Let this serve as a warning to incoming freshman and transfer students: The computer system known as DARS (Degree Audit Reporting System) and the human machine known as PSU’s Degree Requirements Office don’t always talk. And this means that if you’ve taken any classes needing special approval to count towards your degree, graduating may take a while.
Let me prove to you the ineptness of this system by giving you an example from my own life while at PSU: I should have graduated at the end of March this year. I ran my DARS report online, and it told me I had three requirements left.
However, according to my professors, the classes I’d taken should have met each.
So I went ahead and submitted my application. Only after winter term ended, I received notice that my application had been canceled. Strike one.
But no problem–I wanted to take another class in the spring, so I could wait. Meanwhile, I spoke directly with the Degree Requirements Office (DRO), and was told I still needed approval for my three classes. So I asked my professors to write the requisite letters, and the DRO assured me I could walk at spring’s graduation.
So I walked, but the diploma never arrived. Strike two. And I waited. Only a few weeks ago did I finally get a call informing me (gasp!) that my application had once again been halted.
It turns out my professors had done their part, giving approval that my classes met the degree requirements. Yet, one class is still hung up in a department, awaiting approval. As a result, my application for graduation will likely be deferred to fall term. Strike three.
To be sure, I’m actually not out to attack the people with whom my application has been stuck. After all, why should the professors have to know if a given class counts according to DARS? I’m only pointing out that there are just too many hoops to jump though, and so many snags on which to be caught–in my case now for nearly six months.
The fact is that it is simply hard to get man and machine talking here. There is no bypass to the forms and approval letters you need to get DARS and its veto power to agree that you should graduate. If anything gets hung up, as paperwork is bound to do, you will wait.
But in my genius and my waiting I came up with solutions, well, actions that can be taken to help counteract the problem. Here are my two ideas: First, for students, when you are getting ready to graduate be a nag. Write, call, spam, text and bug the appropriate people early and often into giving you approval for whatever your special case might be.
And secondly, for the Degree Requirements Office and those in charge of DARS: Simplify the process. It is easy. Let students be aware of their standing at certain increments throughout the year, which classes have been counted and make it absolutely clear which ones need special approval.
Empower the students by giving them the information that is crucial to the process and let them make sure all their I’s are dotted and T’s are crossed.
If that means updating DARS more often to reflect PSU’s approval of credits that fulfill certain requirements, then that should be an endeavor worth looking into. The student ought not to be the one to get the cogs in the university machine rolling together.