Requesting Degree Audit Adjustments

Getting Started

If an advisor wishes to modify one or more of the requirements on the degree audit, they must submit a Degree Audit Adjustment Request.  This is done in AccessPlus.

Go to the Faculty / Advisor tab, and then click on Advising Services1.  Use name browse (or some other method) to get to the student you want to run an audit for, then click Degree AuditAdj on the left.  This brings up the Degree Audit Adjustment Form (DAAF).

Please note that 

  • adjustments to departmental requirements will need the approval of the departmental designee; 
  • adjustments to college requirements will additionally need the approval of the college office; 
  • adjustments to university requirements will additionally need further approvals (e.g., the English department, the library, the Provost's office, etc.) depending on the requirement.

More information on the various requirements on the audit can be found at www.cals.iastate.edu/files/an-overview-of-the-various-requirements-on-t….

Filling Out and Submitting a Degree Audit Adjustment Form (DAAF)

First, let’s go over the basics.  In order to get the form to route correctly, advisors need to make sure they do three things:  (1) choose the correct major, (2) put any requests involving the ISUComm Foundation Requirement in the appropriate area and type a note in the Notes/Comments column, and (3) check the “Selected” box in the “Special Changes” area if the request needs either library or provost approval.  Finally, advisors will need to click “submit” at the very bottom of the form to initiate the form and begin the routing process. 

Please use the “Program Changes” area of the form to request changes to a student’s option, catalog year, graduation date, or advisor. 

Please use the “Course Changes” area of the form to substitute one course for another, add or move courses to a given area, dual-list courses, waive courses, waive credits, or waive both courses and credits (“waive C & C”).  Note that we don’t split courses in CALS, so don’t choose that option from the drop-down list.  Most of these adjustments are fairly self-explanatory, but there are a couple things worth noting.  First, when requesting a substitution, put the course taken in “Course” and the required course in “Requirement/Course Title.”  Second, if the course is a transfer course, use the ISU number and designator, not the number and designator at the transfer institution.  And finally, when waiving both a course and the corresponding credits, be sure to indicate the number of credits you wish to waive in the “Credit” column of the adjustment. 

A quick overview of the DAAF (with examples) can be found at: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/files/Using%20the%20Online%20Degree%20Audit%20Adjustment%20Routing%20System.pdf. 

More detailed instructions can be found at: https://www.cals.iastate.edu/files/instr_da_form_1.pdf.

The Kuali Action List

After advisors click “submit,” the form routes (usually) to the departmental designee and then to the college office.  The college office will process the form and return it to the advisor.  It will then show up in the advisor’s Action List and will have one of four possible statuses:

  • If a form is disapproved, its route status is “disapproved” and the action requested is “acknowledge.”  Advisors will want to open the form and click “acknowledge” to clear it from their inbox.
  • If a form is returned to previous, its route status is “en route” and the action requested is “approve.”  Advisors will need to get into the form, edit it, and then approve the changes in order to resubmit the form.  Alternatively, advisors can click “disapprove” to scratch the form and start over.
  • If a form is processed with one or more notes or line-item rejects, its route status is “processed” and the action requested is “acknowledge.”  Advisors will need to open the form, see what was noted or rejected, and then click “acknowledge” to clear it from their inbox.
  • If a form is processed and nothing has been rejected, its route status is “final” and the action requested is “FYI.”  Advisors will want to open the form and click “FYI” to clear it from their inbox.

Advisors need to monitor their Kuali Action List for documents with the status “en route” so they can respond to questions in a timely manner. 

There are a number of tools to help advisors manage their Action List and their workflow.  The preferences button in the upper-right corner allows advisors to customize

  1. the number of items that show up per page,
  2. the columns that are displayed,
  3. the colors that are associated with each of the various route statuses, and
  4. the types and the frequency of emails received. 

Departmental Designees may wish to add the “Current Route Node” column so they can tell at a glance which hat they need to wear when processing the form.  Color-coding the different statuses is also very handy, as it can be used to highlight the forms needing attention:  red is good for disapproved, orange is good for en route, yellow is good for processed, and green is good for final.  Finally, advisors can set their email preferences so that an email is generated only when a form requires their timely attention.  If you have any questions about these preferences and how to set them up to suit your needs, feel free to call Dave Ross at 294-2879. 

Sometimes, after having submitted a DAAF, advisors will want to check up on it to see where it is in the process.  This isn’t hard to do.  First, you’ll want to click “doc search” in the upper-left corner of the Action List.  Then click “detailed search” in the top center.  Enter your netid in the initiator field, and then, in the title field, enter “*LASTNAME*”, where * is an asterisk and LASTNAME is the student’s last name in ALLCAPS.  There should be no spaces.  Click search.  Sometimes, if the form was submitted more than a month ago, you may need to edit the “date created from” field, as it has the annoying habit of limiting searches automatically—edit the field and click search again.  Scroll down to see the results.  If you wish to get into the form to see what you submitted, click on the Document ID in the leftmost column.  If you wish to see where the form is now, click on the Route Log in the rightmost column.  The log will tell you when you initiated the form, where it went from there, and whose virtual desk it’s sitting on now.  If you have any questions, please call Dave Ross at 294-2879.

More detailed information on the Kuali Action List can be found in both https://www.cals.iastate.edu/files/Using%20the%20Online%20Degree%20Audit%20Adjustment%20Routing%20System.pdf and https://www.cals.iastate.edu/files/instr_da_form_1.pdf.