Verifying degree certification for graduating students

Email all department contacts, asking them to set up an appointment

The Commencement Coordinator will email the graduation liaison personnel in all schools, asking them to set up an appointment with the Class Scheduling Team via ServiceNow. (There might be different contact people certifying the graduate vs. undergraduate degrees within the same school. The Commencement Coordinator will maintain this contact list in Box.) Class Scheduling should be CC’d on the email.

• Email list

• Email template: ClassSchedule email box > YEAR > Certifying Graduating Students folder > first email, or pink Annual Reminders category

The Class Scheduling Team can keep the Commencement Coordinator posted on which schools respond, and the Commencement Coordinator can follow up with any that don’t respond.

Contacts should schedule their appointment

A calendaring app is used to schedule appointments. For the Spring 2023 commencement period, YouCanBookMe was used. Schedule link >

• The Class Scheduling Team will schedule the appointments as Zoom meetings, within the date ranges (and by the time deadline on the last day, usually noon or 3pm) listed in the original email.

• A school may schedule multiple meetings if all their expected students are not certified by the first meeting. The two date ranges are: the Certification

• Period and the Addenda Period.

The meeting host may be a Class Scheduling Team member, or another Registrar staff member (or both; sometimes meetings with many degrees need multiple hosts in break-out rooms. Ex: NTC for Spring).

Arrange appointments with departments

Remind contacts to provide their (unofficial) printed version of certified student list(s) plus (official) cover letter(s) for each degree, with original signatures to enclose with the official certified list(s) you will print out.

The school contact should provide the Class Scheduling Team with official cover letters signed by their dean and dated the day of the appointment. This should be sent before the appointment, or as soon as possible after. Each degree should have its own cover letter. (Exception: NTC may have one cover letter per school, per appointment.)

Save the cover letters

Box\Registrar\Commencement-Degree Conferral\Certified Lists\TERM*Certified Lists\School folder\Cover letters folder

• If the TERM’s folder hasn’t been created yet, ask the Class Scheduling Team to create one based on the template “TERM 202# (template)” folder, saved in the same place.

The contact should also bring to the appointment their unofficial certified list (the list of students who have applied to graduate and who the department has certified); it will be used to compare with the list that the Class Scheduling Team will generate from the Degree Certification website.

Certification meeting

Print the certified list(s)

Print in real time in the meeting.

1. Log into the Commencement Lists site: https://degreecert.tulane.edu/ (use your Tulane ID and password). Stephanie Davis can provide access if needed.

2. Click “Print Lists” > “Certified.”

   Open

   

3. Select the current term, which is selected by default

4. Select the School and Degree as instructed by the contact (but you may select the order: it’s easier to do all undergrad degrees before grad degrees, based on the different things checked in each).

   1. School

      Open

      

   2. Degree

5. Make sure “Print Official List” is UNCHECKED before the next step.

6. Click “Generate PDF.”

• Grey bar over name indicates application but hasn’t yet been certified in SZADEGR.

• Only certified students will appear without grey bar.

• If the dept thinks they’ve certified someone with a grey bar, pause the meeting, and they can certify in Banner. Close unofficial list and re-run it.

Review the list with your contact

Compare your unofficial list to the contact’s unofficial list, name by name. Disregard any name with a gray highlight through it is NOT certified and will NOT come up on the official list.

(You may read aloud each student’s name and other info, and have the department contact affirm after each one.)

• Record the meetings.

• Take your time and make sure everything is accurate.

• Familiarize yourself with the degrees your certifier/dept rep represents.

• NTC UG are more complex with multiple majors/minors/Latin honors.

Spelling of student’s full name

• Call out each full name and all degree information associated with that name, including major(s), any minor(s), and any Latin Honors including Department Honors. You don’t need to call out the student’s TU ID#; that is used only to make a Banner search easier if corrections become necessary.

• Call names as they are listed, which is the way they will be printed on their diploma.

• After reading each name and its degree information, get a confirmation from your contact that everything is correct before reading the next name. If incorrect (can verify with dept. contact in person, or in Banner > SPAIDEN), you may correct in SHAGAPP.

• Spelling out loud isn’t necessary, but be alert to possible errors. If the school contact notices an error, you may correct in SHAGAPP (and cross-check in SPAIDEN).

Majors/ minors/ concentrations

Minors will be listed under the degree they’re attached to.

Latin Honors

(Will be listed at the bottom of the student’s degree list, in the case of multiple degrees; below major(s) but above minors)

• Issued ONLY for

  • JDs   

  • LLMs (with distinction only)

  • NTC 

    • School of Architecture

    • School of Busines

    • School of Liberal Arts

    • School of Public Health

    • School of Science and Engineering

  • SoPA (all undergrads)

• NOT issued for GR or PR level degrees in any school with the exception of JD and LLM degrees.

Scholarly Honors

formerly Department Honors

Will be listed at the bottom of the student’s degree list, in the case of multiple degrees

• Issued ONLY for Honors Program (a unit of NTC)

• NOT issued for SoPA, any level

• Listed as summa cum/magna cum/cum laude with honors in (Dept)

• Not issued for any SoPA majors at any level.

Other Honors

LLM offers With Distinction

Number of students

This may be different than the number generated on the unofficial list, if not all of the students had been certified during that appointment

Troubleshooting

When Students very recently certified that are NOT on dept. contact’s unofficial list are identified

• If dept does not wish to approve them on the spot, you may go in to SHADEGR and change status from CG (Certified to Graduate) to AG (Applied to Graduate).

• You MUST re-generate unofficial PDF list after making any/all corrections, to double-check before generating official list.

• Students with dual degrees are on separate lists.

Print the official list

1. If the list checks out, return to the Degree Certification website and make sure the Print Official List box is checked, then click Generate PDF again. (Click the red X to delete the unofficial list.)

2. Save the Official List on the Registrar’s drive, here: Registrar\Commencement\Certified Lists\TERM Year Certified Lists\School folder.
   Use the following naming convention: CO [college] - DEG [degree]_MM.DD.YYYY_AB [initials] (certification round).

   1. Examples:
      AR - MAR_05.18.20_ML_(Initial)

      SE - BS_12.22._MM_(Addenda 1)

      LS - JD_08.15.19_SGR_(Addenda 2)                 
      and so on

Merge the official list with its cover letter

Create the file

Open the list in Adobe Acrobat.

From the right-hand Tools menu, click “Organize Pages.”

Along the top menu that appears, click the “Insert” drop-down menu, then click “From File…”

Browse for your cover letter file. Insert the file Before the First page of your certified list. Click OK.

The correct document order is:

1. Cover letter, from the school’s dean

2. Official certified list, generated from the website. Its first page is the list’s cover page; its second page onward is the list of names.

 Go back to the right-hand Tools menu, and click “Edit PDF.”

Along the top menu that appears, click “Add Image”…

… then browse for your Official name stamp, which is just a JPG with your name.

• It is based on the file “Official stamp.pdf.”

• Both files are usually saved somewhere in the Commencement folder.

Add your stamp to every page of the merged PDF.
(After you insert it on the first page, you can copy and paste the image to the other pages.)

 NOTE: If the cover letter was signed with a digital signature, this will probably drop out after the merge. Workaround solution: Take a screenshot of the signature and paste it back into the letter (or save the screenshot and “Add Image”).

Save the file

Save the finished PDF (you can save over the original file that had the official list but no cover letter).

• During the Certification period, save it to its school folder: Box\Registrar\Commencement-Degree Conferral\Certified Lists\TERM Year Certified Lists\School folder

• During the Addenda period, save it to the “UNAWARDED ADDENDA” folder: Box\Registrar\Commencement-Degree Conferral\Certified Lists\TERM Year Certified Lists\~UNAWARDED ADDENDA

After the degrees are awarded by the Associate Registrar for Registration & Student Services, (s)he will move the files out of the “Unawarded” folder and into the individual school folders.

Addenda

During the Addenda period (and in Spring during the days immediately before and after the graduation ceremony), there may be additional requirements to print and double-check the files at our office. Check with the Associate Registrar for Registration & Student Services.

About cover letters

• Can vary slightly, but overall have the same content

• Can’t award until we have the cover letter

Naming conventions

Students will not see the first letter of the following degrees.

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