2024, Learn more and attend the session

Whether you are familiar with the Budget Overview function and want learn more or it's brand new to you, please join us for a session on using the Budget Overview functionality in ctcLink PeopleSoft. This session is geared toward new and/or experienced end-users that need a refresher, but all end-users are welcome.

Topics to be covered include:

• Creating multiple Budget Overview Run Controls: frequently used or tracked Budgets
• Customizing the Budget Overview search criteria: like override the max rows limitation
• Explore the Type of Calendar options: Detail Budget Period vs. Summary 
• Scenarios who would benefit using CC_ORG or PROJECT_KK Ledgers
• Find out how to dive into the details with Inquiry Budget Overview & Budget Details

FIN Work Sessions

Monthly Student Finance/General Ledger Open Forum

Every second Wednesday, 2 to 3 p.m. The next ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting is May 8.

The ctcLink accounting team invites you to bring your questions (and solutions) to share during this open forum meeting space for all things Student Finance/General Ledger (SF/GL) related. There is no formal agenda as we welcome all questions about everything from item types and second journal sets to waivers, queries, or internal cash reconciliation.

See the SBCTC meetings and events calendar and look for ctcLink Accounting Team: SF/GL Open Forum Meeting.

Finance (FSCM) College Users Production Support Meetings

Meetings are held every Tuesday, from 2 to 3 p.m. These sessions are open to ALL Finance (FSCM) end users. The Finance Functional team provides updates on Service Tickets, PeopleSoft enhancements, and open forum time to ask questions or request future topics.

Next meetings: April 16, April 23, April 30, May 7, May 14 FIN Work Session: FSCM Prod Support Meeting

ctcLink Accounting Team presents: Chartstring Clean-Up & Special Topics

Join the ctcLink accounting team every Thursday from 10 to 11 a.m. for special topics and ChartString clean-up working sessions.

• April 11, 10 a.m., SMARTer Reviews: Reports 305 - Missing Subsids
• April 18, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: WorkCenter Review
• May 2, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: G6 Draws and FA Reconciliation
• May 9, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: Year-end Closing Schedule Review
• May 16, 10 a.m., ctcLink Accounting Team: Internal Cash Reconciliation

FAFSA Simplification Action Plan Template

Krista Francis, VP of Student Services, Peninsula College; and Karl Smith, VP of Student Affairs, Tacoma Community College, shared a FAFSA Simplification Action Plan Template  with college presidents today.

The template, developed by a team of student services and financial aid leaders (listed below) provides a set of suggested actions for campuses to facilitate the implementation of recent FAFSA simplifications. The template aligns with the WSSSC-led position paper, A Unified Approach to FAFSA Simplification Implementation for Washington Community and Technical Colleges, released March 21.

See the FAFSA Simplification Update section in the ctcLink Learning Opportunities & Support Roundup: March 27, 2024 blog for additional background.

What’s in the plan?

It outlines a collaborative framework involving various stakeholders across the campus community, emphasizing the plan's adaptability to meet the specific needs of each community and technical college campus. The FAFSA Simplification Action Plan stands as a roadmap for campuses to foster a collaborative campus-wide effort, and encourage a unified strategy that leverages the strengths and insights of the entire campus community to support students in realizing their educational goals.

Central to the plan's execution is the recommendation for a dual leadership approach, with the Director of Financial Aid and a designated Co-Champion working in tandem. The Co-Champion, chosen for their dedication and capacity to engage with different campus sectors, coordinates efforts outside the financial aid office, allowing the Director to focus primarily on processing and awarding financial aid.

While the plan template initially presents all actions as “not started,” many campuses have already made significant strides in some areas. The proposed actions within the plan serve as guidelines rather than prescriptive directives.

The actual action plan should be developed by campus leadership, in consultation with the Director of Financial Aid and the college's Co-Champion, to ensure it aligns with the campus's unique context and capabilities. This approach underscores the importance of customization and collaborative planning in effectively navigating the complexities introduced by FAFSA simplification.

Action Plan Contributors

• Chantel Fields, Executive Director of Student Financial Resources, Bellingham Technical College
• Robert Cox, Vice President Student Services, Centralia College
• James Flowers, Director of Financial Aid and Veterans Services, Tacoma Community College
• Yokiko Hayashi-Saquil, Policy Associate Student Services, SBCTC
• Deann Holliday, Director of Student Financial Services, Cascadia College
• Darcy Kipnis, Director of Special Projects, Lake Washington Institute of Technology
• Claire Peinado, Vice President Student Services, Skagit Valley College
• Teresa Robinson-Duane, Student Funding Center Director, South Seattle College
• Melanie Ruiz, Director of Financial Aid, Shoreline Community College

New SBCTC FAFSA Resources Webpage

SBCTC has launched a 2024-25 FAFSA Resources web page geared toward our college system. The page includes regularly updated information for college employees and includes updated FAQ templates. The content continues to evolve and grow as we learn more.

FAFSA in the News

• Keep up with the latest news from the NASFAA FAFSA Simplification Web Center

FA Learning Opportunities

End of Fiscal Year Prep Session will be Rescheduled

The All-Pillar: End of Fiscal Year Prep learning opportunity scheduled for Monday, April 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. has been cancelled.

The ctcLink Training team will update the College System & SBCTC Calendar and announce a rescheduled session day and time soon.

Financial Aid Training

New Process Financial Aid Training: Updating Canceled Pell Records in Batch

Tuesday, April 23, 2024, 9 – 10:30 a.m., Learn more and attend the session

Join us to review this new process created to do batch updating to report canceled Pell records from ctcLink to Common Origination and Disbursement (COD).

Objectives

Understand the steps in Updating Canceled Pell Records in Batch Process:

• Update Pell Origination Status to Canceled
• Update Pell Origination Flag to Pending
• Run PELLOUT
• Understand which fields are being updated in this batch processing

Audience: Staff responsible for cleaning up Pell records in ctcLink 

Background

When canceling a Pell award that has already been originated and reported out to COD, users are having to go the Manage Pell Payment page on each individual student and manually select the Update Pell Origination checkbox, change the Pell Origination Status and the Pell Transac Status fields so that the record would pick up as canceled and be picked up in PELLOUT to report out to COD. This work is typically done on hundreds of Pell records throughout and is very time-consuming.

Solution

Now, using the Population Update Process, the Pell Records can be processed in batch in a simple 3-step process to pick up those hundreds of records to update COD that the Pell has been canceled. The benefit to this batch-processing is keeping COD up to date in a timely manner, which also lessens the burden on staff processing time to keep these canceled Pell records in sync with COD.

The newly updated Pell Processing Business Processing Guide with the pop update processes, begins on or around pg. 21-27 of the guide.

Contact Kelly Forsberg, ctcLink Financial Aid Functional Trainer, with questions.

Financial Aid Intermediate Training: FA Term & Student Budget Tips & Tricks

Tuesday, April 9, 9 a.m., Read more and join the session

Staff responsible for FA File Review and Awarding are invited to join for tips and tricks on the FA Term and Maintain Student Budget pages:

• Override expiration date feature on FA Term
• Adding a PJ item on Maintain Student Budget
• Pell COA field on Maintain Student Budget
• And more

Financial Aid (FA) Work Sessions

Financial Aid (FA) Work Session meetings are on the fourth Thursdays, from 1 to 3 p.m. The FA Functional Support team facilitates alternating between functional team delivered content and college user delivered content with the support of the FA functional team. The end of each meeting is open for colleges to ask questions about the topic presented. These sessions are open to ALL end users.

HCM Learning Opportunities

End of Fiscal Year Prep Session will be Rescheduled

The All-Pillar: End of Fiscal Year Prep learning opportunity scheduled for Monday, April 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. has been cancelled.

The ctcLink Training team will update the College System & SBCTC Calendar and announce a rescheduled session day and time soon.

HCM Work Session Meetings

Human Capital Management (HCM) meetings are held every other Wednesday, from 1 to 3 p.m. The HCM Functional team along with the training team offers Work Sessions and Training Sessions around the different functionality in HCM.

HCM Work Session: TAM Demonstration

Monday, April 22, 2024, 1 p.m., Read more and join the session

Recruiters, hiring managers, staff responsible for identifying and placing newly hired employees, or anyone else interested in seeing how the Talent Acquisition Module (TAM) is used at one of our colleges is welcome to this session.

Work session: Process Pre-Payments

Wednesday, April 24, 2024, 1 p.m., Read more and join the session

The topic is Process Prepayments presented by Agnieszka Pederson, HCM Support. This work session investigates the one-time lump sum deduction for employees who are entitled to health benefits coverage for a full year, but only receive a paycheck for part of the year. Pre-Pay Deductions are taken based on the Pre-Pay Calendar setup schedule.

Transactions referenced in this work session include:

• Pre-Pay Calendars
• Verify Pre-Pay Deduction Mapping
• Pre-Pay Deduction Setup

SF Learning Opportunities

End of Fiscal Year Prep Session will be Rescheduled

The All-Pillar: End of Fiscal Year Prep learning opportunity scheduled for Monday, April 15, 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. has been cancelled.

The ctcLink Training team will update the College System & SBCTC Calendar and announce a rescheduled session day and time soon.

SF Training Sessions

Charge Priority List (CPLs) Part III

Thursday, April 18, 2024, 1- 3 p.m., Learn more and join the session

This charge priority list (CPL) training session will cover setting up and managing item type CPLs. We'll go over functionality and queries to identify and address many issues. By the end of the training, attendees will have the knowledge and skills to maintain CPLs effectively.

SF Training: SF Reconciliation

Monday, May 20, 2024, 9-11 a.m., Learn more and join the session

In this session, we will cover Student Financials reconciliation tips which may include:

• Third-Party
• Outstanding Credits
• Second Journal Set
• Item Types
• Over/Shorts
• And more...

Query Code Freeze Underway

The ctcLink Production Support team is in the process of testing the next upgrade to PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.59.21 which will migrate to production on Saturday, April 27, 2024.

As of Tuesday, April 9, 2024, the code freeze impacts query migrations and there will be no query migrations until after Saturday, April 27. Please see the outline below.

• Wednesday, April 3 – Last day to submit query migration request before query freeze
• Tuesday, April 9 – Query code freeze began
• Saturday, April 27 – PeopleTools migration to production
• Monday, April 29 – Query code freeze ends
• Monday, April 29 – Back to normal query migration request schedule.

In the case of an emergency, we will evaluate the issue and determine if a migration or emergency fix to a production query needs to occur.

Contact Ivy Brent, Associate Director of ctcLink Business Intelligence, if you have any questions

Query Developer Learning Opportunities

Step Up your Query Game

Learn more about the Designated Query Developer Training series and start your journey to becoming your college’s query guru.

Upcoming courses include:

• Tuesday, April 23, 8:45 a.m., PS Query Training 102 - Query Security
• Tuesday, May 7, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 1
• Wednesday, May 8, 9 a.m., PS Query Training 201 Intermediate - Part 2

Plan ahead for 2024

The ctcLink Training Calendar has been updated with 2024 instructor-led query-related training. To clear filter settings, select None. Then select ctcLink Learning Opportunities > Reporting Training.

How to Sign Up for Query Developer Courses

The process to enroll in Query Developer Canvas courses has been streamlined. Now, instead of emailing Data Services, simply:

• Visit the ctcLink Training Registrationpage,
• Select the class(es) from the Designated Query Developer Training section,
• Follow the sign-up process.

More for PeopleSoft Query Developers

Find more ctcLink PeopleSoft Query Development resources including forms, documentation, and tools at the ctcLink PeopleSoft Reporting web page.

PeopleTools 8.59.21 Upgrade

The PeopleTools 8.59.21 upgrade will be implemented in ctcLink on Saturday, April 27, 2024.

A supporting document -- PeopleTools 8.59.21 Accessibility Update Overview - April 2024 – gives an overview of an accessibility change users will experience once the new version of PeopleTools goes live.

Please feel free to reach out to Joey Froehlich, Test Coordinator, SBCTC Application Services, if you have any questions or concerns about the functionality included in the document.

Accessibility Fixes in the works

Several items for the HCM module are on the horizon:

• On the Time pages, the focus goes to banner region after user interacts with calendar widget, the Previous button, or the Next button. Focus should remain on the control selected. A provisional fix was provided by Oracle and is currently in the testing phase.
• W-2 PDF JAWS reads "colon Y" after cell header in Box 13. We have an open Service Request with Oracle on the issue.
• Configurable header labels fix projected to come in HCM Image 49 or 50.

ctcLink Accessibility Monthly Open Forum

Join us! The ctcLink Accessibility monthly forums engage Washington's community and technical college system in discussions around ctcLink accessibility and technology. We aim to improve communication and transparency while providing space for productive and solution-focused dialog. Our main objective is to deliver accessible technology for all our students, staff, and the larger community.

Meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month, 11 a.m. to noon.

The next ctcLink Accessibility Open Forum will be Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at 11 a.m. All are welcome to attend via Zoom.

In case you missed a meeting, please see materials from past Open Forums.