Import of student records and regular student status updates

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Milena Damianova
Milena Damianova ✭
Fifth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
RE newbie here, working at a mid-size university. First post to the community but have already learned so much by reading some posts. 

- do you import new students as registrations are confirmed each semester or do you import student records at the time of graduation? 

- how often do you update the current student records for items such as hiatus and academic dismissal. Certainly not interested in approaching families if their students got dismissed. How/where do you capture this status information at the student and at the parent level? 

Thank you in advance.
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  • JoAnn Strommen
    JoAnn Strommen ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    New to a smaller university (10+ years RE elsewhere). I couldn't agree more that the forums contain a wealth of knowledge.  I've learned so much from others' posts.


    To your questions, procedure here has been to import students after graduation. This fall the plan is to add junior and senior to the db. Don't think that will be parents, just the students.  So many privacy issues. As an engineering school, post grad solicitations focus on grad, vs. their parents/family. 


    You brought up a point about dismissed students that I will definitely bring to attention of Alumni office. If we start adding current students it is something we will have to work with registrar to keep updated. (I benefited from your first post, Milena Damianova‍ !!) 
  • Daniel R. Snyder
    Daniel R. Snyder ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Welcome to the Community Milena Damianova‍!


    We import new students and parents at registration and have worked out a process with our Registrar's office to be notified of a student leaving or being asked to leave. We don't get more details about why they were leaving, just voluntary or required.


    Where we update the records changes based on the situation, but in general we record information in the primary education notes, solicit codes (when necessary), and constituent codes may change as well to reflect their current status.
  • Kirbie Dockery
    Kirbie Dockery ✭
    Eighth Anniversary Photogenic First Reply
    We import new students once their registration is confirmed (after drop/add each semester). We import new parents at the same time in order to communicate with and solicit current parents since the parents program lives in our office as well. We also have a process where we then send a list of current students from RE to our data office (our campus uses Jenzabar) and they cross reference our lists to send me any students who are not enrolled this semester (that I change to Former Student and update their parents to Former Parents) and a list of any new students I may have missed (sometimes these are readmits). We don't typically find out about a student leaving mid-semester, but it's worked pretty well to at least do a check each semester.
  • Kim Berry 2
    Kim Berry 2 ✭
    Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic First Reply
    Thanks for this thread; creating documentation here at my institution and have made note of all of your names/addresses so I can call on you later if needed!


    Here's hoping you weren't affected by the data breach ... and if you were, I hope it isn't consuming too much of your time, attention and resources.
  • Amber Buehlmaier
    Amber Buehlmaier ✭
    Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper Photogenic
    This is a great question... Nick Peyton‍ is this something that aligns with what I am researching?
  • Miki Martin
    Miki Martin ✭✭✭✭✭
    Facilitator 4 Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper Photogenic
    Welcome, Milena Damianova‍! I see you posted this almost a year ago but I'll give you my two cents.


    I am at an all girls' parochial high school in the Advancement Department. I enter all new students and parents each summer before school starts. This usually allows for those changing their minds to drop off the list before I start the import process. I have been added to the group of people involved with any aspect of updating students' information in the various databases (because none of our areas talk to one another electronically) so going forward I can always manage transfers. Since my department handles all fundraising and many of the communications, like our periodic magazine, we need to have address information for former AND current parents.


    Both the student and parent status, as you refer to it, we track in Constituent Codes. Current Student and Current Parent are the main ones. Once a student graduates, the parents become Former Parent. Students are Alumnae if graduated, Non Grad if they transferred from our school.


    Since I am on the email group for updates, once I'm notified a student is transferring I will go into her record and end date her alumni information with our school and make her a Non Grad. Unless she has a sister at our school I also change her parents to Former Parents. Occasionally we will have a student return, like we do this summer, so I will mark our school with the primary alumni flag again and make a note of the situation since we only have one entry for our school under Education.

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